Morning started early on the tranquil beach. Although sometimes (well most times if I’m honest) it’s difficult to get up out of bed at 5am, but I always appreciate the isolation, the cold sand between my toes and the sound of the ocean pounding the shore – only me (and a hundred or so waders, terns and cormorants) – what a idyllic way to start the day.

It was an exciting day today. We planned to catch some wild turtles from the river and take them back to centre where they would be weighed, measured, tagged and a few samples taken (DNA for genetic I.D and isotop to give information on where the animal has been feeding).

Alejandra would swim across to the other side of the treacherous river with the aid of his fins and we would drag the net upstream. Any turtles returning to the ocean would be caught in the mesh and we would rapidly pull the net ashore to ensure they didn’t injure themselves or even drown.

Although the river looked calm, it had many strong swirling currents and large items of debris beneath the surface. Many many people who see it as an alternative option to using the suspension bridge have drowned.

It wasn’t long before we saw the floating edge of the net bob up and down in the water and we quickly gathered the net in. The turtle was huge and thrashed about frantically.

The nylon mesh was carefully removed and the turtle was placed upside down on the sand to stop it from running back to the water.

This process was repeated many times until we had three specimens and Alejandro was exhausted.

Everything (including the turtles) was put into boxes and transported back to the centre where they would wait until the tests and samples were taken.

The whole process had taken almost three hours and I was ready for my porridge and banana before resuming my place in the clinic to begin treating the patients.

The work never stops, there are so many tasks to be performed. Lunch break then back to duties until early evening.

I felt as though Segway the seagull was making good progress and becoming a little stronger so I decided to try him with some blended mackerel. I took a lovely long evening stroll up to the little shop at the top of the road to see what I could buy. The shop was not like the supermarkets back home, this was a wee corner shop with limited supplies.

Success, mackerel in water, mackerel in brine and mackerel in oil, Segway was going to have a buffet! – I bought a selection (along with 3 x 1 ltr bottles of beer and two huge packets of crisps) then head headed home, back down the wee dirt road.

The process now was to mash the fish with a little oil and water. It had been 4 days, poor wee Segway had survived on water, meds and TLC so far and I could see he was beginning to lose weight.

The tube feeding was quite a challenge as trying to squash mackerel through a little hole was almost impossible. The only solution was to change the constituency to almost soup. I passed the tube down his oesophagus, carefully missing his trachea, and slowly delivered 40ml from a 50ml syringe, by the expression in his wee eyes, I think he liked it 😉

It was a long but wonderfully satisfying day, We all didn’t finish till almost 8pm and I had been up since 05:30. Standing under the hot shower was complete heaven and I could have stood there all evening but there were 15 of us sharing this one toilet and shower facility so there was no time to linger.

Turning off the tap was quite painful because I then exposed myself to the bitter cold evening air. The towel I had bought in Montevideo bus station was soft and fluffy but rubbish at absorbing water from my body, it needed to be washed in hot soapy water to remove the fabric softener.

I hopped around the little cubical shivering as I tried to pull my clothes over my damp skin and balance on one leg like a flamingo whilst putting on my sock straight into a shoe – god this was a stressful challenge.

A cool beer from the fridge while waiting for dinner and watched the most amazing sunset certainly helped me recover from my traumatic experience.

Nite 😘