Johanna Read

Johanna Readhttps://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/about/contributors/johanna-readJohanna Readhttps://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/explore/north-america/mexico/whales-and-sea-turtlesNomad Johanna shares her experiences, from friendly gray whales in Baja to releasing baby turtles in Oaxaca.2019-01-30T11:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/explore/north-america/mexico/whales-and-sea-turtleshttps://www.worldnomads.com<ul> <li><a href="#whales">Where the Whales Come to Be Petted</a></li> <li><a href="#turtles">Saving Endangered Baby Sea Turtles </a></li> <li><a href="#notes">Trip Notes</a></li> </ul> <h2 id="whales">Where the Whales Come to Be Petted</h2> <p>The gray whale swims slowly toward our boat, her baby following closely. She sinks under the baby, then gently lifts him onto her back so he’s almost fully out of the water. Is this so we can admire him or so the baby can get a good view of us?</p> <p>Introductions done, what happens next is even more surreal. The 50ft-long (15m) mother floats over to our boat and stops, her nose partially underneath us. Leaning over the gunwale, I reach out and pet her head. It’s slippery smooth, except where it’s covered in barnacles. Soon the baby noses his way over, wanting some love too. </p> <p>I’m told Magdalena Bay is one of only three bays in the world – all off Baja – where this phenomenon is known to happen. Usually, petting or otherwise touching wild animals are to be strictly avoided, but here the whales seek it out.</p> <p>Three mothers with babies repeat this whale-led interaction before our onboard naturalist says, “Time’s up” and we head back to Bahia Magdalena’s Puerto San Carlos and our bus to La Paz (day trips from La Paz are best, as Magdalena Bay towns don’t have much tourist infrastructure).</p> <p>Along with gray whales, Mexico’s cetaceans include humpbacks, minkes, fins, blue whales, and several dolphin species.</p> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/guides/mexico/whale-bays/whale-new.jpg" /><figcaption>Gray whales approach a boat in Magdalena Bay. Photo credit: Getty Images / Carlos Sanchez <g class="gr_ gr_107 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="107" data-gr-id="107">Pereya</g></figcaption></figure> <h2 id="turtles">Saving Endangered Baby Sea Turtles</h2> <p>The sunset view is simply too gorgeous to keep my eyes closed during our beach yoga lesson. I watch Playa Palmarito’s immense summertime waves rise higher and higher, then slowly curl before they fall with a crash. Then, something catches my eye. There’s a huge turtle floating two-thirds of the way up the wall of the wave. She’s scoping out the beach – where she hatched 15 years earlier – to choose the perfect spot to lay her eggs tonight.</p> <p>This Puerto Escondido beach is ideal for turtles. It’s 15mi (24km) long, and empty save for a fenced-in area where turtle eggs are buried to protect them from predators, and quiet Vivo Resorts which sponsors the Palmarito Sea Turtle Camp through its Vivo Foundation. A few times nightly, patrols search the beach for freshly laid eggs. They dig them up, count them, and then rebury them marking the date they’re expected to hatch. About two months later, hotel guests can help release the cute babies. They protect and release 40,000 to 60,000 turtle hatchlings annually.</p> <p>After the sun has set, I carry my hatchling in a coconut shell, careful not to touch her. When her flippers feel the sand, she pauses before starting her 100ft (30m) scramble into the waves, imprinting the location in her brain as she goes. With luck, she’ll be one of the 5% which survives and returns in 15 years to lay her own eggs. Without the assistance of the turtle project, turtles only have a 1-2% chance of survival.</p> <p>Mexico has six of the world’s seven sea turtle species – green, olive ridley, hawksbill, loggerhead, Kemp’s Ridley and leatherback.</p> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/guides/mexico/whale-bays/turtle-baby.jpg" /><figcaption>A baby sea turtle about to be released. Photo credit: Getty Images / Ulrike Stein</figcaption></figure> <h2 id="notes">Trip Notes</h2> <p>International flights land in most of these cities, with domestic flights connecting to smaller La Paz and Puerto Escondido. </p> <h3>La Paz, Baja California Sur</h3> <p>Laidback La Paz is on the marine-life-rich <a href="/explore/north-america/mexico/kayaking-in-loreto-bay">Sea of Cortez</a>, 125mi (200km) north of Cabo. Several species, even giant blue whales, feed here. You can also snorkel with turtles, rays, sea lions, and the world’s largest fish, the gentle whale shark. Bus tours go to Magdalena Bay for the day for gray whale watching.</p> <h3>Cabo, Baja California Sur</h3> <p>The southern tip of Baja peninsula, where the Pacific meets the Sea of Cortez, is a favorite spot of whales. Humpbacks are often seen from shore in winter. Five turtle species nest from August to December.</p> <h3>Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca</h3> <p>Find six turtle species, five dolphins and, from November to April, humpback whales. They’re even seen from the beach.</p> <h3>Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco</h3> <p>The largest gathering of Pacific humpbacks in Mexico is in Vallarta’s Bahia de Banderas from December to March. Release baby turtles at several hotels which participate in conservation programs.</p> <h3>Cancún and the Riviera Maya, Quintana Roo</h3> <p>Turtles lay eggs on Riviera Maya beaches from May to October. Isla Majures, off Cancún, is turtle-mating central from May to July. Dolphins are occasionally seen nearby and whale sharks visit in summer.</p>Getty Images / Andres Valencia 0

https://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/travel-safety/worldwide/travel-and-terrorismIt’s the question we ask ourselves every time there’s news of another terror-related incident: should I go, or should I stay? Johanna Read tells us why she chooses to keep traveling.2019-11-14T11:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/travel-safety/worldwide/travel-and-terrorismhttps://www.worldnomads.com<p>I’ve faced the decision to cancel my travel plans following a terrorist attack three times: to <a href="/explore/guides/usa-nomads-guide" target="_blank" title="Download our free guide to the USA">New York City</a> two weeks after 9/11, to <a href="/travel-safety/europe/france/how-to-avoid-scams-and-cons" target="_blank" title="How to avoid scams in France">Paris</a> three weeks after the Charlie Hebdo attack, and to <a href="/travel-safety/north-africa/tunisia/women-in-tunisia" target="_blank" title="Is Tunisia Safe for Solo Women Travelers?">Tunis</a> a month after the attack on the Bardo Museum.</p> <p>Each time I went on the trip as planned. Among my rewards were welcoming locals, good prices, a lack of crowds, and the comforting feeling that I was helping local people and not letting the terrorists win.</p> <ul> <li><a href="#travel">To travel or not?</a></li> <li><a href="#terrorism">Why I travel despite terrorism</a></li> <li><a href="#risk">The risk of terrorism</a></li> <li><a href="#perspective">Putting things into perspective</a></li> <li><a href="#respond">How to respond to terrorism</a></li> </ul> <h2 id="travel">Travel and terrorism: When is it safe to go?</h2> <p>After news of the attacks, I checked news reports to assess three critical questions for myself. Two are easy yes or no questions, the third is more nuanced:</p> <ol> <li>Is the infrastructure in place so that my arrival as a tourist will not be a burden? (This is more important after a natural disaster when limited resources should be reserved for local people and rescuers, but could be applicable after a terrorist attack too)</li> <li>Is the government responding appropriately and do they have the means to put in place reasonable security measures?</li> <li>Who is claiming responsibility for the attack and for what reasons?</li> </ol> <p>If the attack is by an internal group against the country’s government, I might consider changing my plans. For example if Eta, the Basque separatist group, resurrected its attacks against the Spanish government, I would think twice about traveling to Spain, particularly near an election.</p> <p>But if the attack is by Al Qaeda or ISIL/ISIS seeking to monger fear and cause chaos? As long as the answers to the first two questions are yes, I’ve always decided to travel.</p> <h2 id="terrorism">Why I travel despite terrorism</h2> <p>Attacks by extremist groups like Al Qaeda are random and impossible to predict. It is also unlikely for an attack to happen in the same place twice (yes, there were repeat attacks in Paris and Tunisia, but in different areas).</p> <p>In most cases, one of the safest places in the world is a city that has recently had a terrorist attack. Everyone - officials and citizens - is hyper-vigilant. No suspicious package or unattended backpack is left unnoticed. No one is allowed into an important tourist site without their camera x-rayed, their water bottle examined, and their person metal-detected.</p> <p>Whenever I visit a major destination that could be the target of attack, I do three things slightly differently than I do at home in Canada or when visiting smaller cities:</p> <ol> <li>I avoid big crowds and especially demonstrations.</li> <li>I try to avoid lingering near cars parked at major monuments (it's pretty easy to plant a car bomb).</li> <li>I go out of my way to share on social media that I feel safe and am enjoying my visit at the destination.</li> </ol> <p>That’s about it. I base these actions on the goals of terrorism and the facts behind risk.</p> <h2 id="risk">The risk of terrorism</h2> <p>Yes of course I want to avoid injury or death by terrorists. But just how real is that risk?</p> <p>Plane crashes and terrorist attacks make front page news, we’re constantly reminded about them on social media, and we continue to talk about them weeks after an attack. This makes us think they are more prevalent and higher risk than they really are.</p> <p>Your perceived control also affects whether you think you are susceptible to a given risk. And when large numbers of people are affected by something at the same time, we think there is more risk than there actually is.</p> <p>For example, people are more worried about a vacation flight than about driving their own car to work. Why, when driving is much more dangerous than flying? When we fly, we relinquish control to a pilot. We think we are good drivers, and that car accidents happen to other people, not us. Plus, car accidents are rarely reported in the news, while plane crashes always are.</p> <p>Tragedies happen everywhere. We are always at some level of risk. But I don’t want my actions - or the world’s - to be dictated by fear. I want decisions to be based on evidence.</p> <p>The evidence says I’m much more likely to die or be injured at home than whilst traveling, and that my greatest travel risk is a mosquito-borne illness like dengue (though NOT Zika, which you can <a href="/travel-safety/south-america/brazil/zika-in-brazil-should-this-health-issue-worry-you" title="zika and Brazil" target="_blank">read about here</a>). Statistics say that I am more likely to die from a TV falling on me than I am to die from a terrorist act. So I travel (and I stay clear of jumpy televisions).</p> <h2 id="perspective">Putting things into perspective</h2> <p>The U.S Department of State’s most recent statistics say that there were about 32,700 deaths from terrorism in 95 countries around the world in 2014. 78% of those deaths took place in just five countries -- Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria -- none of which are high on most tourists’ bucket lists at the moment. And a more accurate statistic is that 26,500 people died worldwide from terrorism in 2014, since about 6,200 of the 32,700 deaths were the perpetrators themselves, who committed suicide or were killed by security forces.</p> <p>In comparison, the Association for Safe International Road Travel says that almost 1.3 million people die in traffic accidents worldwide annually -- that’s over 3287 people a day. Another 20 to 50 million are injured. Road accidents are the 9th leading cause of death in the world -- the only cause in the top 10 that is not a disease.</p> <p>To compare just one country, the U.S. international affairs think tank, the Council on Foreign Relations, says that since 9/11 an average of 29 Americans die annually from terrorism attacks. 37,000 Americans die in car accidents annually, with 2.35 million more injured or disabled every year.</p> <p>You’re much more likely to die from a car accident, choking on a hot dog, or a lightning strike than from terrorism. You have about the same odds for dying from a cow or an elevator.</p> <h2 id="respond">How to respond to terrorism</h2> <p>A main purpose of terrorism is to cause fear and discord. By succumbing to that fear we are letting terrorists succeed in their mission to gain publicity and legitimacy, to cause hysteria, and to increase repression of human rights.</p> <p>The best reaction to terrorism is to show that we will not let terrorism change our lives. Don’t help the terrorists get what they want.</p> <p>Once you know you won’t be a burden to a recovering city, go. Add much needed dollars, francs, or dinars into the economy. Help create jobs. Help the people who live there make a living wage. Destinations hit by terrorism need your business. They even need your tweets and instagrams to encourage other people to travel there.</p> <p>By being overly fearful we encourage businesses and governments to waste money on security measures (and wars) that are, if not useless, at least not risk-based. The U.S. spends $7 billion annually on the Transportation Security Administration. CNN reports that in a controlled undercover study in 2015 testing the TSA’s effectiveness, officers missed 95% of guns and explosives in dozens of American airports.</p> <p>There would be significantly less terrorism if we instead invested in creating a world without disparity and where human rights are guaranteed. This would prevent extremism from developing in the first place. We need a world where desperate people don’t feel the need to form revolutionary groups, and a world without oppression so that the general population doesn’t see the need to sympathise, legitimise and fund the revolutionary groups.</p> <p>Can you imagine how much better off the world would be if all the money spent globally to fight extremism and perceived threats since 9/11 had been spent on clean water, food, education, healthcare, job creation and helping countries transition to democracy?</p> <p>Yes, you could cancel your travel plans after a terrorist attack, but you likely wouldn’t be any safer. And the world would get more unsafe if we stopped traveling - countries’ economies would suffer, disparity would rise, and we’d become less familiar with the differences - and the similarities - between all of us.</p>Getty Images/dmbaker 1856940128 Getty Images Police cars and an ambulance on Westminster Bridge, London at night