May 20: To finish week 3 we took a visit to the breeding center, which is part of the Albufara Natural Park but is located on the other side of the lake, not too far from the rehabilitation center. At the breeding center plants, turtles and certain fish are bred and raised for reintroduction back into the environment and also for the local aquarium and other educational facilities. The plants that we created the boxes for reintroduction are being harvested here and we'll get them next week. While here we got to see many baby turtles along with baby fish and salamanders. The fascility is set up in multiple sections. Outside contains multiple ponds for growing plants but also little rivers for breeding and egg laying. Many of the areas are covered with fencing of some sort to provide protection. The eggs if found early enough are brought in to ensure survival, but if not, they still bring baby turtles inside for their first year to provide an adequate environment for survival and then move them outside at 1 when they are better able to protect themselves. After another year or so, they are ready for being released into the wild or relocation or simply, breeding. In the back is also an enclosure for all the invasive turtles found where they are sometimes distributed for educational purposes but typically euthanized to prevent further spreading. Shockingly raccoons are subjugated to a similar end since they are also invasive and highly destructive :(
Another very interesting aspect of this breeding center is the people running it have written and published an educational book on the turtles and invasive species for kids. :) We have received two copies for our Tancat De La Pipa (the part of Albufera we work at) which I'm sure I'll attempt to read later as it is in both Spanish and Valenciano :)
May 21: Today we went to an art museum in Valencia, best part is it was free admission! We went because our roommate is quite the fan of Goya and I just love Art museums. While most of the artist aren't super famous, there was still very good quality work, shockingly with an art piece by "El Greco" , probably the most notable name I saw there (with of course Goya being probably second). There was an entire section dedicated to him. The artwork have a heavily religious theme (as was common of the time most were created 300-600 years ago). Many old altar pieces were on display :) We also saw a painting that strongly resembled the "Property Brothers." After the museum, we spent the rest of the day relaxing at the park and later went to the hemisferic (like a planetarium) to watch a video on space (which was very elementary but had astonishing photos of the universe). Overall was a very good day :) Was supposed to go to the beach tomorrow but instead will be going to the hospital to check out my foot that I hurt at Benidorm :/
-Sarita
The piece by El Greco
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