Section 1: Text 2

Text two is an extract from a feature article. Refer to the animation for questions 16-30. They are based on the following text.

Off the Beaten Track - feature article

1 It was over a series of dark and stormy nights that I decided I liked San San Pond Sak, the remote estuarine area in Panama's north-west, near the Costa Rican border. Home to several species of turtle hatchlings and a handful of fishermen, it was also the first stop in my most recent holiday. Since the age of six I've been fascinated with Panama, so when Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA) announced a new World Conservation Programme to this Central American country, I seized the opportunity to fulfil a childhood wish, while at the same time helping to preserve the environment.

2 Led by CVA project manager Glenn McFarlane, our team of seven began the 23-day programme with a flight from Panama City to a regional airport. From there, a 20-minute boat ride down the river brought us to a two-storey bungalow serviced by a boatshed and jetty on the riverside and a patrol hut and turtle hatchery on the beachside. This would be our home for the next ten days. The bathroom, complete with flushing toilet and shower, and the kitchen hut, manned by two local cooks, were positioned away from the main building.

3 At dawn we would paddle a canoe down the river to look for manatees, shy estuary mammals that fed off the sea grasses in the warm shallow waters. Manatees form an essential part of a river's ecology, though our part in their conservation was merely observational. Our morning excursions would be punctuated by a two-hour burst of tropical rain and we'd then spend the day doing odd jobs around the property.

4 On our first night, a skunk had raided a hawksbill turtle nest in the hatchery, so our first priority was to fortify the enclosure with an underground perimeter of logs to prevent predators from burrowing and raiding again. After ensuring the safety of 'our babies', we created a garbage system for organic, inorganic and coconut waste, using collected driftwood and woven palm leaves. We also helped to fix the roof of the bungalow, level the dining area and begin extension of the jetty.

5 But our crowning glory had to be our flirtation with Panamanian real estate. Down came the existing patrol hut, dilapidated and rotting, and up sprang a new cassata (little house), complete with palm-frond roof, in the space of a couple of hours. Even the neighbouring ghost crab had to agree that we'd done a job worthy of any renovation TV show.

6 Local host Daniil Villarreal ran unofficial boat tours that took us along the riverbank and through grottoes filled with birds, butterflies and the occasional sloth. This, along with card games, swimming and a siesta in a hammock, formed our recreation at San San.

7 At night we'd patrol the beach, watching the lightning storms illuminating the Caribbean Sea. Turtles cry in sustained white light and poachers use high-beam torches to disorientate them. Our only torch had a red beam and was rarely used-it's amazing how quickly one learns to see in the dark. This was Villarreal's fifth year patrolling the beach, the last two with help from the Asociación Nacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (ANCON, a Panamanian conservation group). If we encountered a laying mother, we were expected to collect the eggs and rebury them in the hatchery to protect them from predators. But while hawksbill, leatherback and green turtles had been reported in the area, eight nights on the march brought us no closer to the thrill of a nesting creature.

8 However, our hatchlings abounded. The four that survived the raid were brought in for observation and released a few days later after gaining strength. We were also fortunate to catch the first round of leatherbacks emerging from a nest buried earlier in the season. In the evening's half-light, 35 robust hatchlings flippered their way towards the invisible call of the sea.