Since March of 2015, over 15 different groups, primarily from the United States, have visited Bahía and learned about Geoporter and how GIS and GPS are being used by the community. Some groups had the ability to participate in longer projects, but in total, 200 unique individuals, both students and adults, have participated in Geoporter projects since last spring.

These groups come from a variety of different sources. They include groups from Bodhi Surf, Global Leadership Adventures, Best Adventures Travel, Holbrook Travel and most recently, Discover Corps. This year we also had three university groups; Johnson State College, the University of Alabama and the University of Georgia.

• Global Leadership Adventures (GLA) is for high-school-aged youth from countries around the world. They spend 14 days here in the community in the program Protecting the Pacific. The five summer 2015 groups mapped trash along the beaches and helped identify locations to plant trees as part of the Semilla de Ballena Reforestation Project. They also spent many hours helping to build the Vivero, or nursery that will house next year’s seedlings and trees. This is the third year working with GLA.
• Discover Corps is an adult and family-oriented program in association with The National Peace Corps Association. This year Geoporter worked with six different groups ranging in size from a single family to 19 individuals. These groups participated primarily in the Clean Streets, Clean Waters program and continued our awareness campaigns to keep the community clean and trash free.

The three university groups had different focuses:

• Johnson State College, Vermont – Received a presentation and saw the projects in action while they visited and participated in various community projects.
• University of Georgia, One Health through Bodhi Surf – heard how GIS is being used to help investigate some health concerns in town such as contaminated waters. They also saw in action the Participatory Whale Monitoring project during their boat tour.
• University of Alabama, Spatial Ecology and Conservation Lab – helped examine the relationship between the trash data collected and the location of household trash containers on the streets of Bahía.

These groups have helped to explore community projects in greater detail. Many have also taken what they’ve learned about how to apply GPS and GIS back to their own communities or projects. Geoporter looks forward to continuing to work with these groups and new ones in the coming months. If you are interested in bringing a group down, contact us and we can help you arrange a trip.