Pete saw an advertisement on the ferry that said Leo Beer hosts a beach cleanup the day after the party at 4 pm. This made me feel slightly better, although all night I woke up repeatedly, imagining waves crashing onto the beach and carrying straws to the depth of the ocean floor and envisioning sea animals choking on them. I knew it would be too little, too late, and after doing research later, we realized that all of the coral reefs and the majority of the sea life in this area has long been murdered because of this party anyway.
How ironic, huh? A party created to celebrate Mother Nature has caused her an immense amount of death and destruction. We headed to the beach the next day to participate in the beach cleanup only to find that there was no such cleanup. All we saw were 1000s of partygoers hungover, drinking, sitting amongst piles of trash. I went to a vendor and asked him for a black trash bag and started cleaning the beach. Pete helped, and two others were already doing the same. Another girl (from San Diego, of course) started to help us, too. Living near a beach increases awareness, for sure. Each time I would sweep an area of straws, I would turn around to see 10 more washed up onshore. An hour and a half into it, the entire black trash bag was filled to the brim with various varieties of trash, mostly straws. I couldn’t stop cleaning and eventually Pete had to take me by the hand and lead me off the beach in tears. I cried the whole way back to the hotel, and was just in complete shock. Tears sting my eyes as I write this, feeling the pain brim to the top once again. How could this happen every single month?