Huevos Tortugas

Hola Amigos!

So after the brutal mugging yesterday, we decided to wander the streets and explore the town. Very quiet, full of surf shops. Cute though! Hot as hades.. We went back to Casa Oro to read a bit, and then have some cervezas before the big event..... TURTLES! We are very close to La Flor, which is one of the biggest nesting colonies in the world. They are in the middle of a big arrival, with as many as 3,000 mamma turtles reaching shore nightly and dropping off their eggs. Fantastic!

We signed up for the tour, a whopping $30 each, and arrived at 6:30 for the very technical powerpoint presentation. Woohoo! Did you know that turtles mate with many partners, some at the same time, and then self fertilize? Did you know that a turtle can lay up to 120+ eggs in one sitting? Did you know that out of every 1,000 baby turtles that hatch, only one will make it to adulthood? If you answered ¨No, I did not know that!¨, then you would have been thoroughly enthralled at this presentation! We felt the same way.

So after our little lesson, we all piled into the trucks and vans to ride off to the turtle sanctuary. What a long, bumpy ride! I lucked out and the only seat left was in the front, so I enjoyed some rockin´ eighties tunes and nice air conditioning, while the others melted behind me. The 22k ride took a little over an hour. Yikes! We arrived at 8:30, had a little briefing, then off to the shore! Keep in mind that we were with a large, large group of gringos- who wants to take a guess as to how many of them followed the rules once we reached the sand???

When we reached the beach, we were stunned. The moon cast a bright glow over the sand, and there were TONS of big mamma turtles, en route to the sea or just emerging. Some were digging their holes with their back fins, some were filling the holes with sand.. and some were plopping out eggs. Wow! I have never seen a reptile fill their nest, and it was a sight to be seen.

Unfortunately, because there are so many turtles that surface each night to lay their eggs, the beach isn´t large enough to accomodate all of them. So each night, many turtles end up digging up the nests that were laid the previous nights, and laying their own eggs in their place. Because of all this digging and uncovering, a potent egg odor lingers over the beach. Mmmm.

Exciting evening! We hung around for an hour, dodging these determined turtles, while spying on this intimate time in their lives... Then it was back in the van for the long drive home! I slept quite comfortably, though Oli said he felt very violated by the bouncy benches in the back. Poor poppet.

We are off to go surfing... hang ten dudes!!!