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Published: February 13th 2012
I had read that Maruata Beach was the prettiest beach on the Michocan coast. They were right. It is a very small rural town. We followed Paul´s directions, drove down to the beach and found a restaurant that was willing to let us camp on their lot. There actually were 2 other truck campers camped a little ways down the beach. We got set up and enjoyed a nice shrimp dinner at the restaurant. It had been a long day, so Marsha and I turned in early. When Ed came to bed, he was so excited because he and Ray had seen 3 sea turtles come to shore to lay their eggs.
I got up early the next morning and took Red for his walk on the beach. I could not believe the number of turtle tracks along the beach. As we were walking down the beach, low and behold, here comes a Mama turtle going down the beach out to sea. She was really big. It happened so fast, and I was really concerned about keeping Red away from her. The turtles are very skittish. When they come into shore, if anything spooks them, they turn around
Sea Turtle
Sorry for the poor picture, this is the best I could do..and go back out to sea. You can see a picture of one of the tracks where one of the turtles did just that. Actually, one of the turtles Ed and Ray saw was spooked and turned back out to sea. Anyhow, Mama Turtle was about 10´from the surf when I spotted her and moving fast ( in turtle speed) . I tried to get a picture of her, but my camera was on the wrong setting and by the time I adjusted, she was out to sea. Once they hit the edge of the surf, they are gone in a flash. She was big, about 4´long. WoW! I can´t believe I got to see that in daylight. I guess it is very rare. They are usually active around 1-3 am.
Thursday we all went for a long walk into town. We wondered through the town square and down some country roads. We saw a sign pointing to a differnt path to the beach, so we took it. We had to cross a stream to get there and Ed and I actually hopped into the back of a pick-up truck bed for a quick lift over the
Dedo de Dios
Finger of God water. We ended up at the Northernmost beach. It is a smaller secluded bay with some beautiful cabanas built into the hillside. We were the only ones around. When we went around the rock formation to the next bay there were some Military men. They looked to be checking things out, but they were also taking each others pictures and enjoying the lovely beach. The Captain chatted with us for a while, asking us where we were from and how we were enjoying Mexico. He was very pleasant, as they all have been. There is a Marine Base just done the beach. The Marines actually guard the Sea Turtles. We continued to wonder down the beach and eventually ended up back at camp. We headed into town that night for shrimp hamburgers and waited for it to get dark. Unfortuneately, it was overcast and sprinkling this night, so it was really dark. Our plan was to walk down to the end of the beach (about 2 miles) and watch for turtles on our way back. We did see one turtle, but it was so dark we were tripping over ourselves. We didn´t want to turn on the flashlight because we
Baby Turtle
We were amazed how big he was, about 3 inches didn´t want to scare away the turtles, but eventually we made our way back. Okay, tomorrow is another day.
Marsha and I got up at 5am for turtle watch and it was pouring rain. It was also still dark. I sat in thier camper and we waited for daylight. Once there was some sunlight we tried to sit under the palapa thinking we could stay dry there, not really. What the hell, we were getting wet anyway, so we set off down the beach. We walked all the way to the end. Lots of turtle tracks, not as many as the morning before, but still probably 30+. On the way back, we saw 4 baby turtles making thier way to the water. They were just at the edge of the surf. How exciting! We just stood there and cheered them on... Come on you can do it!! By the time we got back, we looked like a couple of drowned rats.
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michelle and karl
non-member comment
your trip
Dear Michelle & Ed. It sounds as if you are having a wonderful time. The pictures are great and so are comments. Happy Valentines Day. We will see you when you get home. Love Michelle & Karl.