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Published: November 10th 2007
One thing that I forgot to mention in my last blog entry was that I've had my first bit of bad luck- I had my purse stolen from my bag when I was on a chicken bus last week. It didn´t have much money in it but it had my memory card in it, with all my photos from my first 6 weeks travelling. Stupidly, I kept putting off getting the photos onto a disc. Oh well, that´s life. It wasn´t my camera, passport or credit cards, so I guess I´m quite lucky. It has taught me a lesson to be more careful with my stuff and more aware of what´s going on around me. They had a very tricky distraction thing going on. People were telling us we needed to get off the bus, people at the front were pointing where to get our next bus and people behind were pushing us forward. There were coats that were being pressed against us, and I guess in those few seconds is when it all happened. Tricky, very tricky!
Anyway, have spent that past few days on the Pacific coast in a little place called Monterrico. There is a black sand
Turtle eggs
They look and feel like ping pong balls!beach with mahoosive waves, and a turtle sanctuary. November is the last month that turtles come to lay their eggs on the beach here, so for 2 nights my friend Trish and I volunteered to help look for turtles and their eggs on the beach.
The reason they do this is because poachers come and steal the eggs and sell them as aphrodisiacs. Turtles can lay up to 90 eggs in a go, so they can make a lot of money from them. It is a really weird situation though, as the sanctuary have a deal with the poachers that if they give them 2 dozen of the eggs that they steal, then they can have a receipt to validate the sale of the rest of the eggs. Very strange, but I guess some eggs are better than none!
Anyway, the first night we didn´t see any but it was a gorgeous night on the beach as we saw lots of shooting stars! There was also weird plankton stuff in the damp sand so that when you walked you left behind glittery sparkley footprints- so cool!
As we finished our walk on the second night we still hadn´t
The poor turtle
She goes into a trance while she is laying her eggs, and her eyes water. see anything, but the man from the sanctuary bumped into his friend on the beach (who was a poacher!) and said that there was a turtle laying eggs further up the beach, and that we could go and see it if we gave them a tip.
Obviously not the ideal situation, but we did want to see it so we went. It was a really bizarre thing to see, but it actually made me feel really uncomfortable. The turtle is in a bit of a trance and has no idea what is going on, whilst the poacher creates a tunnel underneath her so that the eggs roll out to him like a pinball machine. At first we were the only ones there, but soon lots of other Guatemalan tourists started coming over and it got a bit crazy with everyone taking pictures and touching her. I felt guilty because of course I wanted photos too. It was all just a bit weird for me, and didn´t feel right. At least the sanctuary got to take some eggs back I suppose.
Anway, had to get up at 5 this morning for a tour of the mangroves near Monterrico. Didn´t
really see much wildlife apart from a few birds, but it was really beautiful and the still water had lovely reflections on it.
Later on in the day we released 3 baby turtles that were born in the sanctuary back into the ocean. They need to crawl along the damp sand before they get in the water so that they can remember where it is and return to lay their eggs when they are older. 2 of the babies had no trouble getting away, but one of them kept getting washed back by the big waves, poor little thing! It was a really nice experience, but it is sad to think that only 30% of the babies make it to adults. Boo hoo!
Anyway, I´m going to spend the weekend revisiting one of the places I´ve been already and then onto country number 4- Honduras!
xxxx
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Hannah
non-member comment
Awww
So cute baby turtles. And considering how small your hands are, they must be tiny! Rotten about the memory card, but at least you have some of the photos on your blog so they're not all lost. And yes, at least it wasn't the camera itself (thanks for reminding me !!) xxxx 5 weeks and counting!