Baby (and big!) sea turtles!

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Writing this from the Pacific coast of Guatemala, Monterrico beach more specifically!

Monterrico is known for 3 things: 1) sea turtles, 2) black volcanic sand, and 3) rough surf. So I am staying at a hotel that protects turtle eggs from predators until they are hatched and can be released with assistance (60% chance of survival when released with human assistance, vs. 5% chance of survival when they head into the sea on their own), and that has a decent pool! The broiling hot black sand? Can't do anything about that!

On Friday afternoon I had the chance to see some newly born (I literally saw them coming out of the eggs!) baby turtles, got to hold them, and then help release them into the ocean at night. So cool! They are so cute you just want to dress them up and keep them in your pocket forever! Alas, they go to sea the same day they are born. Yep, into that rough surf.

On Saturday I did some work and hung out by the pool and beach, enjoying my favorite shrimp tacos of all time at a hotel/bar/restaurant called Johnny's Place, one of the first places to exist on this beach (Uncle Rod has a t-shirt from there from my visit last year).

Saturday night I went on a 2 hour walk to see the big sea turtles. Here's the deal with the turtles. Once the baby turtles are released into the ocean, if they survive, when the females are 6-7 years old, they return to the same beach to lay their eggs. They come out of the ocean to lay their eggs, bury them in the sand, and then go back into the ocean. The whole process takes between 30-60 minutes depending on how many eggs she is going to lay. we caught up with one turtle when she was already in the process of laying her eggs. They dig a really deep hole in which they deposit the eggs. Now, the hole is so deep that the sand is cool there, which might be seen as a good thing. However, in cool temperatures, the turtles only turn out as males. Since they are an endangered species, you want there to be more females to reproduce later on. So people (sometimes the guides and their groups, sometimes towns people) take the eggs as soon as they are laid in order to bury them in a safe place, not as deep, so that more females are born. The way it works here is that the first person to see the turtle laying her eggs "owns" the eggs. It is illegal to buy or sell turtle eggs in Guatemala, which is not to say that people don't do it. So the first turtle we saw was already with her egg "owner" and he got to keep the eggs. 20% of the eggs have to be donated to the hatchery. Then the hatchery pays above (illegal) "market price" for the rest of the eggs in order to ensure that they are protected and not sold at the market. The second turtle we saw, we "found" meaning we were the first ones to get to her. We collected the eggs and then took them to the hatchery and donated all of them. A turtle coming out of the water to lay her eggs for the first time can lay up to 120 eggs. Otherwise they lay between 30-50 eggs. They do this 3 times a year. When the turtles were done laying their eggs, burying them and stomping on the sand with their flippers and heavy weight, they went right back into the ocean. If they are OK for the next 4 months out there, they will be back in Monterrico to lay their eggs again then.

My internet connection is running really slow so I wasn't able to post any of the pictures on here this time. But you can see them by going to: http://www1.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3132433016/a=3029341/

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