Los Torturgas

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Los Tortugarios

Its 5:15pm sunset on the Pacific. I have joined a queue of excited children and their parents. Just yards from us rollers are crashing down onto the black sands.I am in Monterrico on the Pacific coast of Guatemala spending a few days on the beach.
At 5:30 on the dot 3 workers from the Biotopo Monterrico-Hawii Wildlife Reserve carrying 2 big plastic baskets arrive and immediately establish order by drawing a big line in the sand parllel to the sea. We are not allowed to step over. Handing over our 10 quetzal tickets (about 70p) a precious tiny baby turtle is dropped into our palms. We hold these tiny crittars, flippers flapping ready for the off.
On a count of 3 we drop to our knees and release these tiny crittars over the line where they stop start in little rushes to the tide.
Altogether about 100 are released and the line is necessary as the excited children and big kids like me might accidently step on them. As it is the poor beasts can be temporarily frozen by the flashes of parents’ cameras despite requests of the workers.
As the turtles reach the gigantic breakers they can be thrown back up onto the sands where they struggle flippers frailing wildly to regain balance. But in about 30 minutes the last ones have made it into the ocean to begin another phase maybe to end up of the west coast of Scotland or Donegal.
Who knows.
The sun has set and the workers returned to the reservation where the eggs are incubated.
The eggs are collected at night when the turtles beach to lay their eggs. This for conservation as there is much loss, the locals would collect them for food but now they can give them to the centre for some money so are encouraged. In the centre they are incubated in the ever warm sand. It was the end of the laying season so I missed seeing any turtles land.
But I did get up at 5am and joined a canoe paddling through the mangroves in the pitch dark thinking I would have been better off in bed. The river opening into a lake the full moon was setting to the west just as the sun was rising in the east. I didn’t know which way to turn in the beauty of those moments
So Montericco had so many treats on offer. It is a quiet sleepy little town with wee hotels along the beach. ((Not sleepy at weekend when it becomes party beach!)
Unfortunately it is impossible to swim in the raging surf I just lay at the waters edge watching the pelicans in skimming the surf in precision formation.
Every evening the local fisherman would push their boats at top speed into the tide timing it between waves and leaping in with motor full reving. Even then it was scarey to watch them crashing through the surf to relative calm beyond.

Merry Christmas everyone!















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