El Museo de las Tortugas/Centro Mexicano de la Tortuga

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Our next day trip was to El Museo de las Tortugas/Centro Mexicano de la Tortuga in Mazunte. The turtle industry was banned in 1990. With the help of government action and community cooperation this former turtle processing factory has been converted into a center for the recovery of Oaxaca's Pacific Sea Turtles. All seven of Mexico's marine turtle species are represented here at the center. This was one of the highlights of the trip, especially for Carlos because of his love of turtles. Carlos has his own turtle here in Mexico. Her name is Cucalaloca and she just got a bigger home today.

The center has tremendously helped the Sea Turtle population on the Oaxacan Coast. There were so many problems in the past with turtle poachers that now the since the government has stepped in things have changed. You can go to jail now if you steal or kill or turtle. It seems the coasts are doing excellent work in protection the sea turles. They are all in good hands, whether they are in the center or in the ocean.

Our timing was good. The museum/center is always closed Monday's and Tuesday's and the week we were there it was also closed to the public Wednesday and Thursday for private tours. We showed up on Thursday and were disappointed, but made it a point to stay an extra day for the visit, which was well worth it.

As you can see in the photos, once again, we met up with our Italian friends, which made the trip even that more special, except we didn't communicate all that much. We did our best with the language barrier though and that's all you can ask for.

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