TORTUGUEROS

Day #2, Jan. 16, 2018. We’ve been through a day at Turtle Camp, sleeping late but then this is Mexico. Got our orientation yesterday. Informal is the way everything rolls here but there was no mistake about what is important and what is not. If we (Tortugueros staff) don’t get it right, baby turtles die in the nest, all of them. It is cold enough in winter that all eggs in natural nests are lost: they don’t develop. We have maybe 30 nests relocated to the greenhouse, about 30 nests already hatched and released with more being transferred as we discover them. We only have a couple of hours after eggs are laid to get them moved or they start developing and it’s too late to move them. Then it takes 50-60 days of TLC before they hatch, 30” down. Temperature inside the greenhouse is critical for success but also fatal to the babies once they reach the surface. We have about 15 or 20 minutes to move each new turtle outside, into a buried, half full bucket of damp sand and kept in the shade. At the end of the day (sunset - when the sun touches the water) we go to the beach and, as many locals and tourists show up to see and learn, to participate in the release. At the edge of wet sand, shallow plastic tubs with sand and a few turtles are tipped and gently released all up and down the beach. Then it’s up to the turtle. 

Last night there were 26 turtles, 83 the night before. Some don’t make it. Life it seems is risky business. Under natural circumstances, the weak die and the birds eat. We release as the sun is setting and birds are compelled to find a roost for the night. “Tortugueros” buries all of the organic remains in a far removed sand dune, otherwise birds find it and remember where they found it. So we leave nothing on the beach or near the green house. Then it’s dark, parents and their kids go home, we do a cursory clean up and head back to the compound. A hot shower is all we want and Sharon was in bed asleep at 8:30. I started to write but decided to wait until morning. I’m starting to think about something to eat; have no idea about how things will unfold today but I trust someone will point the way.