Tortugas Pt.1 - "Who wants to see baby turtles?"

Mae!

Que Paso??

Chilling here in the nice couch circle at Casa Zen and it is POURING rain outside. It's safe to say that in the last 5 months of travel I have seen more rain than in the previous 7 years in Arizona. I left Florida for the desert partly because I had gotten sick of it, but I've now come to really appreciate it and all the life that it brings. So ya...rain is cool, lets crack into the post.

Before I left on this trip I had a vision of a couple different things that I really really wanted to see. Things that would be magical to experience. The first being encountering a whale shark, which I still hope to have a chance to do when I go for my scuba certification in December, and the second being witnessing baby sea turtles hatching. Turns out, posted up on the beautiful beaches of southern Nicaragua, I would get my chance.

I got my first clue on my first night staying at Castaway, sitting around a bonfire when all of a sudden a sea turtle trudged right up the beach beside us and started laying eggs - a massively amazing experience to witness in itself, and which I'll write about in Pt. 2 of this post. If there were mothers laying eggs, those eggs had to hatch at some point. But when and where?? Thats where Douglas comes in.

Douglas was our next door neighbor, one of the coolest friendliest dudes I've met on this trip. And he just so happened to be the turtle guy, who along with his two dogs Chelley and Ranger, single handedly spearheaded the efforts to ensure that the mothers that laid and eggs that hatched had the best chance for survival. He, along with the night security guard would patrol the beaches nightly in search of turtles laying eggs. When spotted, he would immediately dig up the eggs and relocate them to a safe place so that other locals would not find them and dig them up for consumption. The eggs are highly sought after by locals as they are known to be a potent aphrodisiac - Nica Viagra. Giggity.

Douglas kept tabs on where each batch of eggs was relocated as well as the expected hatch date, which was usually accurate to within a day or two. So one morning, as Kerri and I were chilling on the front porch of Castaway sipping our instant coffee, Douglas, who knew how badly I wanted to see the babies hatch, rolled up with the smile of a man who was struggling to contain the worlds biggest secret. And for a moment he just stood there. Something was up.

And then I'll never forget hearing those words - "Who wants to see baby turtles?"

I about spit out my coffee and sprang into action - first darting toward where the eggs were, taking several lunges before screeching to a halt when I realized I needed my camera. Whiplash. Snapping backwards in the opposite direction I charged my door, leaping into the air (slow motion) leg extended I kicked the door clean off the hinges. Standing motionless I took a few moment to scan the room, hoping to quickly locate the camera. Negative. Clock ticking, turtles hatching. So like a man posessed I took immediate and swift action. Seeing a few items laying on the bed, I ripped off the sheets, tearing them to threads, slowly floating to the floor but no camera. Maybe it was underneath? I grabbed the bed and hoisted it up over my head, scanning the floor below. Nothing. Tick tock tick tock. I heaved the bed against the wall, and with a loud crack, splintering into a million tiny toothpicks. The dresser! I grabbed it with both hands and flung it across the room, exploding on impact against the opposite wall, and quickly sorted through the debris. Still nothing. Panic begin to set in. Hope was fading. Where was Debbie? She always knows where I put stuff. Just then I caught a glimpse of my backpack slumped peacefully in the corner. Bingo. Camera in hand I escaped the wreckage and hustled out, catching my breath as I finally joined the others. 

And.....ACTION!

Haha, hope you enjoyed the little vid - that was a fun one to put together. And it really captures the entire process. Since the turtles hatched in the morning of a clear sunny day, Douglas felt that by holding them until late afternoon it would increase their chances for survival, at least on day 1. Didn't want them to become breakfast for the birds swirling about overhead. So we counted them up and placed them into buckets where they could chill for the day in some nice shade. Hours passed, and word got out. So when it came time to release them in the afternoon, it became quite the production. Dozens of people, armed with fancy cameras eagerly gathered. It was cool though because everyone had the fun giddy vibe that comes from witnessing something incredible.

And that it was. 

Posted with Blogsy