The Turtle Experience

Sorry I have no pictures of the night with the turtles but it was such a special adventure.

We talked to a Danish family, who were also staying at Rana Roha, and they recommended a guide for us to use for the turtle walk at night and a canoe tour in the early morning. We went to town and found him, made our reservations and paid for the trips. We learned that the tour guides have to partake in a lottery every day to get a time slot for their tour. They limit the number of guests to a small number, two times every night. We found out after 6 that we were in the second round of guides - at 9:30. My time to shine.

A little after 9 we went down to the dock to await our taxi to town and meet up with our group.
and waited
and waited.

Finally we got to town and discovered we had a different guide, two actually. One spoke no english and the other could get by. We were a large group of 18 people combined. I am glad I brought our head lamps because we then walked for 45 minuted along a path paralleling the beach. When we got to the gathering spot to wait for the park official and the beach patrollers, our guide spoke a lot about the turtles and the process - in spanish. We got the 2 minute condensed english version. Our questions were answered but I know we missed a ton of education. The official came and collected our fees and the the patrollers came and told us to go to #51 to find our turtle. The numbers along the path now made sense, they are pathways to the beach. There are people patrolling the beach looking for the right turtles for people to watch and report to the guides. This makes it so much better than tons of people out there looking.

When we found our girl, she had already come up under a tree, dug a hole and was in the process of laying. I had forgotten that eggs don't come out hard but the shell is soft and then hardens. She was going to lay over 100 eggs. The guides had red lights that didn't disturb them too much and we took turns watching her drop her eggs. She was an older green back and quite large. While we were watching her another younger one came out of the water and started searching for the perfect spot.

We then walked down the beach a ways to see another turtle bury her eggs and go back into the water. When we returned to our girl, she was finished burying and about to make her way back into the water. Before she left, three scientists came to check her. She had been tagged twice before so they had some past info on her. A young woman got into the hole to measure her and get her tag numbers. The turtle wasn't at all happy with being bothered at this point and used her flippers to throw sand at her and hit her.

After they left her alone, she made her way down to the water. As she got close to the water's edge she met up with a log laying across the beach. It took her a bit to make her way around and over it to get wet. We all felt good to see her float away. Turtles don't eat while they are on their way to lay their eggs so they are totally exhausted at this point. So hard not to help her. A bit of trivia - the sex of the turtle is determined by the temperature they are incubated at. Hot chicks and cool guys! The eggs in the center are females and the outside are males. Very few of them actually make it to adulthood. Their challenges start from nest raiders right through being little guys in the big ocean.

It was such a special experience.

We did have an extended tour (over 3 hours) and after walking back to town and getting a ride back it was after 1am. We blew off the canoe ride that morning at 6:30. I was disappointed about that. I so wanted to get deeper into the jungle to see the word wake up but I did have to be careful.