More Turtle Tales

Third time's the charm ... isn't that what they say? I lost a beautiful blog the other night and I just lost another one right now. I am not a happy camper. As a result of my earlier loss, I thought I would copy this most recent blog just in case. Well, in doing so, I somehow deleted it and cannot retrieve it. God I'm pissed!

So I will just keep this simple. My friend Charlene arrived on Tuesday and I've been busy doing stuff with her, including looking for turtles laying their eggs on the beach because this is something she really wants to see. After three nights of looking, we've had no luck but we are going to try again tonight.

I contacted Oscar, the guy who runs the turtle program, and found out they were releasing turtles at the Fiesta Americana Hotel last night. We arrived in time to hear his talk about the hatchery and then we all moved to line up on the beach in single file. After "washing" our hands with sand (to remove any oil), we were all handed our very own baby turtle.

At first I thought mine was dead because he wasn't moving and I couldn't see if he was breathing or not. But when Oscar picked him up, the turtle started moving his tiny flippers like a windmill so I knew I had a strong one! The turtles rested in one palm while we gently held them on either side of the their shell with two fingers.

On the count of "uno, dos, tres", we all stepped forward to a line drawn in the sand at the water's edge and crouched down to place our turtle in the sand. Oscar also dumped the bucket holding another 100 or so turtles at the same time. They all started scuttling towards the ocean, some faster than others, but all driven by nature's oldest calling.

It was just after sunset and the sea was glowing with that special light that appears only at dawn and dusk. The waves came in at different heights and some actually broker over the turtles, bringing them back into the beach with the water. You could see their tiny little heads bobbing out into the Bay right in front of us, heading for a precarious life in the ocean.

Finally, all the turtles but one made it. This poor little fellow was too tired after being washed ashore too many times so he will be released tonight with over 400 turtles! It was so amazing to see this rare sight and such a privilege to be involved in such an amazing program. If you ever get the chance to volunteer, you won't regret it!