baby turtles

We all had an interesting experience last night at the beach. Just down from Nuevo Vallarta there is a baby sea turtle release program. Each night they release all the newly hatched babies back into the ocean. Tourists can come for an hour and hear about the program and release one turtle each. All the kids got to participate and cheer on their turtle. The babies are a dark grey color and about the size of your palm. They feel funny crawling in your hand. Volunteers work each night relocating fresh eggs to a safe holding area. The eggs take 45-60 days to hatch and average 100 eggs to a nest. Poaching and egg harvesting as well as fishing nets have reduced some of the local turtle populations to endangered. This population of Olive Ridley turtles is making a comeback thanks to new laws, new fishing practices and volunteers. The turtles are released about 15 feet from the water so that they can imprint the beach in their memories. The theory is that they come back to the same beach to nest. They are released after dark to give them the best chance against predators. Today is a quiet day at the pool with our only plans being a walk on the beach and dinner out. Then tomorrow our friends go home and we're back in boat chore mode. I'm planning to buy several months worth of food before we leave the city. We'd like to go rural for a while after this and don't know what to expect as far as resources. We'll be travelling with Loon, Wyndeavor and Icarian. We've also met another boat with an 8 year old girl, so we hope to see more of them as well. -kellie