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 News from Around Banderas Bay | November 2005 
Baby Turtles Will Have You Going Gaga
 Eileen Ogintz - Boston Herald
| | So far this season, an astounding 50,000 hatchlings have been released by volunteers like us. |
I’m on an isolated Mexican beach in the dark, waves crashing, yet all I’m thinking about is the first time I sent each of my kids off to school.
There are no brave 5-year-olds getting on yellow school buses anywhere near this remote spot two hours north of Puerto Vallarta on Mexico’s Pacific Coast. The “kids” that have prompted my sweet reverie could fit into a kindergartner’s palm: baby olive ridley sea turtles, who with our help are taking their first tentative steps away from their nests. It’s exciting to watch them slowly make their way to the water’s edge.
Welcome to Playa Las Tortugas Turtle Camp. Here on a stretch of beach that’s the nesting habitat for three species of endangered sea turtles, government, private and volunteer efforts converge during the June-December nesting season to help these amazing creatures survive.
Mexican research veterinarian Miguel Angel Flores Peregrina, who is in charge of efforts here, explained that these turtle eggs are so prized as aphrodisiacs that they would be stolen as soon as they were laid in the sand if the volunteers and scientists didn’t get them first.
So far this season, an astounding 50,000 hatchlings have been released by volunteers like us.
Wearing long pants and sleeves to protect us from the sand fleas, we carried big plastic tubs of squirming turtles within a few yards of the water and gently dumped them out, cheering them on.
Peregrina said that most similar camps have only the most basic accommodations, if any. But Playa Las Tortugas villa resort (www.playalastortugas.com), just steps from this camp, serves up nine well-appointed villas (more are being built) on a working coconut plantation, with all of the amenities a vacationing family might want - from air conditioning and dishwashers to a pool and beach. The biggest plus: Villas that sleep four to six start at $200 a night. Local women will cook for your gang for another $60-$80 a day, including the food.
Offered activities include kayaking and riding horses.
But be aware this is a far cry from most Mexican resorts. There is no nightlife except for the margaritas you mix yourself on your villa patio. No one comes around to set up beach chairs or organize kids’ activities. There’s no swim-up bar at the pool, no mariachi band.
But somehow you don’t miss those things. They can’t compete with baby turtles. |
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