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 Vallarta Living | December 2005 
Vivendo en Mexico (Living in Mexico) 3
 Korah Winn - PVNN
On Monday I got to do one of the most amazing things I think I have ever experienced. I was allowed to release baby sea tortugas (turtles) into the Pacific Ocean. Wow! It was incredible. I feel unbelievably fortunate to be living in Puerto Vallarta where I have access to something like this.
The way it worked out is that I ran into a bookstore owner named Tom who is from the U.S.A. He said that he would introduce me to a couple people who would give me insider tips on Puerto Vallarta. We arranged to meet this past domingo (Sunday). It was completely a guilty pleasure for me to hang out with these people since I know that I am down here to learn Spanish by spending time with Mexicans.
I gave myself a break though since I really could use the information they were giving me. I was amazed at the sense of community these people have. Being around them made me feel belting out the theme canción (song) to Cheers. The evening started out just with just Tom and myself sitting outside a café and it branched out into a couple more people until finally there was no room at the table for any extra sillas (chairs) to be pulled up.
I said all this to lead into the cuento (story) of my chance meeting with Griffin and Erich. Griffin is a conservationist from Canada. She works as a guide for an adventure tour company here in P.V. She told me that Monday was the last day this year that it was going to be guaranteed that people would be able to see female turtles coming up on the playa (beach) and laying their eggs.
I told Griffin that I really wanted to go on her tour the next day if it was at all possible. She said she would see if they still had room. Erich was right there also and she told him that he needed to come on this trip too because he was working on redeveloping the website for the company that she works for (www.vallarta-adventures.com).
The website needed more pictures and this would be one of the last chances to take great ones of the mother tortugas. As a favor to me, Erich said that he would work things out for me to come on the trip for free as long as I would be his assistant and help with taking pictures. Being a poor college student, this sounded like a fine idea to me.
We left Puerto Vallarta at 6:45 p.m. the next day and drove to a hotel beach in a neighboring town named Nuevo Vallarta. The turtle camp was set up there. The night started off slowly as we patrolled the beach looking for mother tortugas, but we finally spotted one and watched her lay her eggs. More time passed as we ate some snacks and waited for our batch of baby sea tortugas to arrive, but they finally did and it was completely worth it.
They were some of the most precious creatures I had ever seen. We were allowed to name them, take one picture with individual tortugas, and then we all stood in a line near the agua (water) and rooted the tortugas on as they made contact with the arena (sand) and headed toward their new lives in the ocean. This was a terrific experience. I hope that many more people have the chance to help these creatures get off to as safe a start as possible. ˇSalud! (Cheers/To your health)
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