Tortles!
Trip Start
Jul 14, 2010
1
13
93
Trip End
May 18, 2011
Where I stayed
San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua
Monday, September 20, 2010
Sooooo, after spending my birthday and Nicaraguan Independence Day, and FINALLY getting my package back in Gigante, Logan and I headed down the coast to San Juan del Sur. It's a beautiful little beach town, or I guess I should say beach city that is packed full of expats and tourists. Logan and I suffered a little bit of culture shock when we were eating at a burger joint called Big Wave Dave's and saw a guy wearing a shirt that said "Florida is Bush Country" and when the guy at the table next to us expressed his love of the shirt, the shirt bearer let him know it was his favorite shirt. *shudder* I guess we're not in...Nicaragua?...anymore? Just a bit of a change from most of the Americans we'd encountered previously. Not to mention everybody else we've met on our travels.
We didn't really have any plans for San Juan del Sur, but when I saw that our hostel offered night tours to see sea turtles laying eggs on the beach for a lot cheaper than in Costa Rica, we signed up for the tour that same night. I'd seen pretty much the same thing in Tortuguero, Costa Rica in 2006, but was ready to see it again and frankly wanted to share the experience with Logan. The turtles at this site, La Flor, were also a different species - Olive Ridley as opposed to Green. It was so worth it! Since there weren't so many tourists, we were able to hang out on the beach for a few hours instead of a few minutes, and were able to see almost the whole process of nesting. The female turtles came up on shore and dig their nests while we stayed far away, so that we didn't scare them, and then once they started laying the eggs, we came up with red light to watch her lay the eggs, cover up the nest, pat it down, and followed her back to the ocean. We were lucky enough to see two turtles nest that night. I got a few videos (something they wouldn't allow in CR either) which I'll post soon.
We only stayed one night in San Juan del Sur, then were off to cross the border into Costa Rica - our first terrestrial border-crossing!
Comments
where did you get the info that a red light would be handy and what elswe are you toting that is not usual?
Cool videos! Can't really see anything at all on that last one though. How big were the turtles?
beautiful! love the lightning video, and the patting action of the turtles. very cool that they don't seem disturbed by your voices/presence!!
Rich - I think the guides use the red light because it's less disruptive to the turtles. If we used white/yellow light, the turtles might think it's daytime and might go back to the ocean and wait for it to get dark, as they pretty much just come out of the water at night. The night we were there, the moon was almost full as well, so the guides weren't sure if as many turtles would come out to lay their eggs as it might be too bright.
Jonathan - the turtles weren't too big, maybe 2 - 2.5 feet long.
Josie - they say that the turtles enter a sort of trance when they're laying their eggs. I don't quite get it, but it makes it very easy for us to get close to them!