254 More La Tortuga Verde

10th Continued.........

Well what a finish to the day. I went to my voluntary torture class and as the sun was about to set our class went out onto the beach to watch the sun set. It's a spiritual Yoga thing. Anyway, Tom was setting the baby turtles free so we all joined in. It was a moving experience setting these cute little creatures free to roam the high seas. Sadly only a very few make it to adulthood.

Looking West the sky was a beautiful sunset...

But looking East, there's a storm brewing.

Lusa, one of the yoga class's 2 year old girls releasing a 12  hour old turtle.

The rest were placed in the sea.

All gone now, a time for serene reflection.

It was then time for dinner and after ordering, the storm hit us and it was a biggie. All the shelters covering the dinner tables and chairs had to be abandoned and we retired to our room and awaited dinner.
Dinner came and went and whilst we were sitting on our porch reading, there was a call, "Hola". A guy had come around, as is his brief, to call out all resort members who had a red light on inside their porch. The red light signifying, "wake me or call me if a turtle is seen laying eggs". The guy took us along the beach about 200m and there she was, a huge 30" long Green Turtle, covering up her just laid eggs.

It's a bad photo but I was told off as the flash destroys their night vision.

 It was then off to bed for a contented nights sleep.

Monday 11th November 2013
Miles today 0 Miles Total 27,304

Today is Armistice day in the Commonwealth and Veterans Day in the USA. At 11am we remember all our departed ancestral guardians for keeping us free. Ladies and Gentlemen, we salute you.

I pulled a sickie on the Yoga today. Having had little sleep due to aching limbs and tendons I decided to have a day off and we just chilled out by the beach.

Whilst supping a beer we saw this several times. The pelicans flying in formation using the waves for lift. As the waves move toward the beach the air above them lifts up and the pelicans use this to soar on. As the wave breaks and the air becomes turbulent they just flip over to the next smooth wave. It is amazing to watch.

Then the fishing boats came back in so we joined in the fun of dragging them up the beach !!

There must be an easier way than this...

After sundown we ate dinner whilst watching Venus in the constellation of Sagittarius and all the time being surrounded by fireflies. It was magic.

At around 8pm the clouds cleared away from the moon so we went for a walk along the beach. About 300m up from Tortuga Verde, Karen spotted a turtle crawling up the beach being followed by a young local man.We knew what he was going to do so after the turtle had started to dig her hole, we quickly ran back to our room to get some cash and a bucket for the eggs.
We got back to the turtle and she was still digging. I agreed with the local man to buy the eggs for $2 per dozen.
We waited around an hour for her to lay her eggs and then watched as she buried them. She would place a layer of sand over them, then beat it to compact it with her hind flippers, then another layer etc. When they were completely buried, she just turned around and headed for the sea.

This poor girl has had a hard night.

By this time the turtle stalker had been joined by his mates and now the turtle had gone they dug up the eggs.

Our stalker digging up the eggs.

 There were 68 eggs in all and I paid the man $12 for them. For us it was only about £7 but the intrinsic value was immense.

68 in total. They are like soft ping pong balls.

We then took the eggs back to La Tortuga Verde, gave then to the guard, who stored them for reburial in the morning.

The whole thing was a very surreal and moving experience for us. We could not have paid someone to give us this treat. It gave us a good feeling that the eggs were going to hatch as they should do and not end up in an omelet at a local cafe.