I´m only giving you the highlights...
October 16: Sam and I showed the visiting bio students (they will be coming every weekend for 1 month) how to clean out the turtle nests in the nursery. The uncool part about this is that we have to hand the nest over to the visitors if they look like they are going to be good nests to did up (meaning, no dead turtles). So most of the nests were pretty good except for this one nest at the end. There were barely any live turtles, but lots and lots of live maggots :( Yes, I got stuck with that nest. It gotten even too much for me to handle, so Jorge, being the great guy that he is, came over to help me. He was even gagging, so I didn´t feel like as much of a wimp. The good news is that we got to release lots of tortugitas (baby turtles) despite the nasty nest. That night Sam and I decided to hop on patrol with some of the visitors. Holy Cow! I though our boys drove fast, but they are nothing compared to these crazy guys. I think they were driving especially fast because they were trying to impress Sam who is tall, blonde, and has a fun accent. One of the guys was so drunk (no we did not ride with him), I thought for sure he would kill himself. Some people are just so stupid!
October 17: Today I decided to do shell diving for he first time! It was so much fun! I got loads of pretty shells, but you have to be careful because the undertow can get a bit strong. I'll take some pics of the shells I have been getting and post it so you can see how awesome they are. This is definitely something I plan to keep doing until I leave. Later that evening, we dug up over 200 hatchlings and released them :) Israel, my camp manager, showed up with his mom (I like to refer to her as y fairy godmother) and his brother. Her cooking is amazing!
October 18: The day of the 15 nests. Beside awesome food and a new group (a German school for Guadalajara)...today we released over 700 new babies. It was so much fun, but so much work! Sam and I were also entrusted with driving the German students on the quad bikes. I'm just going to toot my own horn and say that I am not too shabby a driver. We saw 2 turtles (one turtle crawlwed right up onto the beach after the other...don't worry turtles aren't too territorial when laying eggs) and got 2 more nests. Saulo, Israel's brother, showed us something school. When you dig in the sand at night, these little microsopic bugs that live in the sand release a defensive gas that glows. It was so cool! We also think we saw a crocodile. I say think bc we didn't want to get too close just in case these crocs were a bit hungry. We did see a nice pair of yellow eyes though and they were a bit close for comfort.
October 19: We decided to join the group and go to Tehuamixtle (Tehua for short) for a fun-filled day of turtle watching, playing on the beach, eating yummy seafood (so fresh), and cave exploring. On the boat ride we say 3 turtles and 1 sting ray. We got to swim with the turtles. It was neat! I just pet one bc I was afraid my 118 Ibs (most likely more after all of this good eating) would weigh the poor thing down. Afterwards, I took a satisfying nap on the beach and then ate the best fish in the world. We ended the day with going to a cave to see vats. I even got to hold one :)
October 20: Today we went to a waterfall. It was so beautiful. We spent most of the time hiking around with Xochitl...who is pregnant by the way and so much more graceful than me when it comes to climbing rocks and crossing streams. We also swam for a bit in the freezing cold water. We ended picking up litter on the beach...so much fun. Being here has really expanded my qualifications: janitor, garbage woman, gardener, carpenter, zoo keeper, world traveler (well if you consider the world Mayto-Pv by bus) and so much more! Talk about character building!
Love you all! Pictures to come!
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