An unexpected Turtle Hatching in a Nicaraguan beach - The worst ending ever
Do you know how some people have to pay to attend a turtle hatching? Well, for me this time was different.
There are a lot of beaches in Central America where tens of turtles go lay their eggs, sometimes you can see hundreds or even thousands of just born little turtles rushing to the sea at once. Locals know about these spots and they usually profit from eager tourists, they organize tours to these spots so we, as tourists, can witness and sometimes help in this beautiful egg hatching experience.
I don´t see anything wrong with that, I just don´t like people profiting out of mother nature like that; I also won´t sepnd 40 dollars in that so yeah, that´s not for me.
Playa Maderas - A surfing beach near san Juan del Sur
Nica is cheap, I can´t argue with that, the problem is they charge for everything, a cheap price but in the end they charge almost for breathing. So Luciano and I decided to get to this localy famous beach by walking instead of paying 2 bucks for transportation.
It took us no more than 45 minutes under the sun to reach a gorgeous beach, full of beautiful girls, animals, a proper space to play Matcot (an israeli racket game I adopted a few years back in another journey of mine) and to have a cigarette. One of the most peaceful beaches I´ve ever been to.
I didn´t have surfing lessons but I did meet a girl who tried to teach me for around 45 minutes.
Newsflash: I´m hopeless, I don´t think I can surf even if my life depended on that.
Anyway, as you might have guessed, we didn´t stay there for long even though were in a perfect spot surrounded by some dogs, a few surfers - most of them beautiful - and not that many tourists. We headed west, where the beach became kind of virgin.
I really don´t understand why people do not go there. I mean, it happens everywhere you go. People stay in one place, the safe place, they don´t crave for exploring the unknown, even if it is just around the corner.
We walked for around 40 minutes just to have some of the greatest rocky views I saw in all of Central America.
We didn´t know where we were going, we didn´t even had a goal, but to walk. Because when you explore for the sake of exploring, when your goal is to just get to know new places, the true achievement lies behind these views, behind these landscapes worthy of a Bob Ross painting.
I guess that is why I travel, to get my own Bob Ross paintings in real life.
We decided to head back to civilization, we were satisfied with these views and this little adventure. On our way back, that´s when Luciano saw it.
It was something moving in the sand, not fast enought to be a crab but also not big enought to be a... well I don´t know, we just knew it was something weird.
It was a turtle. A tiny turtle no bigger than a 6 year old children´s hand. A tini-tiny turtle rushing to the sea at full force through this enormous beach!
We ran to see it closely! I know, tourists, right? Messing with the natural order... But we just wanted to have a proper look and to witness this miracle.
So we decided not to touch.
Can you see the little turtle in this low quality video I took with my GoPro? I know, amazing!!
But then we looked around and we saw more turtles! At least 10 tiny friends coming from the very hot sand shore, a very large shore, heading to the sea!
We were so happy! I mean, who would have known this was waiting for us at the end of the road?
But then it hit us. Turtles hatch by the hundreds right? And we saw a lot of tiny paw prints in the wet sand. When turtles crawl to the sea, they leave a characteristic mini-trail - as if a toy motorcycle went through - and we saw at least 50 mini-trails around.
Big mistake. The worst. The most horrible mistake in Nicaragua.
Hundreds of turtles dead because of the schorching sun above.
It appears that those little fellas we found, were the lucky ones that survived the heat and managed to make it to the wet part of the shore, where they fell to safety from the heat.
It was heartbreaking. I cannot lie to you, I felt awful. I guess this is not a hatching site because usually locals know when and where these hatching rituals happen, and they bring tourists there to help the little turtles get to that safe space waiting for them in the sea.
This is the only video I managed to take. In here you can see Luciano and another girl trying to search if at least one of the turtles was still alive.
We manahed to save 3 turtles. Just three out of 2-3 hundred dead little animals we found. Heartbreaking. I think I don´t have to tell you, but all the way back, we didn´t saw a word to each other. We had no words. If only we had seen them before, perhaps we could have saved more.
We don´t blame us, we just feel we could have done more about this subject. It was a beautiful experience that rapidly took a turn and became a horrible one. Sadly, an experience I will never forget because everytime i do something I...
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Hey mates, join Steemit world map, I´m already using it!
!steemitworldmap 11.4710228 lat -85.6166633 long A turtle hatching in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua d3scr
That's just kool to be able to actually run around the turtles and handle them! The horse back riding pic on the beach was pretty awesome as well. Beautiful place my friend.
Yeah man! I´ve never done it but seems very nice. It would also be amazing to ride horses in a volcano or something like that hahaha thanks for dropping by my friend and sorry for answering so late.
You can do that in Acapulco, México for $50 pesos. And the money ends up helping the turtles, so paying in this case isn't so bad. Also they give a quick explanation about the process and how can you help if you spot one turtle nest.
I didn't know about that! I asked around and in san Juan it was above 20 bucks i think, i dont really remember, i just thought It was toooo much haha, some lessons prior this experience would have been great for me this time.
What is the Steemit world map for?
It is an app to see where are other steemians and to follow adventures according to places and not users! It is really great man you should check it out!
You have the best adventures no matter what you do, I love it keep on living life like you are in the moment❤️
that is just plain, ole' cool !
smooth,Thank you very much .. follow up
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Beautiful your post @anomadsoul very good pictures :D
Ahh that is sad :< Also sad is even if you had given the stragglers that helping hand down to the sea they might not have made it too much longer anyway in the ocean if they didn't have the strength to get down in the first place. But watching the cute little turtles that made it scuttle down was still pretty epic :) (and good job on resisting the touching for that long, they're so cute!)
I know! I met some adult turtles snorkeling in Mexico and they had cancer due to the stress of touristis chasing them and touching them, so sad... Nature is there to be admired, not engaged with (unless it is to truly help).
Nature is totally to be engaged with. What do you think you're doing when you're barrelling off the beaten track to find those elusive waterfalls and jump off cliffs and even here where you headed to the distant parts of the beach almost no one else goes to? XD
But yeh chasing turtles to pat them is stupid >_<
Whoa. What a crazy story. Just hanging out enjoying the views of the beach and then bam! Some real life changing experience like that happens. Face to face with nature from its intricate beauty to its harsh realities. What a trip.