Hasta La Vista, Amigos!

Well, all holidays have to come to an end and so did ours. We had such a wonderful time in the sun enjoying the wildlife and the people of Mexico. We didn't look forward to returning to the frozen tundra but we had no choice. Sigh.

Every night, The Fun Club put on a wonderful performance of song and dance and every performance ended with the house song, "Hasta La Vista," a most appropriate song. We play the videoclip for you here:

VIDEO: The Fun Club leads the way in dancing and singing to HASTA LA VISTA.

Hasta La Vista, everyone! We hope you've enjoyed our blog!

A rare and exciting opportunity: baby turtleback release!

Since we discovered the turtle conservation preserve, it became our sunset activity to visit it every evening, gladly donating 20 pesos (2 Canadian dollars) each to the program.

The evening before we were due to leave Nuevo Vallarta, the biologist mentioned that the rare leatherback babies were hatching and they would be expecting them to make their appearance Saturday morning. It had been nine years since the last leatherback nested on the beach! He was brimming over with excitement and his enthusiasm spilled over to the crowd gathered at the site. We could hardly contain our excitement but we didn't know if we would be able to attend, given that we had to check out of our resort by noon if we could not obtain an extension and we were supposed to depart late Saturday night.

Fortunately, we were able to extend our stay so we set off just before sunset to get a glimpse of the precious and endangered baby turtlebacks.

Journalists and press photographers and TV crews were present to record this rare event and a large crowd had gathered and stood along the boundary line marked in the sand. Baby Olive Ridley turtles were already making their way to sea when we arrived. The biologist had decided to release them a little earlier in order to release the leatherbacks at sunset.

The leatherback is the champion among sea turtles. It grows larger, dives deeper, travels farther, and frequents colder waters than any other sea turtle. An adult leatherback is enormous, averaging 800 lbs and 64 inches in shell size. The largest leatherback ever recorded measured almost 10 ft! In comparison, the Olive Ridley is known as the "little one" because it is the smallest sea turtle, adults typically weighing less than 100 lbs and measuring only 22-30 in in shell size.

Unlike other sea turtles, leatherbacks do not have hard shells nor do they have scales and claws on their flippers. Its carapace (shell) is covered by skin and oily flesh. Hatchlings are 2.5 in long, compared to Olive Ridley hatchlings, which are 1 - 1.5 in long.

Leatherbacks travel from nesting beaches in the tropics to feeding grounds in temperate waters. The migration to their feeding grounds often involve journeys of more than 3,000 miles from their nesting beaches. The average nest contains 80-90 eggs.

VIDEO: Leatherback hatchlings make their way to sea.

Baby turtle videos

VIDEO: The biologist in charge of the turtle conservation program gives a talk before we release the baby turtles. He talks about leatherback turtles, which are the champion among sea turtles and one of the most endangered species. Leatherbacks grow larger, dive deeper, travel farther and to colder waters. Leatherbacks have not nested on the beaches of Nuevo Vallarta for 9 years but they found three nests recently and they're expecting some babies to hatch soon. The babies in the sand pool are Olive Ridleys. They're the most common turtles to nest in Nuevo Vallarta and the biologist tells us all about them. Only one out of one thousand Olive Ridley babies will survive to the age of eight, at which time they breed and return to the same beach to lay their eggs.

Sea Turtle Save

You can imagine our excitement and happiness to learn that the location of the turtle game preserve was barely a mile from our hotel. And learning that baby turtles would be released every evening between 6 and 6:30 gave us a new timetable for the remainder of the days we'd be in Nuevo Vallarta. What a wonderful way to spend our evenings, releasing baby turtles into the beautiful sunset!

This baby turtle release had not been planned on our itenary because we didn't know of its existence. It was an added bonus for choosing Nuevo Vallarta over Puerto Vallarta. Turtles do not nest in Puerto Vallarta so tourists have to pay to take tours to the game preserve, something we didn't have to do as our hotel, the Occidental Allegro Nuevo Vallarta, was only a short walking distance to the preserve. Our hotel was also less than a five minute walk to Paradise Mall, which was convenient for doing our laundry, exchanging currency at the bank (you get the best rates from a bank), and shopping for souvenirs and delicious Mexican candy.

We took photos of the game preserve. The game preserve is run by the federal government. It's just a small building with a small fenced in area for nests. It's staffed with a very passionate biologist, other technicians and volunteers. They put up laminated informational brochures like the ones in the photos below to provide information to tourists.

(Photo 1) Olive Ridley Sea Turtles have been nesting on these beaches for millions of years.












(Photo 2) Up to a hundred turtle hatchlings can be found in one nest. Turtle hatchlings usually emerge from the sand in the early morning or late at night.

(Photo 3) The Olive Ridley Turtles are released into theocean at night to avoid the presence of predators. On liberation night, visitors to the Nuevo Vallarta turtle preserve line up to release baby sea turtles. Liberation offers public education to all ages.

(Photo 4) Up to a hundred turtle hatchlings can be found in one nest.





The photo on the left shows the fenced enclosure where eggs are placed in new nests. Most of the baby turtles are Olive Ridley but six of the seven sea turtle species nests on the shores of Neuvo Vallarta. The only species that doesn't is the Australian flatback.

Incubation generally takes about 8 weeks but the temperature of the sand governs the speed at which the embryos develop so hatching periods can range remarkably. The temperature of the sand also determines the sex of the baby turtles . The hotter the sand, the faster the embryos develop. Sea turtle eggs have no sex chromosomes to determine the sex of the embryo. Cooler sand temperatures produce male babies and warmer temperatures produce females.

Sea turtle hatchlings are on their own from the time their mother finishes covering up her nest. Digging out from the nest is a group effort that can take several days. They usually emerge from the nest at night because it is cooler. Once on the beach, the babies scramble around the top of the nest, orient themselves and dash toward the sea. However, the game preserve does not allow the babies to scramble to the sea on their own because of the presence of thousands of tourists, bright lights from hotels that have a tendency to disorient the babies and dune buggies on the beach that could kill the babies. The release is timed for sunset when most of their predators would have gone to roost and tourists are invited to participate (with a donation of 20 pesos each - $2 Canadian) so that the turtles may be released safely and with the best possible chance of survival.

Baby turtle Find

So we began walking the beach in the evening, hoping to spot baby turtles hatching or making their way to sea. On our third such trip, we'd almost given up and was on our way back to our hotel when Earl spotted a lot of people lined up near the shore about two hundred yards behind us. We ran as fast as our legs and lungs could carry us - it's hard to run on soft beach sand, especially when you have foot problems - and we made a very interesting and important discovery.

Someone in the crowd told us about the turtle game preserve located in the fenced compound about fifty yards up from the shore. He said that if baby turtles hatched that day, the biologist and staff at the preserve would release them between 6 and 6:30 PM. We'd walked up and down and missed seeing the fenced compound because of the construction of new resorts beside it. There were fences everywhere and we didn't think anything special of the little fenced compound.

In the picture above, the biologist (far left) is distributing Olive Ridley baby turtles to the lucky tourists. Everyone has to stand along the line drawn in the sand to prevent accidentally stepping upon the fragile babies. To prevent contamination of foreign substances to the tender hatchlings, we also have to coat our hands with mud from the beach before picking up the babies.

The picture on the right shows the biologist (far right) with his assistant beside him and a lady volunteer (dressed in black). She originally hailed from San Antonio, Texas and now lives in Nuevo Vallarta. She told us that volunteers like herself would sometimes patrol the beach in the wee hours of the morning, looking for turtle nests. They'd then remove the eggs and transport them to the game preserve where they would all be relocated into a new nest. The Mexican government had to do this because of the growth of resorts along the beach. This was essential to the survival of sea turtles, most of whom are endangered.

VIDEO: Olive Ridley baby turtles heading to sea. As you can see, some of them march purposefully and energetically to sea while others are tired. We found out the next day that they'd been trampling over each other all day long, maybe all night long, in the tank at the game preserve. No wonder they were exhausted! When 99% of them had made it out to sea, we were allowed to pick up the remaining ones and release them into the tide.

It was an invigorating and inspiring experience to see the hundreds of baby Olive Ridley turtles heed the call of nature and make their way out to sea in the beautiful soft evening light. We bade them goodbye and God Speed with a mixture of happiness and sadness because it is estimated that only one turtle out of a thousand will survive to grow up into a mature sea turtle that will one day return to nest on this very same beach, recreating this miraculous process all over again.

Vaya Con Dios, chiquititas!

The mystery of the baby turtles

One evening, perhaps five days after our arrival in Nuevo Vallarta, Earl returned from his evening walk with exciting news.

"I saw hundreds of baby turtles making their way out to sea!" he gushed, barely able to contain his excitement. He then described in vivid detail how small they were and how they made their way out to sea, some with great energy and drive while others struggled. He said that a large crowd had gathered to enjoy the experience.

I felt left out. For several nights, Earl and I had gone out to the beach hoping to spot Mummy Turtle wading up to lay her eggs but our efforts were in vain. Now, I was getting a vicarious thrill from him reliving his experience but oh, how I wanted to see the baby turtles. I decided that I wasn't going to leave without seeing them.

A couple evenings later, Earl returned from his walk with more baby turtle news.

"Someone was putting the baby turtles into a bucket!" he said, barely concealing his indignation at the sight he'd witnessed. "People were gathered around the baby turtles and this guy, this beach police officer, was just putting them into a bucket. He said he was going to take them to a game preserve where they would release them."

I was shocked. What a terrible thing to do to baby turtles, I thought, dumping them unceremoniously into a bucket! These beautiful creatures, so tender, so tiny who'd grow up to live for hundreds of years. How could anyone just dump them into a bucket and take them away? What if they ended up in someone's soup? Earl said someone gathered around the turtles had voiced a similar concern.

We decided that we'd patrol the beach every evening to look for the baby turtles.

Bananas and a hummingbird

What do bananas and hummingbirds have in common? They're both plentiful in Nuevo Vallarta!

Picture on the left shows Earl posing beside a banana tree growing at the Paradise Resort near our hotel. Bananas are one of Earl's favorite fruits and he can quote their price per pound anytime (at present, they sell for 85 cents Canadian per pound or 65 cents US). Bananas sold in Winnipeg are imported from Mexico so it is fitting that we spotted this banana tree near our hotel, an interesting discovery for Earl, who had never in his life seen a banana tree.

Picture on the right shows a very exhausted and disoriented hummingbird. We spotted this wee fellow flying up and down against the glass. It was obvious that he did not realize he could not fly through the glass and it was also obvious that he couldn't see the glass. Finally, after an exhausting attempt to fly through the glass, he settled down to rest on the leaf of this ivy plant. We touched him and urged him to fly away from the glass. That's the closest we've ever been to a hummingbird.