The leatherback turtles

Leatherback turtles

To ride in a minivan across the country for three hours. To pay 60 dollars for that trip, that included meals, drinks and the fees for the tour guide, it is nothing. To walk on a muddy road to reach the beach while the jungle bugs are munching on you, it's too little, insignificant compared to the effort of climbing the wet sandy beach with a 550 to 2000 pounds body and digging a hole with the back fences, just using the animal instinct and senses.

When we got to Matura, our destination, it was already dark. We took the road that leaded us to the jungle. This one line road was only lighted by the minivan lights, and Jessie James was showing us little birds that only come to feed at night time and lay on the middle of the street to catch bugs.

Then we got to Matura beach, where is prohibited to go on less you have a special permit and a guide, we waited for a while to get all the paper work done (register the names of the people and pay the fees). Everybody on the group was impatient, ready to get on the sand, specially when the tour guide's radio was crying “the another turtle is walking up the beach”.

We finally started fallowing our guide, Jim and I were walking very close to him, we wanted to hear all the details and he spoke in a very low voice. When we got to the site, the big mother was still digging the nest. Then, as soon as she started laying we could take pictures, touch her. They are so soft and smooth, I got on my knees and padded her head, fences and back, she was breathing deeply and contracting hard every time she pushed. She closed her eyes in pain and tears came out of them. In all that time she was in a trance that nothing bothers her. Then she stopped, covered the nest, camouflaged her trail and got in the water without looking back. I guess she thinks: “I did it right, everything is going to be okay”.

This was one of the most tender experiences in my life. This amazing creature deserves all our respect and protection. We've been always concern about the trash, but after that day we became the plastic trash police. Because that is one of the thing killing the turtles.

We have to be aware, every creature in this planet dissevers to have its own space.

AnechyNotes