Turtles Nov 15

Last weekend I took a chickenbus to Talipita on the Pacific coast.I left on friday afternon at 1;30pm after my spanish class.Talapita is about 40 kms south of the Mexican border.After arriving just after dark into the town of Talipa I took a small boat for 10 minutes down a river to Talipita.Talipta is on a sand bar.There are no cars and only one primitive hotel but mercifully it had a nice swimming pool as the temperature was well over 30 celcius.Quite a change from Xela.The next day...early in the morning  I got the hotel proprietor to take me on a 3 hour boat trip through the mangrove forest reserve that Talipita is art of..The reserve is sort of a swampy area consisting of several rivers coming together in a low deltaland with numerous water channels going here and there.The trees grow right out of the water with numerous roots shooting up and branches dangling down .There was a great number of different water fowel of multi colour flittering here and there and calling in the jungle.It was sort of like Rio Dulce only with the mangrove trees.Apparently there are many juguars there but I didn´t hear or see any.Lots of fish,crabs and shrimp.One type of fish-called quatro ojos(four eyes) literally skims and jumps across the surface of the water.You have to see it to believe it.There were many fishermen casting their nets and even some with diving masks swimming in the water....The reserve is a major stopping spot for migrating birds-many from canada.
The highlight of the trip however was the Tortugaria.The Guatemalan Pacific coast is home to several species to turtles most of which are on the endangered list.The hotel where I stayed has a ¨Tortugaria¨...a refuge  for turtles.The hotel owners younger brother collects turtle eggs from nests on the nearby beach and incubates them in a small enclosure beside his house.All of Talipita is sand so he puts the eggs in the  sandy enclosure that he has built and marks the time when he put them there.The turtle eggs take about 50 days to incubate and when they hatch he takes then to the sea.The day I was there 15 turtles hatched.I actually saw one crawl out of its sandy nest.The fellows wife took the newly hatched turtles into her house and in the evening at 6 pm when it cooled down I accompanie the fellow to release the little turtles.What a sight to see.As the Pacific waves came and went onto the beach the little turtles -about a third the size of your hand-flipped their little flippers along the beach  down  into the ocean.Later in the evening when it got dark I accompanied the fellow along the beach looking for mother turtle tracks so we could discover their tracks and follow the tracks to the nest.Unfortunately-after walking a few kilometers down the beach we saw no tracks or turtles.The turtles lay their eggs in July ,aug,sept and oct so it is the end of their birthing season so to speak.
By the time I returned to Xela sunday night-after a day of chicken buses -I was very tired and went to bed early.
Today..up at 7am...desayuno con mi familia-then off to five hours of spanish with another teacher.After my class ended at 1pm. I went to the local market for some fruit and returned to my home stay for lunch-amuerzo- at 2pm.At 2;30 pm I returned to Celas Maya and with four others-including the guide-went on a two hour hike up a nearby old volcanic outcropping.We first took a chicken bus then a pickup...standing in the back..up the hill to the beginning of the trail.We were hoping to get a good view of Xela and the surrounding area but unfortunately clouds came in and through the mist we couldn,t see anything.Oh well...it was a good hike anyway..
Yesterday I forgot it was my birthday until later in the day I picked up a newspaper and coincidently noticed the date.Hey...when you turn 64 that is the way it should be......