There is some sort of turtle study group just a block from Las Tortugas that takes trips to a beach not far from here to see the turtles come out of the sea at night to lay eggs. The black turtles are large, I would guess three to four feet. They make their way out of the water, way up the beach past where high tide is, dig a hole and deposit the eggs.
The road to the beach was the worst I have been on. There were eleven in the van, a driver, two guides, and eight group participants. We got to the beach after sunset yet before moonrise and needed to keep a good distance from the shore so the turtles wouldn’t get spooked and return to the water (although that is exactly what happened a couple of times).
The non-English speaking guide spoke, through one of the tour group participants who just happened to be along. She was a lovely women from Switzerland who spoke quite fluent Spanish. The turtles come up the beach about eleven times a year, depositing 60-90 eggs each time. It takes about an hour or hour and a half for her to make the trek out of the water and back again. At first, it was so dark I couldn’t really see what the guide was pointing at. We were quite a distance and I couldn’t really see anything except sort of a darker blob on the edge of the water. Then, a guide found one of the turtles under the trees, far from shore, digging a hole for the eggs. She didn’t seem to like the spot, tried another one or two spots and then gave up and returned to the sea. The guide said the sand wasn’t wet enough. It was so dry and light that it wouldn’t provide enough protection for the eggs.
The track the turtle makes in the sand is phenomenal. I hope to get a picture of the tracks tomorrow. We weren’t allowed to take any photos of the turtles tonight as the white light irritates them. The guides use red lights, saying that the turtles aren’t bothered by it. There was a full moon tonight, which made it even better to see the turtles but undesirable for the turtles themselves.