9.12.2019 - Turtle Island

The night was bad again. Until 5 o'clock in the morning, there was banging on some bongo drums. Today I found out that it's a holiday here. So there is hope that everything will be quieter from tonight.

In the morning, I go for a run. I take the untarred road to Cabuya, which already has some traffic. Every time a car passes by, I am enveloped in a cloud of dust. But it's nice because it constantly runs along the sea and the scenery is very varied.

After my short breakfast, I continue to the snorkeling trip. We take a bright yellow boat to the Isla de la Tortuga, the Turtle Island. The boat trip takes about 45 minutes. First, we unload the cook and all the food on the island so that he can prepare us a delicious meal before we continue to two different rocks where we have the opportunity to snorkel. We see fish of various sizes and shapes, very colorful and numerous. The water is pleasantly warm and salty enough that you can't sink. For the second dive stop, Joshua wants to show us very small sharks. For that, you have to dive a little. I try a few times, but I just can't go down and my ears hurt terribly. Joshua keeps diving and bringing sea creatures from the seabed to show us, like starfish, pufferfish or sea urchins. I doubt that's really ecological. But he does it with such enthusiasm that you can't be angry with him.

After that, we return to the beach of the island. There, the deliciously cooked food is waiting for us. I chose fish and hope it's not one of the cute fish that I watched with great enthusiasm before. We stay for a good hour before we start the return journey to Montezuma.

The French people I made friends with confirm that turtles are being released again today. So we go straight to the beach where this event can be admired. First, the turtles are dug up by this rescue center. They are about 50 m deep in the sand. Sometimes a helper has to help a turtle out of its egg. The armored animals are then collected and released on the beach. Now they all march towards the sea. It's a pretty long way for the little animals, but they are supposed to get their locomotion going before they start swimming.

The question is how many turtles survive in the sea because there are many natural enemies waiting for them.