The bathroom

This is our bathroom. It has been especially designed to avoid the unfortunate event of having something nasty drop on you from the ceiling. No roof ....

This is what we came for

We have now started our working schedule in ernest. We each go out about 3 times a week, with a mexican helper, on the quad bike during the night between 10.00 p.m. and 6.00 a.m. Like any job, it is getting rather routine; patrol the beach, collect eggs, bring them back and bury them in the compound. However, to encounter a laying turtle in the night, during a thunderstorm in the middle of a wild beach, must be one of the most primeval experiences of my life. I will never get the sight out of my mind.

You hear some things you would not imagine. One of the voluteers, Kerry, reported coming across a live fish in amongst a nest of eggs. Apparantly it was a cleaner fish which had been stuck to the turtle when she came out of the water and slid into the nest as she was laying.

I was returning with Jorge on Monday and we saw a hatching nest in the morning light. The baby turtles looked just like a sort of living fountain emerging from the sand. The babies were making good progress towards the sea, so we watched them and made sure no birds attacked them.

This is feeling less like a holiday after a month and more like real life. We have our ups and downs and need to take our share of chores around the camp. Now the rain has stopped we are in danger of encountering nasty insects in the sand and have seen a small scorpion and a black widow spider. This is no place for softies. Oh, I have to report that the boa ate the iguana. Not a pretty sight!

Turtle patrol at night

This is Jorge on the beach at night collecting turtle eggs as they are laid. The turtle doesn't mind, she doesn't even notice as she is in a kind of trance. She then covered up the hole and heaved herself back to the sea, unaware that her eggs had been taken.

Baby turtles

This is what the babies look like when they first hatch. That is Cybil releasing some onto the beach.

Turtle nursery

This is the nesting enclosure where we bury the eggs after they have been retrieved from the beach. The eggs which are due to hatch are circled with netting. The baby turtles take about two days to dig their way out of the sand. By then they are strong enough to be released onto the beach.

Mayto wildlife

Here's one for the arachnaphobes out there. Went to the bathroom (open to the elements incidentally) and saw first a full set of legs sticking out of the plughole, then a huge spider sitting in the sink. Help came in the form of 16 year old Joel who took a studied look and said "ah si, tarantula". He then offered his bare hand into the sink and allowed the creature to climb up his arm and gently liberated it onto a nearby woodpile.

We fight a constant battle with lizards and crabs that want to share our tent as we have a broken zip. Jon confronted a huge land-crab the other night. It braced up to him, pincers flailing, and danced around in a very threatening manner. He eventually gave it a mighty clout with his paperback and sent it scudding out across the sand. Showed him .....

We have a boa constricter in a cage which it shares with an iguana. The iguana doesn't get much sleep!

We had a tragedy last night. A dog got into the nesting enclosure and killed and ate some of the baby turtles that were emerging from the sand. We all felt a bit sick at heart about that.

Turtle time!

Israel has been tearing his hair waiting for a quadbike to arrive so that we can patrol the 6 miles of beach. (Walking is too far and the eggs are too heavy to carry.) Well, it arrived yesterday so Jon and I are going out for the first time tonight. Can't wait! Cybil and Andrea went out last night and each found a nest.

Sleep is a problem because we go out at 10 p.m. at night until about 2.00 a.m. and 6 a.m. in the morning, so we are trying to save our energy during the day. We are to go with the mexican helpers until we are more confident and know what we are looking for. After that we will go, in two's, and bring the eggs back for burying in the compound.

Sand and flies are still getting on our nerves, but if we are busy we don't mind so much.

Evening at Mayto

Tents on the beach

Mayto Turtle Project

Well, we have arrived in paradise. But when I tell you that we have forged raging rivers, negotiated collapsed roads and finally waded, waist-deep, through fetid estury waters to get here, I am absolutely not lying! The rain in Mexico has been fenominal - the beach around the turtle compound was completely washed away, and now we are here we are kind of marooned here. In order to write this blog Jon and I have waded to a nearby beach hotel at low tide.

We are living in a tent which is under a thatched area for protection. Our view is over miles of white beach and palm trees are all around us. We sit and watch huge crabs migrate from the estury towards the sea in the evening light. The project is run by Israel, who is a lovely, soft- eyed, man who has turtle conservation at the heart of his soul. His helper is Jorge - who comes over as a little dark in spirit but handles animals fearlessly.

I have seen some baby turtles which were released the first day we got here, but as yet no laying mothers on the beach. We went on a patrol at dawn this morning, but only saw some nests which had been marauded by wild dogs. We will have to get out in the night to save the eggs I think.

There are five volunteers, Jon and me, Cybil and Andrea from Outreach and Kerry who is here for a month with another organisation. There are also a lot of mexican students helping around the compound.

Jon and I have had some air-bed issues and, as yet, have not had a comfortable night's sleep. We spend the cool times of day trying to improve the comfort of our living area, but fight a losing battle with the sand and mosquitoes. Still got some adjusting to do.

Two pictures, two stories

These two photos were taken on the same day, but show how different things were.

All in all I think we were happy with the day.

Puerto Vallarta

How to tell you about Mexico? - It's a bit like going through a fairground, one minute there are lights and bright colours with interesting things going on around you, the next you are behind the caravans and trailers and it's dirty and smelly with things going on you don't want to see. The food looks and tastes wonderful but holds a risk element. Wednesday I went down with a tummy bug, and am just recovering now. Fortunately no-one else in the apartment seems to have gone down with it.

There are four of us in the apartment, Jon and me, Claire who teaches deaf children in Puerto Vallarta and Cybil who is coming to the turtle project with us. We are doing spanish lessons in the afternoons for about 3-4 hours, and Lupita comes to the apartment for that purpose. I think Jon is her greatest challenge as he sort of 'times-out' if he doesn´t understand and scowls at her in a menacing way if she presses him too much.

There is a nicely kept swimming pool in the grounds of the apartment, and we go and 'veg-out' it it when the heat and humidity gets too much. The overhead fans in the apartment are going constantly, night and day, but it still feels hard to drag ourselves around. But it's the drums, those damn drums! (just kidding). Hopefully we will aclimatise before we need to do some actual work.

Tomorrow another volunteer, Andrea, is arriving from UK and all four of us are going by bus to Mayto. I am not sure how long it will take us as I get conflicting answers every time I ask - it probably depends on the bus we take. Travelling can either be in air-conditioned splendour or shared with chickens apparently.

We are being looked after very well. Greta our co-ordinator was poised ready to rush me to hospital with my tummy bug. I will post some photos on the blog, but we haven't taken many yet.