Some recent photos

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Sammy and me with pink hair

Crossed a line this week and found myself sitting amongst the rocks with Cibyl and Sammy looking for a special kind of shellfish called a Caracol. The secretion when wiped on your hair makes it go purple. We felt happy with the result which you can see here, but I do smell a bit fishy, and Jon is not certain about it. Sammy piped "You will be, like, the crazy old lady on that cruise!" Like, I think she is right, but why stop there? I am now looking at hair braids, ankle bands, woven pantaloons. I need to look like a proper traveller when I get to Auckland. The family will be expecting me to look the part won't they?

Exciting week

First I want to announce the birth, at last, of my third grandson, Finley Isaac Newman. Born 20-10-2010, at approx 10.2 lbs. I think he will be a numbers man. I am so happy and relieved. Mum and baby look fine. I hope that one day he will understand that his Nannie is doing her best to make this a better world for him and his cousins. Yesterday we released some baby turtles and I found one that was a little late to crawl out of his egg. He was full of life though and eager to get going. I named him Fin and gave him a turtley kiss on his little head and freed him into the waves.

Had a huge challenge to my courage this week. We had a visit from a group of biology students and they were taken out onto the beach at night to look for turtles. Israel asked Jon if I would be able to drive some of them out on a quadbike and he immediately said "no" (it's all a bit chauvanist here). I kicked up such a fuss at being excluded that I suddenly found myself chugging off down the beach after the others with three girls and the maestro (teacher) hanging on for dear life. Generally I coped well, but the maestro was heavy and at one point I veered scarily towards the sea. They all gave a little scream, but that was the most exciting thing that happened to them as we didn't find any turtles.

All in all an emotionally tiring week. Jon and I are having a night with Fernando and El Rinconchito tonight. A chance to have a proper shower and sleep in a bed.

Jon the brave!

If anyone doubted the strength of those claws - imagine if he caught you on the nose in your tent! This one was so pissed-off, he hung onto the stick long after he could reasonably expect to win this particular bout with Jon.

Tujo

This is Tujo. He is an orphaned tejon, hand reared and very tame indeed. Not quite sure what he is. If anyone knows please let me know. He climbs well as you can see. He has a long tail, striped a bit like a racoon, long claws suitable for digging and a long nose. He looks like he might eat ants or termites normally, but he thrives on dog food. He follows Jorge around like a dog and can also be seen hanging (literally) around in the kitchen area.

Our communal life

This is the hub of the camp with the kitchen as the main area where the solar batteries provide energy, and we have a gas stove. Even internet sometimes! We eat communally in the sheltered dining area which is shared with the quadbike and a boa-constrictor in a cage!

Turtles make people happy

Had a great chance this week to spread a little turtle warmth. Jon and I met a family from New Jersey, America. They had a little girl who had some sort of disorder; her parents called it selective mutism (!!?). Seems like she will only speak to some people and had developed a strong empathy with animals and had rejected most humans. We were able to show her some baby turtles emerging from the nest enclosure and she handled the babies and helped to release them into the sea. On one night of their holiday, some of the volunteers came across the family on the beach in the middle of the night. They were watching a turtle laying eggs and the girls let them catch some as they were being laid. This is quite a powerful experience for anyone, but this little girl was completely awestruck. It was so lovely to give her an experience that she will carry with her, and hopefully will give her something to talk about when she goes back to school.

In the meantime, Jon and I are still battling with our tent life. Last night we heard a crab trying to get in and when we switched on our torches found a small scorpion hanging precariously onto the tent flap. Jon bravely swiped it with a croc (the shoe not the animal) and it promptly disappeared somewhere under the tent. Needless to say we have been stepping around the area a bit gingerly since then. Today we have taken a bus into El Tuito and I bought a hammock. It could be I will sleep in there in future, it might be safer.

Maggi, Gill and Lucinda: thanks a bunch for celebrating my birthday! hope you didn't get indigestion laughing at my misfortunes.

Time out from the Beach

We have taken some time away from "boot camp Mayto" and given ourselves a weekend off. Jon and I were getting a bit stir crazy, and anyway teenage weekend parties are not to our liking. We took ourselves off to the Vallarta Botanical Gardens and had the most wonderful day under the cool trees and bathing in ice-cold river water. That may not sound attractive to those entering an English autumn, but believe me, we craved the change.

We went and came back on the bus. You might think that is nothing much to write about, but mexican buses are a law unto themselves. It arrived half an hour late (we got up at 5.30 a.m. to catch it), but the bus driver was so accomodating that he took us all the way to the Gardens and, at the end of the day, picked us up from the gate. The journey back involved a stop in El Tuito so that passengers could visit the bano (bathroom). We bought corn cobs from a stall at the roadside and munched them on the bus. I had a chance to listen to various spanish conversations and try to understand. On the way back to Mayto we came across a truck which was stuck in the mud and holding up the traffic, so the bus driver hooked up to it with a tow-rope and we hauled it out before carrying on our journey. Needless to say, bus timetables are not that reliable, but the bus does get to it's destination eventually, come hell or high water!

We decided to stay in a small beach hotel for the night. El Conchito run by Fernando who treated us like long lost family when we rounded the bend and entered his, frankly weird, hotel grounds. Absolutely covered in driftwood, sculputures, shells and various items washed up onto the beach, the place looks the very epitome of mexican-culture. We will go there again as it gave us the chance to sleep one night in a proper bed and have a shower not shared by lizards and crabs!

Back to earth now, we have turtles to save.