End of the first stage

We travelled back to Puerta Vallarta from Mayto on the bus yesterday. Quite uneventful except that we had to say goodbye to our tent and those turtles left that we hadn´t managed to bring up from the nests. We are only human after all and we had put 700 babies into the sea the day before. I did my last patrol with Jorge at 10.00 the night before, and we stopped at the 13km point and engaged in a diverting and stimulating conversation. (Not really!). Actually I enjoyed the silent contemplation of the moon on the sea and the stunning stars unpoluted by light, and the quiet calm that Jorge maintains. A fitting end to my incredible experiences on the turtle beach. Israel took us to the bus stop on the quadbike and we think he was quite moved to say goodbye. On the other hand he might have not cared at all. Difficult to say really.

Back in PV we have struggled to come to terms with being away from the solitude of the beach. This morning I woke up to the sound of lorries grinding their gears, and shouts from the road instead of that blasted cockerel that had decided to greet each day outside our tent. We have discarded some clothes and have spent some time shopping for suitable things to travel in. Had an interesting time booking bus tickets for Mazatlan tomorrow. The girl in the ticket office at the bus station chewed gum and refused to answer my faltering spanish with anything but a sneer. She could double the part in Little Britain saying "computer says 'no'" and I had a hard job keeping a straight face. Anyway, against the odds, we have tickets for 6.00pm tomorrow and will travel first to Mazatlan, then take a ferry boat over to La Paz. After that we will travel down to Cabo San Lucas where we board the Island Princess for our cruise on 7th December. Hopefully we will have no bad weather conditions as the boarding will be by tender and a hurricane on the day will upset us no end.

If anything goes wrong I will let you know .......

The Mayto turtle protection

This is Israel on his soap-box talking to a group of biology students. He is probably telling them all about the conservation of turtles at the Mayto Campamento. In the foreground is a rather faded municipal sign which gives the promise of 'protection and conservation of marine turtles'. This is a hope which is fading as quickly as the sign itself. We are seeing dead turtles on the beach daily. Predation of eggs and baby turtles is a regular occurrence, and future development of hotels and appartments for tourism is expected. The improvement of the road into Mayto itself presents a threat to the area.

We have, in our time here, released thousands and thousand of baby turtles back into the ocean. It has been rewarding work which promises a healthy increase to the numbers in the sea, and the turtles are our friends. However, I wonder what the females that survive, and come back to lay eggs on this beach in 10 to 12 years, time will find. The wild beach we see today will have changed. Will these primative creatures adapt and make themselves a place to exist amongst the quadbikes and speedboats?

We only have a few days left in Mayto and then we will be travelling back to Puerta Vallarta on Thursday ready for the rest of our journey up the north of Mexico.

Bennett crusade

The fight against dogs in the compound goes on. Chatta is by no means the only culprit, but she is certainly an interested contender. Keeping her out of the egg enclosure is a bit like Fred Flintstone´s cat who just runs round and comes in another way.

Guilty!

This noble hound has been caught red-handed in the nest enclosure digging up eggs. I found her in there one night and she has been named and shamed. Name is Chatta and the shame is because she is actually the camp pet dog and nobody would believe that she would be so desructive and eat the turtles and eggs that we have worked so hard to collect. It does beg the question, why is the Campamento Mayto for Protection of Turtles keeping a dog that steals the eggs!

Turtle protection

There are heavy penalties for egg stealing in Mexico, a large fine and even a prison sentence for repeated offenders. This being the case, there is risk attached to the job of protection because there is money to be made from selling eggs and turtle meat which are a cultural delicacy. Israel is fairly fluid in the way he handles poaching and usually has "a little chat" with egg-stealers on the beach and confiscates the eggs but lets them keep some as an act of goodwill. This keeps the local people sweet and also makes them aware of the turtle protection program.

This week we have had some aggresive behaviour from one particular individual. Israel has admonished him repeatedly in the past, but on Thursday night when Jorge and Cibyl and Sammy were on patrol he threatened Jorge with a machete concealed up his sleave and threatened the lives of his family who live close-by. The girls were very frightened by the incident and Cibyl said it was the most softly spoken, and therefore sinister, death threat you could ever imagine.

On Friday morning I went out with Israel, (not quite sure what we would find), and saw the man wading across the lagoon with his dog swimming along side of him. He had on his shoulders a large bucket containing, what must have been, between 1000 to 1500 turtle eggs. He must have been working all night. Israel took a video of him and this will, no doubt, provide some evidence in any future legal proceedings. However, this process might take some time and the man continues to reek havoc.

On Saturday morning, the next day, I was with Israel on the beach with some students and we came across a recently killed turtle beside the lagoon. It had happened within the hour and the man's footprints were still visible in the wet sand where he had walked away from what was left of the turtle. He had prised open the shell and removed the meat and the eggs from the poor creature. Only the entrails were left strewn across the beach.

All this has left me with a dull depression, not made better by the departure of Cibyl and Sammy who left the camp on Saturday. I really miss you guys so much, the crazy sense of humour, (which so well matches mine), the girly discussions which caused Jon to hurriedly leave the table on countless occasions and of course everyone misses the pretty bikini-clad bodies which decorated the sandy beach every day. Hope you have managed to get the sand from all the crevasses - might take a few days. Joel has already moved into your tent and strung his hammock in front. 'Club Med Mayto' lives on!