Mi Camino Transversal: Saving Baby Sea Turtles in Monterrico

So this week I came back from Zacualpa and went back to work at MTM on Wednesday. On Friday night - Rachel, Juan (who apparently doesn't even go by "Juan" - instead he uses his middle name "Leo" but it's too late because now we're used to it), Irene & Giulia (the Italian girls), and I went to Antigua. (Two Americans, two Italians, and a Guatemalan = a whole lot of translation issues and conversations about vocabulary, lol.) The next morning we were off to an early start and headed to Monterrico for a weekend at the beach (Pacific Coast). I must say that this has been the best weekend in Guatemala so far.

:: Antigua Guatemala ::

Antigua was a lot of fun. I think we all needed a night out to unwind and have a few drinks. We stayed at a hotel called Posada San Pedro which was great except for one tiny little detail: no hot water! Nonetheless it was very cute, clean and quiet. In the morning we got up and realized there was a gorgeous view of one of the volcanoes - I'm not actually sure, but it's probably el Volcán de Agua.

We went out for dinner and a few drinks at Frida's then walked around until we found a bar with live music. After our first round of drinks were done, we ordered a round of "Cucarachas". When they brought them to the table we realized they were FLAMING SHOTS! I immediately said that there has to be Bacardi 151 in that drink - but of course everyone at the table ignored me, and the few that actually asked the waiter what was in it must have conveniently forgotten that part. Now that I have internet access I can confirm - tequila + kahlua + 151 + fire. Now that I think about it, we drank a lot more than it seemed like. We had a 2nd round of Cucarachas and at some point ordered a bucket of Gallo. Since there was a live band we also did our fair share of dancing.

Now, somewhere along the line - very early on in the night - we somehow ended up with a temporary addition to our group. (Please see photo below.) Meet Fausto. He's the guy in the middle in all black with long hair. He looks like he's 18, right? Well... he claims to be 22 years old and his brother is the guitarist in the band that's on stage. Apparently Fausto was supposed to sing the lead this night... except he got too drunk. He kept saying that when he sobered up they'd let him sing again. Of course... as you might have guessed from the picture below... he never sobered up! I have to say this kid was very entertaining! No matter what song was on he'd try to make the dance floor into a mosh pit. And every once in a while he'd just yell out " I love Rock-n-Roll!!!" and throw up the sign of the horns.

Fun times. Believe it or not, we called it a night around midnight. We were up and out the door before 8am the next morning.

:: Tortugario de Monterrico, Guatemala ::

As we were driving to Monterrico I called a handful of hotels until I found one with an opening. We stayed at Café del Sol which is right on the beach, just two blocks from the main street in Monterrico! The hotel didn't have many amenities - but it had everything we needed: beds (with mosquito netting), showers, a pool, a bar/restaurant, and beach access - all for about $100 a night ($20 each).

Café del Sol's Beach-side Restaurant / Lounge Area

When we arrived the first thing we did was take a walk along the beach toward the main street. Did I mention that Monterrico is a black sand beach? Absolutely gorgeous! But soooo painful to walk on in the middle of the day. It is impossible to walk on barefoot unless you are walking along the water. As we were walking a man came up to us and asked if we had heard about the event happening that afternoon. Of course we hadn't heard - we just picked a random weekend and decided we wanted to go to a beach. But after he told us... we had our weekend trip all planned out.

We lounged around the beach all day. Played in the water like 10 year olds for an hour or two until we were exhausted. There were some mean riptides and at least I got really tired really quickly. We then went back to our hotel pool to rinse off in the outdoor showers, take a swim without risking drowning, and chill pool-side. Around 3pm we gathered our stuff together and went to the hotel restaurant to have some smoothies until the 2-for-1 happy hour started. Then, it was finally time....

Monterrico is famous for its Tortugario. It is a sea turtle hatchling reserve and sanctuary. Every year sea turtles lay their eggs in the black sands of the beaches around Monterrico. However, in some places, like Guatemala, they eat turtle eggs (no I haven't tried one - and I don't plan to). There are regulations for the harvesting of turtle eggs - you can only take half of the eggs that are laid each season. But of course, it is nearly impossible to enforce so between the poaching and environmental changes some sea turtle species are seriously at risk of becoming extinct. So at the Tortugario they rescue injured sea turtles and protect sea turtle eggs which are laid during October - December. They incubate the eggs in the Tortugario until they hatch 50 days later. For 10 Quetzales (about $1.25) you could buy a ticket to participate in the baby sea turtle release at 5:30pm. These were sea turtles that had just hatched during the previous week. They release them on Saturdays (so that the public can participate in the release - as a way of raising awareness for sea turtles) at sunset (because that is when the risks from predators is at its lowest).

I'm generally not one to get super excited about anything - but this whole event was the most adorable thing I've ever seen!

This is Squirt (like in "Finding Nemo")

Everyone who had a ticket was given a baby sea turtle to release. We were lined up along the beach and two lines were draw in the sand about 4 feet apart. Once everyone had their turtle we were supposed to put them down on the first line on the count of three. The first turtle to cross the second line won a free t-shirt for it's releaser. Personally, I would have preferred to keep the baby sea turtle. I mean, look at that face, who wouldn't! But of course, that would have defeated the purpose of the whole event, right?

We released our baby sea turtles just before sunset. Afterwards we, and 50 or so other people who participated in the release, sat around to watch the sea turtles go off into the sea and to watch the sunset. It was all very romantic. LOL. No really, it was gorgeous! The whole weekend would have been perfect for a couple's romantic getaway. But of course, at least for the time being, three of us are in long-distance relationships and the other two are single. Perfect, just perfect. But its okay, every time something was very obviously romantic I'd point it out and we'd laugh about it. Or at least I'd laugh about it - come to think of it, half the time I don't even pay attention to whether anyone else is laughing with me! (Unless Rachel points out that my joke wasn't that funny. Love you Rachel!)

:: Reserva Natural de Monterrico ::

The next morning we were up early for another Monterrico experience: a boat tour of the Nature Reserve at sun rise. Like I said before, this whole weekend was very pretty and romantic. We somehow managed to get ourselves out of bed and ready by 5:30am (even though at 1:30am the girls in the room next door and some guys they had probably just met at the bar came back to the hotel to blast their music, drink and yell for two hours - no I'm not judgmental at all).

The sun rise was beautiful. We went on small boats that could only carry about 8 people. The guide had a long stick that he used to push our boat along the water.

Watching the Sun Rise over Monterrico's Nature Reserve

It was mostly a tour of the mangroves (let's be honest, I didn't know what mangroves were until this weekend - let's just say my only point of reference was "orange groves"). The mangroves, lagoon and nature reserves are home to a lot of birds, we saw mostly Cranes and Pelicans, and in the waters there is a combination of fresh-water and salt-water animals since the water in the lagoon changes throughout the year. The big selling-point is the four-eyed fish (yes, that is a real thing). If you are looking at the water you'll see them swimming along and every once in a while they jump out of the water - presumably to eat some bugs.

Isolated home on an Island in Monterrico w/ Crane out front.

Interestingly enough, there are some families that still live in the area of the Nature Reserve. Right now this home is occupied by a family (when we passed there was a young girl inside and some clothes they had hung out to dry). They have no electricity and no water supply to this island. They are only able to live here for part of the year. I think that the guide said that during winter (which is summer for those of us in the US) it rains so much that the water level rises and they can't stay on the island. So they are only here during the summer. Some locals also come to this area to fish (part of the year there are shrimp in these waters.)

But anyway, this whole weekend was amazing. I can see why everyone who visits Guatemala absolutely loves it! I'm also loving my group of travel buddies from this weekend. What am I going to do when Rachel leaves?!?!? We've got one more weekend for travelling before she heads back to Boston - we'd better make it good!!!

Finally, in honor of my baby sea turtle friends... one of the best clips from Finding Nemo: