Maisie's Turtle-ing Adventure

Voice from the field,  Jul 12, 2013 - Sea Turtle Conservation Programme - Maisie

For me diving is one, big, new experience which I was very excited to embark on. However when I arrived in beautiful Pez Maya I was greeted with another adventure which I did not expect, turtling. At first the idea of walking 5km all night being torn apart by mosquitos seemed like a dreadful task I was having to take on. In fact the experience was incredible.

We left at 10pm, after a big night out in Playa del Carmen the night before, absolutely shattered. However when we arrived on the beach the sky was clearest I had ever seen it, the stars were incredible and we saw lots of shooting stars too.

Then it was over to Alfredo our ”turtle guru” and straight away there was the first turtle we encountered laying its eggs. There was then a second and a third, we in fact saw 9 all together! Our duty is to mark down where the nests are; the size of the turtles etc and if the nest is too close to the sea then we must make a new nest further back and move the eggs.

There was one turtle laying her eggs far too close to the ocean meaning they would all be drowned so we found ourselves actually catching her eggs as she laid them so that we could relocate them. We said we were the turtle midwives, the experience was definitely something worth doing over and over again and has made this trip an even better experience than I first thought. 

Maisie's Turtle-ing Adventure