This past weekend I headed down to San Juan del Sur, one of the most touristy places in the country (and did I mention they've just finished up the filming of Survivor nearby?), with my friends Carla and Tyler. It was a pretty long trip; luckily I have a super-awesome friend named Alex that let me spend the night at her place on the way there and back so I didn't have to do it all in one day. We went out dancing on Friday night until early Saturday morning...maybe that wasn't my best move when I knew I'd be going on a turtle tour, but it was definitely a fun move that was definitely worth the tiredness that resulted. Carla, Tyler, and I dropped out stuff at the hostel, went and played in the ocean, ate delicious pizza, and then went to the turtle presentation.
At this presentation we learned all these cool facts about different turtles that come to La Flor Reserve to breed. They get about three leatherbacks a year, which are so massive that italicizing the word won't even do it justice, even if I bold it too. They can get up to 12ft long and 900kg in weight. Say WHAT?! You read right. But, La Flor only gets about three of those a year; we were more focused on the Olive Ridley. These turtles lay 80-120 eggs three times between July and January. They will only lay eggs on the beach they were born in. That fact was even more incredible when we learned that they don't start laying eggs until they're 10 or so years old. And they travel all over and somehow find their way back to their beach. Scientists have theories about maybe they know the earth's magnetism or something like that but they can't prove anything. I know what you're thinking, "If they lay all these eggs, HOW are they endangered?" 
Well my friend, apparently only 1 out of every 1000 eggs laid actually hatches (things eat it, the tide comes up higher than the mother thought it would, etc.).Out of those that hatch, only 1 out of every 100 make it to adulthood. I'm no mathwhiz but, that's how.
After more facts, and telling us how to behave on the beach (the most crushing thing was that we weren't allowed to use the flash on our cameras because it freaks the mommas out which is why all the pictures on here are from google images but really, they're the same things I saw), we loaded up into the bench seats in the back of a truck with 5 other people. Despite the potholes it wasn't too uncomfortable...until it started raining and then it was miserable. They had tarps, which helped, but not completely. By the time we arrived we were soaked through and through. We dashed to the covered porch of the "lodge" and waited for our guide, a very petite Nicaragua woman who was as sassy as can be and super-fun and a great guide.
She told our group to wait two minutes. Five minutes later she comes out of the lodge with a plastic basket full of baby turtles! There were tons of them and they were sooooooo tiny and cute. I wanted to look around to make sure no one was looking and put one in my pocket. I resisted though. Why did the reserve have a basket of baby turtles laying around? Normally the eggs hatch at night and the babies make their way to the sea, but sometimes they hatch and break out of the sand nest during the day, and if the reserve doesn't pick them up, they will get eaten by birds. The workers can't just put them into the sea because they need to have the mental imprint of their beach in their system so they can find it when it's time for them to lay eggs. Crazy, right? So, they gather them up and then tourists like us who paid $30 for the travel and the guide, get to help them find their way. And by that I mean our guide set them up in a line like at a horse race and then we held red light flashlights out in front of them. The flash from our cameras might scare the moms, but the babies LOVE lights. Weird.
After that we saw a couple of big ones. The first one we saw was just packing up shop. Their instincts are insane. In case you didn't know, turtle-moms abandon their eggs and never come back. It sounds harsh, but they do disguise the nest well. First of all, they dig it WITHOUT HANDS (obviously I know, but incredible) about 12-16 inches deep in the sand. When they're done laying the eggs, they cover it back up with their flippers (to dig it they used the back tip of their shell, above the tail) and make sure no sand is mounded up around it. They pack the sand down and mess the sane up around it so it "doesn't look" like a nest. It's pretty impressive. Then she turns to the ocean and peaces out. 
Then came the coolest one. Our second big one. She was just finishing up digging her nest when we intruded. She started laying eggs and we watched. After seeing a few drop I decided seeing goo fall wasn't really my thing, and I headed up to her face. When they're laying the eggs they go into a trance and can't tell what's happening around them. I kneeled down in the sand and had my head cupped in my hands LESS THAN FIVE INCHES FROM HER FACE! It was incredible. There was my face, inches from the face of an animal that's been around since the dinosaurs, inches from an endangered animal, inches from a momma turtle doing Lamaze breathing (or the turtle equivalent...she was seriously working it out) and giving birth to 80-120 baby turtles. I could've sat there all night.But not really because I was freezing. My clothes were soaked. My sneakers were soaked (they saw not to wear flipflops because the beach is 1.6km long and sometimes you have to trek a bit to find the turtles). It started to rain heavily again. We peaced out. All of this: the baby liberation and the two moms with their nests, probably took about two hours or more.
If anyone's coming this way and is going, go to the hostel called Casa Oro or something like that. It's owned by a French woman who's been here for six years and she's all about teaching and doing things the "right" way to not interfere with what the tortugas are up to.
I had my doubts at first (like when they told us there was only a 50% chance of seeing turtles that night), but it was definitely worth it.
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