Female turtles, specifically Olive ridley sea turtles, come in droves every year to the Puerto Vallarta beaches where they were born to lay their own eggs. We heard about a turtle egg nursery operated by the CasaMagna Marriott Hotel. For the past decade, the Marriott has hired biologists to patrol PVR's beaches at night during the egg-laying season to collect the eggs so they can be safely incubated in a controlled environment that is safe from predators and human interference.
When the eggs hatch, the turtle hatchlings are released into the surf on the same day they are born! Anyone can go to the beach in front of the hotel to participate in the event which takes place almost every night during the season from July to December. Each person in gets to release their own little turtle into the sea and cheer it on in its effort to swim against the waves and head out to deep water where it can avoid being eaten by birds and fish. They do this at 7:30 PM to avoid the presence of the birds.
Last year alone, the hotel released 47,000 turtles. Over the life of the program, it has raised and released more than 290,000 of them. Sadly, only about 5% of them ever survive to adulthood.
We couldn't miss this.
They bring the tiny turtles out in buckets.
Since I was filming, I didn't take one but Lydia did.
She kept saying "I wish Lucy was here!"
Time to release them.
And Lydia's needed some help.
Time to go before the rain starts (although it never did).
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