Another Turtle!

Saturday, August 25^th

I found my second turtle today on crawl counts! It just goes to show how important it is to leave while it is still dark because there is always a chance that you will find one of the last turtles to come up for the “night.” I think there is an even better chance of finding them in the morning than at night because no one is on the beach at 4:00 in the morning. Any turtle that comes up, you are likely to claim. I was training a volunteer to do crawl counts, so I let her dig the tunnel and pull out the eggs to get the experience. The nest was 112 eggs, so another big nest! The crawl count itself was super weird. We only found 4 tracks, which is the lowest number I have found since the beginning of July. Apparently they all came up on the Hawaii side of the beach…I walked the Monterrico side. Since finding the turtle and waiting for her to lay took up a lot of time, by the time we ended the crawl count it was past 8:00am and already really hot. We decided to hitchhike back to the parque. This nice man stopped with his pick-up truck and let us climb in the back. 

 A blurry picture of me next to the turtle!

 

 Sabine and I hitchhiking

The rest of the day was spent cleaning bathrooms, the kitchen, and all of the sinks. It is amazing how fast stuff gets dirty around here! As a reward, we all took naps, and then went in the ocean. Later, a local brought a boa constrictor to the parque. Apparently, it ate one of his mother's hens and his family wanted to kill it. Instead, he brought it to the parque so that it could be saved. Usually Guatemalans aren't that conscientious about animals...it was nice to see somebody who cares for once.

The snake looking me in the eye

 

For dinner, Fay made bomb quesadillas! I’m going to miss her cooking and her company when she leaves next week.While we were eating dinner, a storm broke out. Turtles usually come up to nest during storms because it offers them more protection from predators. I was excited to get out and try to find another turtle, so I started my patrol early. Unfortunately, not one turtle came up during the storm! So frustrating!