Highlite of Joiyssey TONITE!!!! to be continued

If I never have another experience on my Joiyssey, I will be satisfied. You will not believe how I spent the afternoon and evening today!

First, after returning from La Cruz, I find the dirt road next to the restaurant and behind the buildings the border the beach – where I walked thru the ocean the other day. I ride my bike to the end of the buildings to the one that appears to be a home but could also be the museum.

I am not sure until a man comes out and I ask if this is the tortuga museum. Anthony has been bouncing a volleyball on the porch but seems okay to stop and give me a tour.

The first building, painted a bright yellow, has a large front room with styrofoam boxes missing their lids but crawling with baby turtles! I’m in love!!!! There is a kitchen table and chairs in this room and I can see smaller rooms with maybe a bathroom and bedrooms.

I find out later this is where the biologist Iben lives as well as the other biologists Joanna and Jesus. I think Anthony lives elsewhere.

Anthony tells me these turtles are ready to leave, to go back to the ocean and they will bring them to the beach this evening.

He then takes me outside to part of the yard that has skinny, 2 foot planks sticking out of the sand with wooden crates resting against them. He says here are the eggs of the tortugas – eggs they have collected on the beach and moved here, to safety – away from both human and animal predators.

There must be 5 rows of 10 or 15 crates each. He tells me each tortuga lays 100 eggs at a time, mostly from June until October and it takes 45 days for the eggs to hatch into little turtles.

Anthony examines the sand under some of the crates and finds one that is a little caved in. he brushes away the sand and sure enough, there are turtles churning about. We take three of them back into the house.

He shows me the large yogurt containers that are stacked up next to the styrofoam. Inside are turtles wrapped in white cloth – these are the incubators I think, maybe turtles whose eggs have cracked before they were supposed to?

Then off we go to the museum where the life and times of the tortuga is laid out in brilliant colors and informative displays.