Below My Feet: Tortugitas en Monterrico

I'm trying to avoid super long blog posts, thus this one is dedicated to my favorite part of my weekend in Monterrico- RELEASING A BABY SEA TURTLE. Before I came to Guatemala, I had read about doing this on a former volunteer's blog and was like, "YES. I'M ALL OVER THAT." When I found out we were going to the same place (Monterrico) and that I would be able to realize this dream I'd been harboring since Mayish, I almost died. It was maybe the coolest thing I've done in my life, second only to graduating from the University of Notre Dame. Okay, so I might be exaggerating just a teensy bit, but I was so stoked and loved every second of the experience.

Monterrico is known for its tortugarios, or sea turtle hatcheries. If sea turtles lay their eggs on the beach, there is a big chance that humans, dogs, or other animals will come along and dig them up. To give the little sea turtles (tortugitas) a chance, the tortugarios raise the eggs themselves. When the eggs are ready to hatch, people like me pay a measly Q10 (about $1.40 USD) to release the baby sea turtles into the ocean. The funds all go back to helping sea turtles. In the wild, the sea turtles only have about a 1 in 1000 chance of surviving, but with the tortugarios it's more like 10 in 100. HOW COULD ANYONE PASS THIS EXPERIENCE UP?

Saturday evening rolled around and it was finally time to get started doing the turtle thing. We were so lucky- we were the first release night of the season! With way too much enthusiasm, I accepted the little sea turtle that was handed to me. Of course my little dude needed a name, so I dubbed him PCB13. (I was having some serious nostalgia issues that weekend remembering the last time I was on a beach for spring break in Panama City this year.) After a count off, everyone released their tortugitas at the same time to let them "race" to the water. I'm happy to report that PCB13 made it to the water just fine, thank you very much. I'm POSITIVE he is going to be one of the survivors and live to be approximately 107 years old. His little flippers were so strong against my fingers- I could tell he was a fighter! This is corny, but PCB13 gave me a life lesson as I watched him waddle toward the ocean. You don't have to be the first one to the water, all that matters is that you get there. "Getting there" this year has been great (even though I don't quite know where exactly I'm headed yet), and I'm going to keep on waddling just like PCB13!