A night with the tortugas

Ronan´s Post:

I walked down the beach alone in the dark. The stars shone bright with the milky-way lighting a strip across the sky. The waves crashed and with them came the slightest glow of bio-luminescence. I tip-toed over massive craters in the sand, nervous to disturb any of them. I heard a wheezing sound up ahead. I peeked into one of the craters. A massive turtle lay at the bottom and it began to excavate the crater further. It was already 4ft deep by 6ft, and growing with every flipper swipe.

I sat there under the starts, Orion overhead, listening to this turtle wheeze for air, then dig for a minute or two before taking a 5 minute break. And repeat. I walked on to find several other females slaving away for their bastard children. Tracks of previous turtles cut across other nests like tractor tires. Egg shells like broken ping-pong balls littered the beach. I came across one nest with some freshly crushed eggs among empty shells. Some predator; dog, bird, or the anteater type thing I saw earlier lurking near the bushes. I found one female just beginning her nights' work and I bedded down 30ft away. I woke several times to find the female working on another site only a few feet from my sleeping bag. I expected to wake again to her berrying me in sand or becoming part of her nest. Instead I woke to the moon rising over the cliffs at the end of the beach. The half circle glowed brightly over the golden beach and cast shadows over the nests, throwing polka dots across the beach. I got up and checked on all the turtles nearby. One female was laying her eggs in a big basket at the bottom of her hole, guarding it from sand falling in it with her rear flippers. I sat with her until she finished and watched her fill in the basket and begin covering the hole. When I returned just before sunrise I found her tracks leading out into the ocean and her nest crater was now a mound; she'd piled even more sand on the nest than was there originally.

On my morning walk back towards the town I came across two females close together. One had just emerged from the ocean, still wet in the morning light. The other had a small hole she seemed to have just started excavating. The sun rose over the cliffs, following the moon's path or vise versa, and at almost the same time, both females stopped their work and headed for the sea. They skidded their cumbersome bodies down the beach and entered the surf. I sat for a few minutes thinking about my night. The hours of work these turtles instinctively know how to do for an unknown outcome. So many variables come into play it seems; predation of eggs, hatchlings on the beach or in the ocean, and then the hope that the hathclings steer away from the hypnotizing lights of town, as many are found climbing the wrong way up the beach after only a few days out of the egg. I looked out to sea and I thought and spotted a head rise up for air 100m offshore, then dive down again. One of the females taking a refreshing breath after a long and dry night on the beaches of Maruata Mexico.

Loco Acapulco!

Ray’s Post:

Hey yo everyone out there in Blogsville. Trying to keep this updated better while we are living in wireless Internet Acapulco.
So this is what has happened we left Ernesto and Monica on Monday morning after great days of beach, swimming, pseudo surfing, body surf and eating. Roca Blanca named after the bird feces covered rock off shore was a favorite for all. Jenny will return to study Spanish with Monica (the heart and soul of the camping outfit) after the group breaks apart. We all enjoyed the company of the family as well as the lone Swiss traveler Gayle.
We left a day before we had to get to Acapulco just to be safe and it paid because we got stuck in three hours of construction. We sweated out the Primetime pretty hard ate some roadside tacos, fruit and ice creams. W spent that night in luxury or so we thought after fending off the heat of the lagoon mosquitoes of Roca Blanca, an air-conditioned room with cable and personal Jacuzzi was as the say in Mexico “muy bueno”. Some nibbled on peas and carrots that night others went out for oriental style tacos a plenty.
Yesterday we got up early and set primetimes sail for Acapulco. We rolled in midday. Yes we did we rolled right on in to John Wayne and Tarzans house literally it has been a hotel since the 30’s. The welcomed us with a round of coco locos translated that means crazy coconut. I felt like John Wayne was tipping his cap in approval when near to sunset we viewed a Humpback whale breaching the calm seas. Later that Night the ghost of Johnny Weismueller aka Tarzan joined us for drinks as we watched the world famous clavadistas cave divers plummet 130 ft.. A exhilarating jump they time their pitch into the sea as the tide pushes the water into the cave, but not before saying blessings to the Virgin of Guadalupe. We woke this morning, Jenny saw more whales from 400 cliffs that overlook the ocean from the House that Rooster Cogburn and Tarzan built.

We have obtained Mr. E. Street and now we leave the bright lights big city of Acapulco for a tamer Zihuatanejo. Friends: Family : Pets: and Plants we wish you all well. From The gang this is Rabbit and Primetime signing off. Enjoy the Pics! Courtesy of Mr. Donavan and crew:

Back to the Beach

The last time that you heard from us we were inland. We are however no longer there. We left Rod and Hileana after a good feed of Bagels and fruit shakes we headed in to the mountains. Pretty slow driving and a lot of bumps until we reached the flatter towns We found a hotel in a town that Robin could only compare to Lander, Wyoming. Flat dirty and Desolate. For the first time in weeks we had trouble finding a place to stay on account of the midget rodeo. We found a nice lttle spot to stay on the outskirts of town complete with concrete beds. Later that night we ventured back to town for some food and found that there in the heart of it all layed some character. There were street vendors, and Jenny found a baby turtle justly named corky jr. In honour of her namesake jenny got cork jr some food and sr. a large carnival sized lollipop. We dared to ride the zippers and the salt and pepper shakers but there were not running so we settled on churros, some supper and a bootlegged version of the newest bond and took it back to the rest.

We drove like hell the next day found a surf town that Robin and Jenny rode there first waves the rest of us boogied and swam, and Ronan ran in sweltering heat. We got back in the Van and headed down the coast that night just to find a place to stay. The Van rolled up on a bar and from the outside we caught the Boss (Bruce Springsteen) wailing away. The Van went no further. We enjoyed various foods and drinks and a damn exciting american football game. There was an hotel equinomico in that town and we stayed there and thats that.

We spent the next couple of days camping on the beach in the town of Mazunte. Mazunte is a beach town rather a cove protected by rock out crops on both ends. A pretty strong waves that crash right on the beach. noit really great for board surfing but great for snorkeling. We spent the first day in the water and fighting off the heat. The first night there we ate out a restaurant on the beach that looked promising. The food was food nothing more, but the waiter offered a boat trip complete with snorkeling turtle wrangeling, bird watching and dolphin swims. It seemed like a lot to promise and if the food was any signs of things to come well.... but we all agreed if nothing more it was a boat ride.

What came next was absurd in a very many ways. we started our tour by bombing south down the beach to view a Narcotraffic aircraft that was shot down 3 years ago and was left on the beach as a reminder. Next we shot out straight into the water until we started seeing turtles we found a big enough big enough for our boat captain Adan to get close enough then baboomba Jaime shot out of that boat like a canon and grabbed up that turtle any one who wanted was allowed to go and hold it. Jenny and I charged not necessarily in excitement of the turtle but stomach uneasiness from the boat. Nice to get upclose to the turtle and bit obscure. After storming after countless turltles, Jenny found us some dolphins and we cruised right along with them until we begged to get in the water we threw on snorkle gear and flippers and got right in the mix with them. The sureality of this experience felt some thing like a cross between disneyland and space and inside it was as well a jumbled mix of emotions adrenal glands pumped raw excitment but the warm water and sweet sounds of dolphins was similar to a brookstone nature tapes with a waterbed. But the craziest thing was watching them spin the rolled out like dreidls on the first night of Hannukah. Unbelieveable

West along coast we moved first to see the famed and Burly surf of Puerto Escondido and now along to to some nameless beach town Near Rio Grande , Oaxaca that is. We try to surf, now and then we got put in the spin cycle. We swim, snorkel some run others read we eat some things. We drink others. Play guitar and cribbage and have been welcomed by a marvelous family bilingual and sweet. We stay there until monday and then bomb up to Acapulco to meet up with a six member Mr. E. Street outta Pennslyvania. Coming in for a good section. We all talk about all of you and hope you all are well and know that we are safe and pictures to come soon.
Right well this is the Rabbit Signing off