Turtle Mama

On Sunday night, I got to see the coolest thing...the whole reason for the trip to Tortuguero. As I've mentioned, Tortuguero is a protected wildlife area for sea turtles. This is the time of year when the turtles return and lay their eggs. They do this at night and the whole process takes 2 - 2 1/2 hours. My tour went to the beach about 10 p.m. and we saw four turtles, each in a different stage of the process. We weren't allowed to take pictures or use any type of light since it disorients the turtles. So, I'll try to describe it as best I can.

The first part of the process is for the turtle to leavem the water and find a place to lay her eggs. These turtles are 250 - 300 pounds and 3-4 feet long. They use their front and back flippers to crawl along the sand so they are moving pretty slow. Once they reach the vegetation, they find a place to starting digging. The turtle uses here front and back flippers to dig out a bed. Then she'll dig a smaller hole that is a little bit deeper. This hole is where she will leave the eggs.

Once the bed is made, the turtle will position herself over the hole for the eggs and start depositing them. Each turtle will lay between 100 and 120 eggs. While she is doing this, she is in a trance-like state and she crys big tears to clean out the sand from her eyes. Usually, with each contraction, the turtle will lay 2-3 eggs.

Once turtle mama is finished laying the eggs, she starts to cover the hole up with dirt. She will then climb out of the bed she's made and start her journey back to the water. It takes about 45 days for the turtle babies to hatch and usually only 5 from each nest will survive and make it to the water.

I have to say, it was a little embarrassing watching the turtles lay their eggs. Althought, it was very cool to watch, it IS a private moment!

Since I wasn't able to take photos, I've searched online and found this video. It's not from Tortuguero but it will show you what I saw.