No Tortuga for you!
We went to San Juan Del Sur with pretty much one thing in mind: The chance to see the sea turtles lay their eggs. As we made our way south through Nicaragua we met several travelers that had gone to see the turtles north of SJdS. One Canadian couple went in the start of the season when it was still raining and got stuck in the mud. They spent the night drinking rum and coke at a gas station until the 4WD could be pulled out of the mud. They went out a second time and did see a few turtles.
That was pretty much all I needed to hear–not an easy place to get to and no tour bus tourists around sounded like the kind of adventure I would enjoy.
But, then we met a couple from Australia who have been traveling Central America for the last 11 months. I’m amazed at most of the Australians I met when traveling, they seem to think absolutely nothing of picking up and hitting the road for a few years of travel to places you or I would never even consider. “Rugged” is a term you may have heard used to describe some Aussies and I think it’s a fairly accurate term. I really admire them. Anyhow, they took the same turtle tour from SJdS and said it was awful. Huh? They said they went during a time the locals call “The Invasion” when 150 to 200 turtles all come ashore to lay eggs. That sounds like an amazing experience to me, so I asked what was so bad about it.
“It was completely fucked. I just wanted to sit down in the sand and cry.” A tough as nails Aussie cry? “The guide was completely untrained. She was a French girl with no knowledge of what she was doing. She had a red light but the guards in the so called protected ecological park all had white torches (flashlights) and were hanging out with their friends who had been camping out on the beach for the last week waiting for this time period.”
“We told the guide to talk to the guards, but the guards just laughed and told the gringo to fuck off. The trucks were driving around and people were walking all over the beach possibly stepping on nests. So called experts were digging out the back of nests, people were snapping flash photos inches from the faces of the turtles laying eggs. People were picking up the baby turtles and turning over the adult turtles. It was fucked. We refused to walk any further onto the beach. I wouldn’t go… or maybe you should before they’re extinct.”
Yes, “Fucked” would be probably the best term to describe all that. Knowing this now, do we go? I kick around this new insight and wonder if it’s the right thing to do by skipping the whole thing. But will we ever get another chance to see the turtles? I justify it to myself by remembering we are in a third world country where turtles supposedly still show up on the menu in some places. I figure we are doing nothing more than paying someone to drive us there and I’ll leave the camera at home. I really just want to see the turtles and it’s prime time right now.
We get to SJdS and look into a turtle tour. “There are no turtles right now, please check back with us in a few days.” How the hell are there no turtles right now when it is the middle of the nesting season? So, SJdS is a really cool expat/gringo town and we don’t mind hanging around for a few days anyway. I consider doing a surf trip to a nearby beach but we decide to just chill out and wander around the town for a few days. We go back to the hostel that organizes the tour and inquire again. “No turtles right now. It’s best not to disturb them for a little while and check back in a few days.” Okay, that’s what we heard two days ago, we can’t keep this game up.
While we were wandering around the town I saw another sign for a turtle tour for the same price in front of a Spanish school of all places. Again, I figure we aren’t doing anything more than paying someone to drive us out there so this place is as good as any. Dawn is hedging. “Why would this place offer to take us and the other one not? I think they know there are no turtles and they just want to drive us out there so they can take our money.” True, this is highly possible but I really don’t know what is going on at this point and I’m willing to take the chance. No one can really guarantee we will see turtles unless they are offering to drive us our there night after night until we do. I put down a deposit against my wife’s better judgment.
8 pm we are to meet in front of the Spanish school with the rest of the money. 8 pm is also in the middle of the scheduled rolling power outage for the city. I have grown to like the nightly power outages since it’s really nice and quiet but walking the streets of a little town with no street lights can be a bit unnerving. Dawn made fun of my dorky looking headlamp
Guided by my headlamp, (held in my hand, I don’t need to give a mugger my face as a nice well lit target) we get to the school. They apologize to us and explain there are no turtles right now and we will need to check back in a few days. They give us back the deposit and Dawn thanks them for their honesty.
This is obviously not meant to be. It’s not like I’m looking for turtle soup! Can’t I just see the damn tortugas after waiting 4 days? We decide to try to see the turtles in Costa Rica and just move on. But thankfully across the street from the Spanish school they were celebrating “No Power Happy Hour” with 2 for 1 Flor de Cana rum and cokes–now that was meant to be.
allan said:
Haha, sounds about right. Why would you want consistency from your electrical provider anyway? On the bright side you will probably see some turtles in Galapagos. Glad to be living vicariously through y’all.