Baby Tortuguas and the Beach!

This past weekend we spent the weekend lounging in hammocks, drinking liquados (fruit, ice, and water..my new favorite thing), laying in the sand and sun, and setting baby sea turtles free. What more could a person ask for? Not much!

View down the beach from our hotel.

On Friday we were scheduled to leave for our volunteer salida, a weekend get away with all of the volunteers, when we heard about the horrible news of the earthquake in Japan and the tsunami warnings across the pacific coast. Some of the volunteers still headed to the beach, but some of us stayed back Friday night not wanting to be at any risk of being caught in s tsunami, especially since our hotel was literally on the beach/water. When Saturday morning rolled around and the coast was clear we headed to Monterrico, a small beach town on the pacific coast of Guatemala, to meet up with the rest of the volunteers for the weekend.

We arrived just in time for some prime time in the sun. The hotel is steps from the water and most of us headed right out to the beach and into the ocean. The current of the ocean in Monterrico is very strong and the waves are huge so it makes swimming a challenge and a workout. After a few hours of swimming and laying on the beach we headed up to the hammocks and tables in the shade to enjoy nice cold liquados. My favorite liquado is fresa and piña (strawberry and pineapple). The rest of the weekend we didn't do much else other then go back to the beach, play volleyball in the pool, enjoy some delicious food, enjoy the beautiful sights and set baby sea turtles free!

Hammocks in the shade, yet on the beach!

Water volleyball anyone?

Saturday evening as the sun began to set a few of the volunteers and I walked down the beach to the turtle conservatory to help set baby turtles free. Monterrico is a very popular location for sea turtles to lay eggs, but unfortunately they get quickly eaten by both people and animals. This organization takes in the eggs and protects them until they are ready to hatch and head to the ocean. The turtles that we set free had only hatched a few days previously. We each got to pick a a baby sea turtle and help it get to the ocean. We all let the turtles go at the same time and then they raced to the ocean. They kept getting close and then a wave would come and push them back up the beach. It took at least thirty minutes for them all to make it safely into the ocean! As the turtles were racing towards the ocean the sun was setting down the beach over the horizon...it was amazing.

My baby turtle!!!

Jess and I showing off how cute our turtles were.

My turtle was raring to go..it was making me a a little nervous.

Turtles racing to make it to the ocean.

Amazing sunset!

I took a video of the baby turtles with my flip video (thanks caleb and jenn) , but the internet here is not working well so I can upload it. Check back for it soon!