The Most Amazing

I know its been a while since I wrote in my blog last, so sorry. I have been waiting for the company to fix it so I can upload photos but since it looks like that wont be happening anytime soon I thought I would just add my blog updates and then add the photos when its fixed. So here goes

The other night I got to see one of the most amazing things I have ever seen! Never in my life would I have ever thought I would get the chance to not only see but touch a giant sea turtle! Words cannot even explain how amazing this experience was but I will try.

Right now it is turtle season so various kinds of sea turtles are coming to the islands to lay their eggs. The generally come in on the east side of the island. So the other weekend I went to stay with Rashawna in Marigot in hopes that one would come in that night, we had it on good authority that one would due to the right weather conditions and various other signs.

Rashawna, Rudy (a local friend) Marcus and Stacy (PCV and his girlfriend) and I  headed down to the beach about 11:00 pm. The walk took us about 30 minutes or so. When we arrived on the beach we meet up with a group of guys that patrol the beach during turtle season to make sure no poachers kill the turtles or the steal the eggs (and yes that does happen a lot here). They said there wasnt a turtle yet so we just sat in the sand and chatted for a few hours. About 1:oo am or so Rudy said he thought there would be a turtle in about 5 minutes, well the turtle guys didnt feel like waiting anymore so they took off leaving just the five of us behind. We decide it was time to head back considering we had such a long walk back.

And what do you think we found 5 minutes into our walk thats right a giant leather back turtle who had just made her way onto the beach. We held back for a while because if you spook the turtle before she starts digging she will go back to the sea and not lay her eggs. Once they start digging they go into a sort of trance and nothing stops them from finishing. So when she started we got really close we got to pet her and watch her dig a huge hole (almost 2 feet deep with her littler flippers) and we even got to watch her lay her eggs. They generally lay about 60-80! Crazy cool! She was working so hard the whole time I kind of felt bad for her, its not easy for them to move around on the sand. The whole digging and laying process took at least 2 hours and we stayed the whole time, we didnt want someone to come and kill her.

After she finishes laying the eggs she barriers them in the sand and packs it down then she camoflodges the area! She goes around messing up the sand around the hole she just dug and it takes her about an hour to do it, again working very very hard! After that she follows the reflection of the moon back into the water. We helped her out a bit with a flash light in the beginning cause she got a little lost. Then we watched her take off in the water to go meet her mate and started our long trek home. We finally fell into bed exhausted but amazed at 4:30 am!

So so so amazing and I am so grateful I got the chance to experience it! I love my crazy PC life!

Oh and Happy 4th of July!!!!! :)