Tortuga

Tonight was the coolest night we spent with the kids in Cancun! We went to the Kukuclan Plaza to pick up diapers and Ken treated us to Haagan Daz Fondue! They scoop up little ice cream balls, and also give you fruits, cookies, and brownies to dip into chocolate fondue. It was so yummy! Rose ended up plastered with chocolate, and I have to wonder if a 2 year old should really know how to handle a fondue fork??? But she is my kid so of course she does!

Then we came back to the condo and walked with the kids on the beach for a few minutes, hoping to catch sight of a turtle coming ashore to lay her eggs. When Ken and I were eating our amazing 3 1/2 hour anniversary dinner, in a private Cassita on the beach at the Ritz Carlton, a small turtle came ashore right in front of us and our attendents blew out our candles and lights but I think it was too late because she swam back to shore a few minutes later. Anyway, the security guards asked us to come up onto the pool deck and off the beach because the turtles will lay their eggs there.

We got very excited because we weren't quite sure if this happened all up and down the coast. 5 minutes later a turtle did come on the beach just a few feet from us, we were about 8 ft above on the promenade. There is a slight overhang on the pool deck and she buried her eggs underneath it in the sand. The kids spent about 45 minutes hanging their heads over the side and watching her dig in the sand. Even Rose loved it, she kept saying "Sea Turtle, Sea Turtle, Eggs Turtle!" Funnily watching the live turtle made her not be scared of the fake turtle statue they have by the children's pool (she was so scared of it before).

We waited and waited for the turtle to lay her eggs, thinking it can't be much longer for her to go back to sea. Then we finally got a little bored and the kids played around on the playground for another 40 minutes (it was 11:00 pm).

Then the security guard went down to the beach to dig out the eggs. They dig out the eggs and then replant them in safer areas as part of the conservation program around Cancun. They found 126 eggs buried from this one turtle! They had a 5 gallon bucket full of eggs. It took about 20 minutes to harvest the eggs and they were slightly smaller then chicken eggs. After the turtle was finished laying her eggs we were allowed to go on the beach with the kids. We all touched the turtle's shell and fins. It was an amazing experience! And I was able to take a few pictures with the kids alone with the turtle. There were only about 3 families who had stayed up late to watch for the turtles. Another turtle came on shore but quickly left. All these pictures were taken with my broken digital camera, we can take pictures, we just can't see the screen so it's pointing and shooting in the dark. But I thought it was better then nothing and I'm amazed they turned out so well.

We are back in now and it is 12:20 am. Darin, Rose, and Ginger have crashed. But Nathan is so excited about the turtles and Ken has taken him back out. The nice thing about having my parent's around, even if they are sleeping, is that I am going to go join them for a little bit too:-)