At the Beach

Our adventure last weekend was to take off to the beach at Monterico, on the southern border of Guatemala. It is a black sand beach that has a very touristy feel, loud music, and expensive seafood. We took Max into the ocean, but he didn´t last long there. He belted out his disapproval with the first wave that crashed at my ankles and sprayed water and sand all over us. The waves were probably the most powerful that I´ve ever swam in. I tried to bodysurf over and over and was repeatedly hurled into the ocean floor. There were a few times that I was just hoping that I wouldn´t lose consciousness. Max did, however, enjoy playing on the beach. We tried to keep his hands out of his mouth, but as you can see from the picture, his parents failed. It made us laugh for the next few days to discover black grains of sand in his diaper.

The reason that we chose to go to Monterico is that they boast one of Central America´s few sea turtle reserves. Sea turtles have a 1 in 100 chance of survival to adulthood for various reasons, so that´s why Monterico houses this reserve. The females come ashore and lay eggs from July to August and then the eggs hat ch from November to March. Every Saturday afternoon during the hatching season the reserve invites guests to come and help in the releasing of the sea turtles. For a fee of 10 quetzales ($1.50) you can ¨buy¨a turtle to race. They draw a line in the sand about 3 feet in front of the starting line. If your turtle is the first one to make it across the line then you win a free dinner at a local restaurant. Our turtle didn´t win. In fact, for some reason, he kept turning around and walking back towards us. (We felt the love.) Actually, turtles inherently crawl towards the light which is reflected off the water. For that reason, it´s imperative that they release the turtles at dusk.

Our friend Jatsiri, one of the girls of the Perez family with whom we´re staying, loved the turtles. (Jatsirí´s sister, Ismari, is pictured to the left wrapped up in her towel. She was less than happy that we woke her up from her nap to watch the turtles walk.) Max wasn´t quite sure how he felt. It was great to watch the turtles crawl slowly across the sand only to watch them be washed right back to the starting line with each wave of surf that rushed onto the beach. Overall, we had a great time.