Today was a day filled with unforgettable moments! Upon returning to the Wild Life Refuge of Chacocente after another successful school visit, we were greeted by the site of hundreds of sea turtle hatchlings! The park rangers had collected them in bins with warm sand in order to protect them from predators. They planned to bring them back to the refuge that evening and release them. I was invited to come along - but in the meantime, I was so excited – I just wanted to play with every single one of them!
Over our dinner break, we ran into Julie Scardina and Lisa from SeaWorld San Diego, who are in the area filming a new production about Sea Turtles for our park’s Education Programs. I was excited to see them and share my experiences - but I’ve been speaking so much Spanish lately that I was having difficulty getting my words out! I also met with the board members from Fauna & Flora International (FFI) and learned of some of the other projects that they fund. If it were up to me, I’d take part in all of them!
When we got to the beach that night, there were many more nests - and the hatchlings were everywhere! At one point, I was standing a few feet from a nest and felt something on my foot; it was a baby turtle just poking its head out of the sand. There we so many that we couldn’t even walk! I was so excited to be there and witness this miracle. On the way back to the hotel, I could not stop thinking and talking about it - but I have to go to bed now and get some rest because tomorrow we’ll visit our biggest school yet. Good night!
