Turtle Watching

 

I went turtle watching two times, only a day apart, last month. This is a picture of me with a Leatherback Turtle. This particular turtle's shell measured about 5 feet 2 inches long! They were marvelous to see. I got to see 4 turtles over the course of two nights. The first night we saw only one turtle and that wasn't until about 4am. We walked up and down the longest Beach in St. Lucia for hours before stumbling upon the turtle in the middle of laying her eggs. The second night we saw 3 turtles, all between 9 and 10pm! You just never know when they will come up to lay. From March to the end of April, 100s of mama turtles come to lay their eggs in the sand. They dig a hole about 3 feet deep and lay approximately 100 eggs or so. Of those 100, anywhere from 1/4 - 3/4 will be fertile eggs. Another fun fact is that these turtles swim back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean, but they always lay their eggs on the exact same beach from which they were born! I thought that was kinda cool. Anyway, you can check out more pictures in my slide show, but we slept on the beach and the next morning we made bakes. Bakes are these yummy fried biscuts that taste great with slat fish inside. Anyway, I plan to go back to Grand Anse Beach soon to see the turtles hatching. They hatch in the months of May and June.