Day 158: Iguana, Hammocks and Tortuga

Todays posts will focus on a few of the more relaxing, and magical, moments of our Mexico trip. While we were there, everywhere we looked, there were iguanas. And they seemed quite relaxed, unlike the pet iguana, Jack, we had about 10 years ago who basically held our family hostage for a year. Ugly, but entertaining. Wouldn't this look good with a macro lens?

Every once in a while, we were way too tired to do much other than snooze a few minutes in a hammock. This set were along the ocean. Hammocks are surprisingly comfortable.

And one of the most magical moments of the trip actually occurred during those sad moments when we were checking out of the hotel, at 4:30 in the morning! All of a sudden, in the hotel lobby, all of the workers of the resort. . . . the bell boys, and maintenance people, the managers, and cleaning folk, started running and shouting "come, come!!!!!" They raced around the lobby of the hotel, down a stair well, past a fountain, and toward a beach. We had no clue why they were running. . . . but ran along with them. We could tell they were happy and excited--it didn't sound like the hotel was on fire or anything--but we reallyl didn't know what it was about. We ran out to the ocean, and other workers were also running and gathering, one with a spotlight, and shined it on a huge turtle that had come ashore. They were shouting something about first, or "primera", and we understood eventually that this was either the first turtle of the season, or the first they'd ever seen at this new resort.

Apparently turtles have come to be endangered in Mexico, hunted for their meat, shells, eggs (supposedly good for male sexual functioning), and nearly became extinct. Mexico is one of the countries that really worked to protect them, and reverse this trend. The turtles come ashore and lay some 200 eggs, back on the shore where they themselves were born! They might stick around for a week or two, and then it's adios muchachos, the little turtles are on their own.

The hotel personnel acted like they had just seen Santa Claus, they were so excited and happy! This is a couple of turtle photos from Xcaret. My son also managed to photograph a few photos of the actual turtle on the beach, but I'll have to harass him a bit into sending me his photos.