Turtle beach! - Maruata

Waking up, Rigel and I debated on staying an extra day at that beach but decided against it because we really hadn't put in a good riding day yet and didn't want kids following us around all day long. We started out around 9 and were greeted with heat and hills. Maruata was on the agenda and thats where we ended up, a whopping 30km or so. We knew there was a long hilly ride ahead and didn't want to tackle them in the heat as well we had seen signs about the beaches being prime spots for sea turtles laying their eggs. We were really really excited about this.
We rode down into town and out to the beach to find lunch and a camping spot. The beach was lined with palapas with the owners renting them out to campers. We found a spot for 20 pesos a person and thought that was great. We had garlic shrimp and quesodillas for lunch. I got really dehydrated that afternoon as we were pretty much out of water so I spent my time just sitting waiting for Rigel to find some water in town. He went to five different stores but none of them had any water over 2 litres and nothing cheap so he came back without water, which I was not happy about. He did manage to find this drink called electrolite that we have been carrying, and after drinking one I felt alive again.

The turtle at the restaurant

On the beach there were hundreds of pelicans diving for fish, it was quite the spectacle. I guess because of the rocks there was an abundance of fish.
Throughout the day we had a few unhappy incidents over which bathrooms and showers we had paid for, which turned out to be a really crappy bucket shower and public toilets you had to pay for per use. Rigel had even fixed one so it worked properly again. Luckily with my bad spanish and Rigel's help I got a 10 peso cold shower for free, which I took advantage of and rinsed all our riding clothes with. It all turned out that the guy letting us camp there is a pot smoking ass that was never clear on boudaries and rules. Overall we found the people and the town's services to be very sub par.
Now the best part of camping at that garbage filled beach; the turtles! Coming up on 10pm with a nearly perfect full moon we took to the beach to find mama and baby turtles. We were lucky to come across one mother already into digging her hole and got to watch the methodical process. She didn't seem to be disturbed by our presence or our cameras as she kept on working. Dave and Uschi went down the beach to see if there were any babies running about but came back with nothing. So we all watched the mom for a while. Dave and Uschi decided she could be at this for hours so they made there way back to bed while Rigel and I kept watching.

 About 15 minutes later they came back carrying something. That something turned out to be a bucket of about a dozen baby turtles!!!! They were sooo adorable!!! Turns out that while we were scouring the beach back at our camp little baby turtles were poking through the sand and getting caught under our tents on their way to the ocean. We set the bunch free by the water so no predator could get them and went back to see if there were more and where they hatched. They were soo cute with their little eyes still crusted with sand! One fit in the palm of your hand. And boy they were strong little guys, never stopped moving. We found one more trapped at the back of Dave and Uschi's tent and set him free. We followed their little tracks around our camp but could not place where they had hatched. The tracks seemed to go in circles..

The baby turtles!

What an experience to make that beach a little happier. Unfortunately we did not get to see the mom lay her eggs..