This picture, from the CEA website, shows some hatchlings headed for the sea.
A brief trip, but wonderful, as always. While I am not really fond of getting up somewhere in the middle of the night for a 6 AM flight, I must say it sure beats the 3PM take-off time we had this time. The entire first day is gone even before landing in Cancun. But during the summer months it's understandable that the range of choices is so much smaller. You take what's available! No complaints about Champion Air's service, although we did take off a bit later than scheduled. Good people running the flight and adequate seating for an old 727. I'll also give high marks to Executive Car Rentals for their efficiency as well as the brand new car we got from them. The Atos (a Hyundai imported into Mexico by Dodge) is really a weird-looking beast and on the low end of the scale as to power, but it had a great air conditioner and was perfectly adequate for two people. Really hard seats, though, if that's a problem. I'll also note that Executive is open at the airport 24 hours a day (except Sundays, when they do close around 10 PM as I recall). They also had a man at the counter in terminal 1 waiting specifically for us, as the car had been reserved in advance.
We rolled into Akumal just a bit after 9 PM and checked in to our bungalow. Unfortunately, everything on site was closed for the night, so we went out to La Buena Vida for a late meal. We opted for a bungalow as we really didn't need more than basic accommodations and the low season price is certainly right. Then subtract the CEA (Centro Ecologico Akumal) member discount and you just can't beat the cost for a place within about 75 yards of the most beautiful beach around. Hey, we're here to be outside, not in our room! We kept the air conditioning on low, or else we would have been frozen out of the room.
Tuesday morning we learned that Lol Ha isn't open for breakfast during this low season...a disappointment, but the alternatives are just fine. Had breakfast at both the Loncheria and at Turtle Bay while we were there. Tuesday morning we just lounged around under a palapa on the beach, then, after a stop at the ATM machine at Super Chomak, headed for lunch at Gringo Dave's. Whatever they do when preparing their beef kabobs, I hope they never change. They're worth the trip to Mexico all by themselves! After the leisurely lunch we motored north to Chedraui at Playa for some shopping, then back to Akumal easily in time for Happy Hour at Lol Ha.
Wednesday morning we finally put on the snorkeling gear for the first time and swam right out to our first turtle of the day. Followed it for a bit until we attracted another group of people, then swam away for awhile. I decided to head to one of the rest stations but happened upon another turtle before reaching it. Had to follow it for a bit, then decided to make for shore. Before long we ran into the huge school of silver-colored fish; literally thousands of them. It's absolutely amazing to be swimming among them...like solid walls of fish. Then right in the center of the school is the 3-foot barracuda, just hanging around relaxing. After a bit we did finally headed to shore, lunched at Lol Ha then enjoyed a siesta until Happy Hour again. This time we managed to meet Ed Blume and Lydia from CEA. Chatted for a bit, then we took a pizza back to the bungalow to rest up for the evening's turtle walk.
This part of the report will begin with our turtle walk, but first a little
about the walk and the CEA which runs the walks. One of the missions of the CEA
is the protection of sea turtles, their habitat, and their nesting sites. With
the constantly expanding tourism in the Riviera Maya and the consequent demand
for land on which to build more and larger resorts, the turtles' nesting areas
are diminishing yearly. In addition, the new hatchlings depend on darkness in
order to actually find their way into the sea. They will head toward the brightest
light as they emerge from their nests, which naturally is the glow of the moon
and stars on the foam as the waves break on shore. Lights from resorts, houses,
and any other foreign source will confuse the hatchlings. The CEA tracks nests,
noting when they are laid and when they are expected to hatch. Also in some cases
CEA volunteers excavate new nests and move the eggs to areas where the new hatchlings
will have a better chance of survival. During the turtle walks people can often
observe a turtle digging her nest and laying eggs, and beginning usually in July,
occasionally watch as the new little turtles emerge from the nests and head to sea.
Our turtle walk began with a short introductory program at the CEA center which explained all of this. Two of the volunteers who led the tour were Nick and Alika, from New Zealand. Our group also included some spanish-speaking people, so another volunteer who spoke spanish accompanied us. We walked south from the CEA center past the Akumal Beach Resort and then along Jade Beach and Turtle Beach to South Akumal. Along the way we saw a few nests as well as some sites where a turtle had begun a nest but abandoned it without laying eggs, which is usually due to her hitting a rock or some other obstruction while preparing the site. We then came to the hatchery, an area to which several nests had been relocated. Near the center of this area there was a large depression, indicating that there had possibly been a hatch. It turned out that a nearby resident had found the depression earlier in the day and had collected around 24 hatchlings. Many other eggs had been attacked by flies and larvae. She had kept the hatchlings in a bucket knowing that we would be along in the evening to properly release them. Thus we were able to actually assist the small brood in their trip to the ocean. The walk continued for several more hours, but we'd reached the end of our endurance for the night and still had a long walk back to the bungalow. As it turned out that was the highlight of the walk anyway for that night.
Our last day was Thursday and we still had a few things we wanted to do. One item I wanted to check out was the length of time it takes to walk from the house we plan on staying in next March to the beach. Turns out it's about 8-10 minutes. Next we brought a bag full of school supplies to the Hekab Be library and picked up a bit more cash from the ATM. We drove south to check out Caleta Tankah, a beach club we discovered on our last trip but hadn't gone in to at that time. It's south of the Tankah Tres road to Casa Cenote, almost to the Tulum ruins. We paid $5 US to enter. We were the first customers of the day so had the whole place to ourselves for awhile. It's a very pretty location, with a cenote emptying into the sea.
In the late afternoon we went to the CEA center for a social hour with Ed Blume, Lydia, Charles Shaw, Kate Robinshawk and others and had another nice chat with Nick and Alika. Kate gave a presentation on what CEA is all about including their alliances with a lot of major players in the move to preserve the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. So many aspects of their work all deal with the same overall result, which is to preserve the Riviera Maya for the generations to come and, in the long run, to preserve vital resources which have worldwide impact.
We had our last evening meal at the Lol Ha restaurant…some marvelous grouper
and mahi-mahi, then sat on the beach for awhile watching the gathering storm clouds.
