By Kristina Korsholm January 4, 2013 in Life

New Years Jungle Style and Saving Turtles

As expected all phone and or digital connection is tough to come around here in Nicaragua, which is why I haven’t been active at all on the blog lately. But now it is time to tell a bit about how I spent New Years Nica style.

I was lucky to be surrounded by some of my closest family during the holidays and this year we chose to welcome 2013 on a remote and absolutely gorgeous beach far away from much civilization. Primitive huts on the beach with outdoor bathrooms, ocean view from the bed, access to pool, horseback riding, gym, spa, surf, hiking and of course ‘la dolce far niente’, which is what I indulged in most of the time. Meaning: Doing absolutely sweet nothing.

Leisure time aside, one day we discovered 2 big turtles emerge from the ocean to lay their eggs. Amazing creatures. The turtles always return to the exact same beach their mother nested her eggs. And preferably they try to match the same moon and time of year. Think about it. A pretty extraordinary memory.

Anyways, 2 guards from our hotel were overlooking the scenario as the mother turtle produced dozen after dozen of eggs and as she was about to cover her off spring with sand a local Nica lifted the huge turtle away and carefully placed all the eggs in a big plastic bag. Since our hotel is part of the Nicaraguan ‘I don’t eat turtle eggs – I save them’ campaign I thought the guy was collecting the eggs and placing them in the turtle sanctuary on the hotel premisses, which is what I told my mother standing next to me. But I was so wrong.

The Nicaraguan law states that anybody who finds the turtle owns the eggs she lays. This guy’s project was not to save any turtles. It was to sell the eggs for the highest price and most likely to locals, who eat the eggs. meaning bye-bye baby turtles. No need to mention that Nicaragua is an extremely poor 3rd World country and since this egg-snatching is a local tradition, which has been going on forever my following action might seem dramatic:

My boyfriend, who lives in Nicaragua, overheard the guards talk to the egg-guy and understood that he was taking off with the eggs while all us naive tourists stood by glaring at him believing he was a good turtle saving soul. When I learned the reality I was furious and demanded that he came back and handed over the eggs. It is hard to negotiate when your Spanish is limited and the other party might be carrying a machete. Nevertheless he came back, we settled a price and I ran into the hotel lobby and demanded that they give me money to pay for the eggs. They obeyed instantly probably thinking this bikini clad maniac of a white woman would throw a tantrum right there if they didn’t. And I probably would have.

15 minutes later we buried the eggs in a safe nest in the actual turtle sanctuary, which is guarded by the hotel. And I was lucky to hold and cuddle a 2 day old baby turtle. A black one, which can grow up to 6 feet long. One of most rare turtle species.

Sorry for the looooong turtle story, but since It was a very special day in my book I wanted to share the experience. Here are a few pictures from the beach: