For the occasional night life ventures there is Pocna Hostel Bar, a bar within the Pocna Hostel. A cool palapa bar and music that is on the beach, open late and serves cheap beer/drink specials. We danced, enjoyed the beach night breeze and met some nice folk, a great international crowd, very laid back.
Isla’s nightlife is a lot more laid back than Cancun’s but there are still good options. The livelier nightlife seems to be found on Hidalgo Street, while the beach bars are more relaxed.
No pictures? Try and convince Courtney to allow me to take pictures... no cameras Papa!
But all is well and good ... the real night life begins.
Turtle Farm (Tortugranja), on the Peninsula of Sac Bajo, is a government-sponsored hatchery for endangered sea turtles. We had the chance to have a biologist conduct a class for us on board, this allowed us to be on the beach as volunteers. As such we would patrol a section of beach and protect turtles from poachers and onlookers, allowing them to dig their nest and lay their eggs undisturbed.
After the training we went to a beach on the southern end. We arrived at 2100 hrs to patrol the beach for turtles, by 2200 hrs we found our first turtle. These were huge, beautiful animals we saw come in the surf and begin to dig their nest. We walked the beach, sat, watch and wait, we found several other turtles that dug their nest and returned to the sea without laying.
0300 hrs, finally the one we have been watching for hours begins to lay her eggs, me and Courtney assisted in the retrieval of the eggs, they were the size of golf balls and soft shelled. We collected thirteen eggs before she started to bury the nest, at this time her powerful hind flippers begin to scrape the sand launching it up to six feet away, obviously not safe to be too close, you could loose a hand or at minimum get pelted by sand, we experienced the latter.
There is a storm moving in and we have less than thirty minutes before the rains start, we already felt the cold breeze come in. As we rush and mark the nest and run for cover the rain begins, now ‘cover’ is a relative term, we all crowded into a golf cart and began the three mile drive back to the marina.
Oh, yes it was a wet ride... but an awesome experience we hope to repeat soon (the turtles, not the rain).
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