After weeks of excitement and idyllic expectations, we headed out with a group of 12th grade students on a long trip down to the reomte Mayto beach, home of the Sea Turtle Restoration program. This was a Science field trip for the students and a much needed opportunity to explore Mexico for us
As we headed out on the 10 hour bus trip with 3 small children we still couldn't help but wonder, is this potion going to be combustible! We tried to keep the kids up until midnight so they would sleep the entire trip, regretfully Joelle couldn't handle this and fell asleep at 10:30. We got to the school and the bus was late, Joelle slept outside on a pile of pillows and the boys, while practicing their karate chops, almost woke her up.
We knew the success of the trip depended on how we would negotiate the kids sleep at the beginning. Brian and I always struggle sleeping in moving buses and we wondered how the kids would do. The bus came, we loaded everything and tried desperately to find seats together as the excited 12th graders quickly staked their claims. Joelle slept on me and David slept on Brian for a good part of the trip. The difficulty was all of the winding, mountain roads leading both David and Edan to feel sick during the trip. Luckily the boys didn't get sick, but regretfully with 3 hours to go Joelle couldn't hold it in. At this point we were really wondering what we were doing as we were then told the final two hours were the worst! We stopped right after Joelle threw-up and we were able to get some kids Dramamine. I think this helped us complete the journey.
The last 37 KM (About 22 miles) took us over 2 hours. We were on a single lane dirt highway up and through rolling mountains. It was beautiful and intimidating at the same time as we came to both beautiful vistas and small turns we never thought a bus could make! After a tense 2 hours, we rounded a corner and there it was, the Pacific Ocean! We had quite a walk to the camp site, but we were all happy to tumble out of the bus and take in the beauty of the remote beach.
We set up camp and ate. (The food was 4 days of incredible traditional Mexican dishes) The 12th graders headed out to a reforsetation project, we actually stayed behind to get the kids a much needed 3 hour nap. It is amazing how comfortable a tent is after 10 hours in a bus! After this good nap, we actually felt the kids had navigated the early sleep challenge.
Later that day we took a camp tour. Our Spanish is getting better so we understood most of it, but as you can see from the pictures above the kids were distracting us with their new found friends, hermit crabs!
Joelle had to go to the bathroom and that's when we saw the turtles hatching out of their eggs for the first time. "Ah, que bonita baby turtles!" Joelle shouts. She was really into ALL the animals we saw on the trip. The snake at lunch, "Chata" the dog, bats, crabs and especially the turtles. (We also had a lemur run through camp and a tarantula that was crossing the road.) With all of the exotic wildlife (and some not so exotic as the camp had a chicken coup with a very loud early morning rooster) , Joelle most frenquently could be heard yelling "Ven Chata" summoning the camp dog!
In the evening as the sun was setting we each got to release baby turtles on the beach. This was highlight for everyone on the trip. After everyone released one they let my kids release most of those that were left. I was a little nervous about the kids not being gentle enough or stepping on one, but then I was told that they sometimes just dump the bucket out. It was absolutely majestic as we watched the 30 min sunset trip of the turtles to the sea!
Day one started with a lot questions and ended with a lot of incredible expectations for what was to come on the rest of the trip!
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