It is early November. In most of the northern hemisphere, people are preparing themselves for winter. In Monterrico, on the Pacific coast of Guatemala, there is no such thing as winter. The temperature has been above 30 celsius all day and the black volcanic sand of the beach burns the feet. No road comes here. The only way to reach it is by taking a barge through the swamps of the nature reserve.
As the sun sets in a flamboyant display and turns the sea orange, a group of people come out of the huts behind the beach. They live here and are in charge of the nature reserve and the hatcheries that attempt to save the local turtle, caiman and iguana species. They draw one line in the sand near the water and another one further up the beach. Then, they bring out big black plastic buckets. A crowd of tourists forms around the buckets. In them are hundreds of newly hatched turtles, a few days old. Each tourist presents the raffle ticket he bought earlier for 10 quetzals, slightly more than 1 US dollar. In exchange, he gets one of the turtles, a tiny black creature that fits in the palm of the hand and has only one desire: reach the sea. Everybody lines up behind the highest of the two lines drawn in the sand. At a given signal, everybody releases his turtle. Some of them head directly for the sea, others need a bit of prompting. As there are lots of human beings around, the few birds still flying above the beach at sunset don’t dare swooping on the turtles for an evening snack. The few minutes of this mad dash to the ocean is essential for the little turtles. During that time, all their senses will register everything they can about the beach where they were born so that they will find it again when it is their turn to lay eggs. The first turtle reaches the line drawn near the water and gets carried away by the ocean. Soon all the others disappear.
A few hundred creatures have just started their life journey in the big world. For the toughest of them, this journey will last 100 years.
In the meantime, hopefully, the money received by the nature reserve will help them ensure that in 100 years, there will still be baby turtles rushing to the sea on that same beach.
