Turtles and Thunderstorms: Isla Mujeres, Mexico!



A perfect summer's day on Isla Mujeres

August: turtles and thunderstorms just seem to go together. The turquoise seas are calm, winds are zephyr-light, the cloudless skies are painted a cerulean blue, and the temperature hovers at a comfortable thirty degrees Celsius, or ninety-something on the Fahrenheit scale. 

The weather is perfect for the mama turtles to make their annual trek to the beaches, digging deep holes with their flippers and abandoning their buried eggs to their fate. And then, a storm bounces past the island!  

The beginning of Hurricane Ernesto.

Tropical storms and hurricane season correspond almost exactly to the mating and egg-laying season for the giant sea turtles, starting in June and ending in late October. 

It is either a perfect symbiotic relationship or a colossal joke played on these lumbering beasts. 

In the absence of my owning a PhD in the science of sea turtles, I am surmising that the relationship has developed over the millennia to accommodate a supply of food for the turtles as they gather to participate in a little fun with members of the opposite sex. 

Otherwise, why do it?


At the south end of Isla Mujeres sea turtles mate.

A few days ago, an enterprising turtle laboriously flippered her way across the upper level of the beach in front of our casa and all along in front of the vacation rental complex of Punta Piedra, looking for the perfect place to lay her eggs. 

She eventually headed back to sea eight houses north of our casa, apparently unsuccessful in finding the perfect spot. 



A mama sea turtle's long march during the night.



The following night, two visitors staying next door set their alarm clock to wake them in the wee hours of the morning and were rewarded with the sight of a female turtle investigating the same beach for nesting possibilities. 

They waited quietly and patiently in the dark, hardly daring to move for fear of spooking the turtle. 

As it turned out, she wasn't satisfied with the depth of the sand and returned to the ocean to try again, someplace else.  These ladies are very finicky.

Watching the wind-swollen surf pound the island.

In the aftermath of a nearby hurricane, with the wind-swollen surf pounding our beaches, do the female turtles have regrets? 

"Darn!  I wish I'd laid my eggs yesterday."  

Hasta Luego
Lynda and Lawrie

 ~

Murder and mayhem in paradise!

Denise Walker Corley's pooch enjoying Isla Mujeres Mysteries.

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