Turtles on La Flor beach

In Nicaragua, there are several places where sea turtles swim annually to lay eggs. The most famous is La Flor Beach, located about three hours by car from Managua. During the season, several tens of thousands of turtles lay eggs on its sand.

Tourists from all over the world come to Nicaragua to see with their own eyes how sea turtles lay their eggs. Turtles sail to La Flor Beach from August to November. But in each of these months they appear only for a few days. In which? Depends on the phases of the moon. The exact masonry schedule for each year is published on the website of the research center La Flor.

How does this happen. In the afternoon, in the coastal waters of the beach here and there the heads of turtles begin to flicker.

Closer to sunset, turtles crawl out for several minutes out of the water, as if examining the territory, and again go to the ocean.

And only at sunset the turtles begin to swim to the shore and slowly crawl out onto the beach. They say that in September, when most mothers come, turtles go to the beach even in the afternoon.

Tourists look forward to turtles, afraid to scare them away.

After some time, turtles can already be seen in different places of the beach.

Now they completely do not pay attention to tourists.

After a little wandering around in the sand, the turtle chooses a place and begins to dig a hole in which it lays eggs. In clutch there are about 150 eggs. The procedure takes about an hour.

It is already dark, and the use of flashlights and flashes is prohibited. Red lighting is permitted only. While the turtle is digging a hole, some eggs are already “spilling out”.

And after a couple of months, sea turtles, hatched from eggs, get out of their sand and look for a way to the ocean.

Of the thousands of eggs laid, only one sea turtle survives to adulthood. Hunters feast on eggs and little turtles – oh so much.

Even large toads hunt turtles! There are animals that dig sand and ruin turtle nests. And the appearance of small turtles await both on the shore and in the ocean.

Although the main robbers on the shore are birds. Not surprisingly, the turtles hatch from the eggs and look for the way to the ocean only at night.

La Flor Beach is a specially protected natural area. The reserve staff is involved in the protection, observation and study of turtles. Eggs are removed from some clutches and transferred to a special turtle incubator. In it, behind the fence, eggs are waiting in the sand in bags.

And when the kids hatch, they are released into the ocean.