Municipio Especial Isla de la Juventud

We motor a short distance to Cayó Largó marina for breakfast. After which we visit the small Turtle sanctuary. We get a hell of a lot of information from a very knowledgeable and passionate Leonardo, who runs the centre.

We learn about the different species of marine turtle's that nest along Cayo Largo's 25km of beaches, 7km of which are on tourist beaches. These eggs are transferred to the research centre for incubation in a controlled environment. He also shows us several tanks of nine month olds, a small amount kept back from the hatched eggs, which they will eventually tag and use for research purposes.

He then says the first batch of eggs they lifted from the beach are overdue, they don't check on them until after 70 days, and he invites us to watch him dig them out. Unfortunately of the 99 egg's, 7 never had embryos, 3 died in the embryonic stage, only two were formed and moving, but never separated from the umbilical cord, and would eventually die. The rest, because of the extremely heavy rains when they were laid, never formed. Very sad, but Leonardo always seems to have hope.

We did get to tag and name an eighteen month old, which we'll release to the sea in a few days when we return. We unanimously named him Leonardo.Leia mais