January 29th, 2012

Somewhere in Nicaragua

Today we have a few international surfers doing their thing.  Here we have one of them, this guy was getting some good waves.  Check him out picking up a nice left hander.

As we said before the waves were super fun this morning, this is Wesley “La Moronquita Negra” he was taking advantage in the lineup and he was getting some ones.  Look at him ridding on this peeler left hander.

The lineup was not very crowded today, we only had about 13 or 15 surfers including a few locals.  Here we have our friend Jose “El Corage” Hernandez with his bit panga.  Look at him with this small but cool little floater.

Alright folks that’s all for today.  We hope to have some better waves tomorrow.  Please check back with us!

Hello hello everyone!  Heather (aka quesitos) here with some super cool photos taken from the Festival de la Tortuga (for those who still need some work on their Spanish- this means Turtle Festival).  Yesterday, my husband and I took our oldest daughter Safari to the Festival de la Tortuga in Astilllero.  It was an incredible experience and I had to share the photos.  We witnessed (and participated) in the release of nearly 4,000 baby sea turtles. Check out the photos below!

This was just one of many buckets of baby Olive Ridley turtles that were released yesterday.  A big round of applause for the many local conservationists who worked hard collecting eggs and properly caring for them until they hatched and were ready to make their way home to the ocean!

I think here I am trying to convince Safari that its ok to hold them for a minute- they won’t bite.

Look at this… so cute!  Off for its first swim- go baby go!!

I would estimate that there were about 300 locals in attendance yesterday.  It was an afternoon filled with food, music, games for the kids- what a great way to raise awareness and promote conservation.  Unfortunately, it has been a long time tradition for locals to eat turtle eggs.  In 2007, Fauna & Flora International launched a national media campaign- Yo no como huevos de tortuga (I don’t eat turtle eggs) to counter consumption of turtle eggs. This organization has worked to bring awareness to an estimated 1/5 of the Nicaragua population, through annual festivals, school and community projects. I read that before 2002, every leatherback egg laid was poached and now 90% are conserved.  Right on!