Beaches: Western vs Mexican Style

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have left Teco.   I am now in the well-developed (or over-developed) part of Mexico: Cancun/Isla Mujeres.  The contrast between Teco and here is sooooooo great, that I wanted to share some of my observations with you.  For any of you planning a trip to Mexico, I hope this helps you think a bit more about what kind of experience you would like to have in your visit.

I am sure everyone is acquainted with idyllic beaches, even if only in our imaginations--white, fine grain sand, turquoise water, lapping waves and cool breezes.....  yeah, that.  Picture that.  That's Cancun and the surrounding area.  That's why people come here.   I literally took this photo this morning as I walked around Isla Mujeres (where I am staying, just of the shore of Cancun).

It's the kind of place you can go to to just completely unwind.  The beaches here are mostly maintained by hotels, with staff that clean (raking sea grass and leaves) and set up the beachfront early every morning before guests rise.  Most hotels have beds or cushioned lounge chairs available to guests.  They seem to remain largely empty until mid day to late afternoon. 

If you do decide to utilize these comfy spots, you are treated to waiters who bring cocktails and appetizers.  In this manner you could easily pass the whole day without any interruption; just sun, sand, waves, and your thoughts.  It is certainly very peaceful and quiet, and understandably appealing to travelers seeking a relaxing vacation.

 

Immediately upon entering the Cancun airport, there was a clear difference in this area compared to sweet little Teco.  The first sign, was that I wasn't the only white face for miles.  Gringos abound 'round here.  With all this tourism, comes two things: English and money! 

I had worked so hard on my Spanish, speaking hardly any English for 2 weeks, so I was disappointed to see how easily one could get around using only English.  Because of the pervasiveness of English, most people lead with English, even in the most basic of exchanges.  I am proud of myself though.  My default language here continues to be Spanish.  I haven't flipped the switch back to English.  Regardless of whom I'm speaking to, I still first speak in Spanish--just out of habit and what I consider to be respect for the country I'm visiting.  Even with my intermediate language ability, the locals are appreciative of the effort. 

Also, along with the the high international traffis comes money--lots of it.  This area seems to just be overrun with money.  Everything is new, clean, fancy and otherwise the opposite of Teco.  In stark contrast to the pristine sand, expensive cabanas and designer shops, the Mexican beaches have a lot more color.  It turns out that Tecolutla is quite the tourist destination within Mexico.  My last few days in town were at the beginning of the Mexican vacation season, as school had just ended.  So what were once 4-5 liberations with 5-20 people, now became 6-8 liberations with 60+ people. 

Not only did our guest list increase, but in general, the beaches filled, too.  Most Mexican folks seemed to head to the beach early in the morning (the beach was close to full by 9:30), presumably to snag a spot at one of the beach umbrellas or hammocks under the palapa with drink and food service. 

Once situated, it's a non-stop food fest.  Just about every kind of food imaginable is sold on the beach in one of these bike carts.  Vendors could be seen wheeling them up and down the beach from 8am til 9pm.  You can buy...  cocktails...

coconut sweets...

shaved ice with assorted flavors....

fried food and sea food...

tamales...

oysters on the half shell with lime...

There are also vendors selling chips, nuts and other salty snacks; fresh coconuts to drink the water; cut up fruit with salt, hot sauce and lime; mango on a stick, corn on the cob (slathered with mayonnaise and hot pepper).  That last one, I would have loved to have a photo of, but I had been so excited to see the corn, only to be completely caught off guard when he started to put the thick coating of mayonnaise that I didn't think to grab my camera.  I was too busy trying to quell my gag reflex.

In addition to the plethora of food carts roaming the beach, there are lots of other items for sale too.  You can find bracelets, necklaces, stone carvings....

bags...

bathing suits...

floaties...

and I'm sure there's even more that I've missed.

In terms of beachwear, I notice a big difference between the states and Mexico.  First of all, interestingly, Crocs are essentially the national footwear here.  It seemed as though in Tecolutla, 2 out of every 3 people wore Crocs.

I noticed also that the people here are very careful about sun.  Most people spend the day fully clothed, and it was not uncommon to see a group of people with a liberal application of sunscreen, such as this family.  Additionally, most people spend are camped beneath a palapa or umbrella for additional protection.

Lastly, I definitely noticed a difference in swimming behavior.  It was not uncommon for me to meet people in Tecolutla who didn't know how to swim!  It could be in part due to the shallow grade of the water entry.  You'd have to go quite far to get in past your waist!  I noticed that there is just a lot of sitting, and letting the waves lap over you, such as this group.

Of course not all beach behavior is different...

Though there are a lot of differences between the Western and Mexican style of beach leisure, of course, at it's core, the goal is the same: relax, have fun, and spend time with loved ones.  But I have to say, if forced to choose, personally I'd rather spend time on the colorful, lively shores of Tecolutla, than the comparatively sterile beaches of resorts. 

So at least now you have a snapshot of two totally different styles of beach living, as seen through the eyes of a backpacking traveler.  I suppose you just need to decide what the main purpose of your trip is.  If you just want to kick back and relax, without a care in the world, then any all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean will serve you just fine.  BUT, if you want to travel a bit, experience a new culture, and get a taste of the local flavor, then I highly recommend buying yourself a flight to Mexico City, hopping on a bus, and heading to one of Mexico's local beaches.  But, in the words of the great LeVar Burton: "You don't have to take my word for it!"

Turtle Nesting

I have had some very good luck here in Mexico.  Not only have I been able to assist in the protection and release of thousands of hatchlings, but I have also had the blessing of witnessing nests being laid.  Here is a great site if you want to know the basic stats on sea turtle reproduction and nesting.  It gives you all the scientific data that I can't recall with ease.

I have witnessed three different sea turtles making their nests, and each was a different species!  For those of you who don't know, there are actually 7 different species of sea turtle.  But each of these species has it's own local name different from it's official title. 

• Hawksbill (Carey)
• Kemps (Caguama or Caretta Caretta)
• Each has it's own particular set of charac
• Green  (Blanca or Verde)
• Leatherback (Laud or Baula)
• Pacific Black
• Flatback
• Olive Ridley (Golfina)

Many of these species can be found to next on the beaches in the Gulf of Mexico.  Here is a mural I encountered at an eco-lodge north of Papapntla, showing the main species found in this area. 

All but one of these species will build their nest on a beach during the night.  The Kemps Ridley (Lora) turtle, the smallest to the right, is the kind I have been helping liberate at Vida Milenaria, and is the only species of sea turtle that nests during the day.  Unfortunately, I came at the end of their nesting season and never saw one nest. 

However, my first week in Tecolutla, I went on an excursion with Fernando and some other volunteers.  We drove an hour north to a more desolate beach where Green turtle nests are more common.   As the prime nesting time is between 11p and 5am, we took a quick nap so that we could be fresh for our meet up. 

Walking only about 15 minutes down the beach, we encountered an enormous Green Turtle just finishing laying her eggs and beginning to fill it in.  She easily weighed over 400 lbs, and you could see the amount of energy she had to exert to complete her task, made more challenging, as you can see in the photos, by the large amount of driftwood covering the beach.  As she swept her flippers back, she scattered sand and sticks up to 8 feet away!  Very powerful. That entire mound of sand that you see at the center is all just from her laying her nest.  We watched for about an hour as she scattered sand to cover her eggs, and then headed back into the sea.  I felt very lucky that night.

I felt incredibly lucky that night, but little did I know, my luck was to get even better.  The other night, I arrived in the Cancun airport very late (12:45 am) due to continued delays.  I had no hotel reservation, so I caught a "colectivo," a shared taxi, and asked the driver to recommend a hotel that would be on the beach but not in the middle of everything.  The place he brought me had space and was in my price range, so I checked in, showered and settled in for the night. 

Not 10 minutes later, a security guard came knocking on my door.  Though at first I was wary, it turns out that it is standard practice for hotels in this area to give their guests wrist bands for safety reasons.  In chatting with him briefly, and telling him of my work in Tecolutla, he informed me that they had a turtle nesting on the beach if I wanted to see. 

So, without a moment's hesitation, I changed, grabbed my camera, and headed down to the water. 

There, my new friend Eliezer showed me where an enormous Caguama (Loggerhead) turtle was nesting.  She too, had already deposited her eggs and was now just trying to bury the nest.  She worked slowly and deliberately, and being that it was about 2:30 am by now, it was very tranquil and I could just sit and watch her.  She probably weighed about 350 lbs, and over the rush of the waves, I could hear her breathing.  Between every few pushes of her flippers, she paused to catch her breath, panting.  My heart went out to her, and the labor involved in trying to propegate her species.

 As I watched her fill in her nest, then heave her enormous form out of the huge hole she had created, I wished that there was more that I could do to help her.  But all I could really do is sit, watch, and maybe even offer a silent little prayer for her and her would-be young.

 

But as I chatted with my new friend, the security guard, he informed me that I didn't need to worry.  Around here they have a very active ecological preservation group, Centro Ecologico Akumal, called Ecologico by locals.  The CEA workers had already collected her eggs (85 of them) to rear in a box, and she was none the wiser.  It seems that they do work very similar to Fernando here, just that with all the tourist income here, they are a fancier, shinier version.  The workers all wear uniform shirts, nametags, and back braces.  Nonetheless, the work is still essentially the same: labor intensive, requiring patience and persistence.

I know this about CAE,because just as we were seeing the Caguama into the ocean, we heard that there was another turtle just down the beach.  I hurried down the beach, and came upon the largest turtle I have ever seen.  She must have easily been 500 lbs.  Her nesting was being overseen by one of the CAE workers, Jesus, who is studying to be a biologist, and has been working for CAE for 3 years on this route.  He said that hotels call him when they see a turtle nesting.  This particular turtle was a Tortuga Blanca (Green turtle). 

She had already deposited her eggs, and he had already removed them--all 140 of them.  He showed me the box of her eggs, and I was struck by how different they seemed from Lora eggs.  They were larger, and more tannish than white.  He explained how, when filling the box, they leave the center free of eggs--just sand--so that they can insert a thermometer to monitor the temperature of the nest.  If it gets too hot, they add a little water to cool it down.  He, too, confirmed something the workers at Vida Milenaria had said.  The temperature of a nest is very important.  Too hot or too cold will killl the eggs.  But not only that, within the safe temperature range, if the nest is on the warmer side, more of the eggs will develop into females, and on the cooler side, more eggs become males. 

So I watched for a while, chatting with Jesus about his work, the turtles, the area, trying to glean the similarities and differences between these two organizations and the needs of the turtles they serve.  At a minimum, it's amazing to me how these two regions seem to get completely different turtles.  While Tecolutla was a hotspot for Lora and Green, Cancun was host to mostly White, Carey and Cawama turtles.  Another obvious difference is that here, the workers do not have the option of relocating or protecting nests to be reared naturally.  All of Cancun is just so busy with people--walking, boating, parasailing, jetskiing, swimmming, etc, that no beach is really safe for hatchlings.  All of their eggs have to be reared in boxes, stored, and then similarly released by tourists, volunteers, and local workers.

By the time we watched this second turtle finish and make her way to the sea, it was now 4:45, and I was definitely feeling the effects of my day of traveling.  I hated to leave before Jesus was completely finished with his process, but I needed some rest.  So I headed back to my room for a few hours sleep.

NOTE: you may have noticed that none of my photos are of turtles actually nesting.  This is because the general practice is to not use flash on nesting turtles.  The bright light can disorient and scare them, cauing them to abandon the nest.  Furthermore, the increase construction along nesting beaches, and the ensuing lights, could be causing the decreased amount of nesting.  Since the turtles nest at night, lights can confuse or disorient the turtles and cause them not to nest there.