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| Bequia Countryside |
Nothing like putting Caribbean medicine to the test like a long walk. Tom's recent trip to Dr. Babu was scarcely 24 hours behind us. How to get Tom to agree to such a long hike? My husband is a sucker for animal snuggles. If it snuggles, he wants to touch it.
With that in my pocket, I was able to convince him that the 2 1/2 miles (each way) to the turtle preserve would be worth it. And it was.
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| Will snuggle even turtles |
A man named Brother King started the turtle preserve some years ago. He finds hatchlings (who have a 1 in 3000 chance to of surviving) and brings them to his preserve. There, he raises them in tanks and when they are ready (usually in about 4 years), he returns them to the ocean. His success rate is 1 in 5. To date, he's returned 970 turtles to the wild. His preserve has about 70 turtles at any one time, ranging in size from gi-normous to babies the size of a cookie. This kind of conservation in Bequia is an interesting contrast to the fact that Bequia remains one of the few islands in the world still allowed to harpoon three whales each year under international treaty.
He gave us a few cautions as we moved around his tanks. Don't touch the hawk-billed turtles. They have razor sharp beaks and can remove your fingers. OK- that's one we'll remember. The other rule was not to touch the babies. Amazingly, the green turtles really seem to like affection........if you rub their head they follow you around the tank to get more attention. Tom exploited this and was suddenly talking about whether or not we could have a pet turtle on board as the same turtle seemed to follow him around the tank.
We left a donation for Mr. King as we love sea turtles and he is doing truly amazing work. We told him it was from my step-daughter Emily, who has a special affection for sea turtles. Truly an amazing day out in the Bequia countryside.
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| Smile! |
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Baby Turtles - the size of your hand
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