Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.
-Matsu Basho

Once again, we escaped the cold, the grey, the snow of Eastern Washington, and made our annual pilgrimage to Todos Santos. Two week respite of sun, warmth, and good food. Time to forget about the stress of work and just veg for a bit.

Turtles

We have a beach we like to call our own, just a few miles north of town. We like it as we are usually the only ones there. Usually we have nothing but sun drenched sand just waiting for us to lay down our towel, plant the umbrella and unfold the chairs, but today we found a beach being pounded by huge waves. It was hard to find even a small spot of dry sand. But find a spot we did, it looked safe, we set up and as the sun was shining we thought we’d wait a bit to see if the tide was going out and perhaps the waves would subside. No sooner had we sat down that we spied a baby turtle trying to make it’s way to the surf. The cutest little thing. The waves though were so fierce the turtle wasn’t able to make any headway and was being beaten back further and further. And then we saw further up the beach more turtles…some helpless on their backs, others in danger of being eaten by a flock of opportunist seagulls, and others tossed so far up the beach they were almost into the scrub brush. It appeared a nest of turtles had just hatched and these baby turtles were desperately trying to make their way to the waves. But with the conditions as they were, all were in danger of dying, so we got to work. Heidi was the spotter, and I scooped up the sand under the turtle and carried it to the surf, timing my release with the outgoing wave. One after another we watched our little hatchlings make their way into the ocean. A few we thought on the verge of death, found on their backs drying out in the sun, perked up as soon as the water hit them. The instinct in them to pursue the open water is amazing. We counted 27 turtles we saved. We felt like heros!!!!!

While we busied ourselves saving the turtles, we failed to notice the tide was rising, the surf was coming up over the sand berm and washing inland. Our beach towels, chairs, and cooler were all washed inland. And scarier yet, our car was now surrounded by several inches of sea water. Quick as can be, we collected our beach gear, hopped into the car and escaped before becoming part of the ocean. But we had huge grins on our faces knowing 27 turtles made it to sea.

I think I’ll let some of our pictures do the rest of the talking on this posting.

Adios, Todos Santos….until next year!!!!