So the Turtle viewing lottery puts our little tour on beach 6 at 8:30pm. We are instructed to wear all dark clothing, closed toed shoes and bring a flashlight. We walk through the jungle of Tortuguera National Park for about 1/2 an hour when we are halted and silenced by our guide. We stand on the edge of the beach. Flashlights off and hushed. He whispers that we need to wait here while he goes to see the spotter. The spotter is a trained local who scours his section of the coastline for nesting turtles and alerts the guides. The entire coast line in the park is closed 6pm to 6am with access granted only to registered groups such as ours. After a short wait the spotter has found a nesting turtle for us. We silently walk onto the beach. There she is! A huge Atlantic Green Turtle preparing to lay her eggs. She is massive - 4' feet across and has scooped out a nest in the sand- easily 6'x6'. She is now in her 'trance' state and will not be bothered by people. Even still our guide lines us up quietly behind her, out of her sight. He shines his infrared light into the hole. Her eggs are falling softly onto the sandy nest. 45 minutes later she has laid about 120 soft golf ball sized eggs. She spends another 1/2 hour covering them up and creating a decoy nest. Her flippers seem so unsuited to the task and sand is thrown up everywhere. Exhausted finally, she pulls herself out of the nest and begins her journey back to the ocean. She was born on this particular beach and should one of her eggs reach maturity, it too will return here to lay her eggs. 1 in 1000 survive as the risks are many- humans, birds, fish. This community used to sell the turtle eggs and meat but has been transformed over the last 50 years to be their protectors. Our little group watch as she struggles to the ocean, slowly dragging herself through the black sandy shore. As the waves reach out to her, there is a collective sigh from the group as she is now home, her work is done and she is lifted away from the shore and back into the sea. I turn to Ron and say was this our David Attenborough moment? This event we witnessed was inspiring, moving and miraculous. 'And I think to myself what a wonderful world.'