After leaving the ASA Wright Bird Sanctuary we continued our road trip to Grande Riviere to see the giant Leatherback turtles. We expected to have a similar experience to what Maria had had two weeks earlier but, to our surprise, what we saw and did was different. Unlike two weeks earlier where we saw many turtles at around 11PM, this time there were fewer turtles around midnight even though at the end of April and in May Grande Riviere can get 400 or more turtles on a night. It was a darker night as well so we expected more to come. We later learned that they like to come to the beach at high tide and that night high tide was in the later in the morning.

We watched a few turtles lay their eggs but had a great guide, a Canadian expat who owned an organic farm and volunteered at the Grande Riviere. He was knowledgeable and very involved in turtle conservation. We learned that one of the largest turtle killers were fishermen's nets and the government had not implemented successful programs to encourage other fishing methods during the turtle nesting period. The US government and some companies had donated a lot of money toward this effort but without success. Research has been done to understand how turtles hear with the intent of inventing a device that could be placed on nets to signal danger to the turtles. Unfortunately this effort did not prove successful either. In the meantime the turtle population keeps decreasing and current estimates of the number of leatherbacks are at around 20,000, down from 150,000 estimated 10 years ago.

We decided to stay at the hotel (Mt. Plaisir Hotel) right on the beach at Grande Riviere hoping to get up the next morning by 6AM, when the beach is open to the public, to view the turtles during the day as Maria had seen two weeks earlier. Daniel got up first and ran back to report that there were no turtles this time!! Seeing them at night is a wonderful experience but during daylight one can see so much detail and take good pictures of them. We decided to stroll down the beach and as we approached the northern part where there is a small sweet water pond to the right, Daniel noticed something large swimming in the pond. To our surprise it was a large leatherback that had gotten stranded there. We ran to the park office which we were unsure would be open but found several people planting trees (government employees we were told) and the office was open. They immediately sent 3 guys to help guide the turtle back to the sea and save her from exhaustion and possible death from the heat of the day. For the next hour we watched the turtle come out of the pond as the workers would move her in the direction they wanted her to go, "tractor" her way up a mount of sand and rock, and then come down toward the sea, flapping as she touched water. We all applauded and cheered when she swam and dove into the water.

After, we went to have breakfast and came out to swim in Grande Riviere beach. There were very few people on this beach either walking or swimming this time and last time Maria was here. The beach is full of ups and downs with turtle tracks everywhere that look like a bunch of tractor trailer tracks. It is rather difficult to walk the beach and the sand is coarse in many areas. As one enters the water there are small rocks which press on one's feet as the waves push up against the shore. As we were swimming we noticed a large body coming toward us. To our amazement it was a leatherback turtle coming right on to the beach to nest. It was 10 AM and the sun was hot and at full blast! We got out quickly and headed for the park office again as we saw the turtle dry up and look really hot. Turtles are cold-blooded animals so we figured that this intense heat would not be good for her. We got buckets and started pouring water on her as she took her time finding a site, creating her 3-foot hole and proceeding to lay her eggs. We were told that, though rare, turtles sometimes come out during the day because they needed to lay their eggs. By 12:30 PM the turtle was just finishing and we had to leave Grande Riviere to make it back on time to our marina. Fortunately park workers agreed to continue watering her down until she went back to sea.

If you would like to see more pictures of the turtles and the birds, we have them to the Trinidad album of pictures.