Odds & Ends From Akumal 8/25-9/7/2012..... Completed 9/9
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Odds & Ends From Akumal 8/25-9/7/2012..... Comple... - 9/8/2012 5:57:15 PM
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Tortuga Tom
Posts: 15423
Joined: 5/23/2005
From: We Dodge Horse Poop On The Roads
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We arrived Sat. to the usual great greetings. Honey, we're home.  We spent the rest of Sat. & all Sunday relaxing and snorkeling, other than my late night activities on the beach. I'll cover that later.
Monday we went to CC's casa @ Soliman for a great day of food and friendship. Craig and Margaret already had a menu planned but someone showed up and threw a wrench into those plans.
Mags had a successful fishing expedition and wanted to share. Our hosts prepared that monster 3 different ways and they were all yummy.
CC had a talk with the main course.
This guy kept watch over the festivities.
Big fishy 3 ways, arrachera, wings, Cafeto's ceviche.....it was a meal fit for kings. Not to mention Craig's always outstanding tequila stash. An awesome day with awesome friends. Thank you again, it was a day to remember.
There's a sleeping Kat in there. 
Craig drove us back over the driveway to hell and back to ABR where Toes got out of his car and promptly slipped on the mud and fell on her foot.  This resulted in a trip to Hospiten in Playa. We were both impressed with the level of care she received. She thought Dr. Corona was pretty damn cute too. That helped to ease the pain. I'm sure she'll be chiming in at some point on this. She will be changing her moniker to Purple Toes.
Turtle activity was/is at an all time high. We had multiple nestings every night and hatchings were happening at all hours. Here are a few pics of Mariano, Sofia, and I at work on a couple of daytime hatchings.
A video of the same day..... https://picasaweb.google.com/tortugatom/Mexico2012#5785911040329685458
We gathered a total of 185 babies from the 2 nests that were released that night.
CC & fam damily came to Akumal to visit a few days later.
Another nest hatched while they were there and the boys got to see more turtles.
Video of the egg counting and nest closing..
https://picasaweb.google.com/tortugatom/Mexico2012#5785913797801191362
We had a fun Full Moon get together at Lol-Ha on Friday followed by a nice dinner at ABR.
Saturday Johnny came to visit us. Another fun day with an old friend ensued.
Johnny borrowed my camera for a few shots.
Mark and Kellee Cornell gave me a cute sea turtle Christmas ornament from a huge place near their home. Thank you again, we'll think of you every year when we hang it on our tree.
Mark made an awesome sign to hang at the Moonrise, it is gorgeous.
Fins Up doing what she does....
Quite a few more friends arrived over the weekend and our Labor Day party was a much larger gathering than Friday's full moon group.
Bink!
Kay, Gary, and Alma all attended. Great times were had by all.
Oh yeah, Chili too. He stole the show.
Serg being Serg.....
We passed the cooler around and collected a generous 2700 pesos to help CEA get thru this busy season. Thank you all once again! They were thrilled when I handed them the cash.
I'll bet Teriann didn't know that she's on ABR's internal channel.
THIS is living as it should be.
Our snorkeling was curtailed by Toes' Purple Toes and a number of days of poor visibility but when we did get out we saw the usual inhabitants.
We spotted the little one in this pic all over the bay.
Of course we had to have the obligatory lunch at Turtle Bay since they are closed for dinner this time of year.
Key lime pie......a slice of heaven.....
Pelican taking a break from a hard day of fishing.
After being asked to do it for a few years I finally remembered to sign Shifty's monkey.
Timhy was his usual awesome self.
I updated our old, faded, weatherbeaten sign before it falls down.
In our Happy Place.
Okay, back to this.
She FINALLY got to see a completed nesting after all this time. We had one nesting in front of ABR bldg. 7. When it was apparent she was going to lay I ran back to get Toes and she hobbled down. I cleared away some sand, pulled back a flipper, and she got to see the eggs drop. It really touched her and helped her to understand even more why I am out there until the wee hours of the morning doing this. Mariano took this awesome picture to commemorate the event for us.
This turtle season has been off the charts. I was out every night and there are still multiple nestings every night and hatchings all over the place. I never saw so much activity in such a short time. I was very impressed at the way all of the security people along all of the beaches are onboard and helping out. They attended an educational seminar put on by CEA and it seems to have helped tremendously, the difference in their attitude and involvement is huge. They would hunt us down to point out nestings and hatchings. If they could not find us they would handle it themselves, marking nests, making sure the babies made it to the sea, digging for stragglers. I give them all great credit for helping this season to be the success it has been in spite of Ernesto wiping out most of the markers and about 100 nests. There are many now unmarked nests hatching and these guys are a huge help. If you're heading down soon, give them your thanks and appreciation. They have earned it. When I left the area stood at about 750 nests laid and over 14000 babies hitting the water. Astronomical and previously unthinkable numbers.
There were no surprises in either the ABR or the area. All of the people are still their wonderful, welcoming selves. The food and drink selection continues to improve, we never lacked for either. It does seem that Ernesto has softened up the beaches, especially at the public beach area. Many of the nests we dug up were deeper than usual with an extra layer of sand having been deposited by the storm. It also was busier than we have seen at this time of year since before the H1N1 season. My one big disappointment was that Loquito's was closed.  I was really looking forward to some of those great tacos. Lucy's closed during our 2nd week.
We had a great time reuniting with a lot of old friends and made many new friends. I won't even try to list them all as I know I'll forget someone. We did not get to Ek Balam as planned due to the Purple Toes but that just gives us a reason to get back as soon as possible. Like I need an excuse.....
I'm missing every aspect of the place and people already. I can't wait to get back.
< Message edited by Tortuga Tom -- 9/9/2012 6:28:45 PM >
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RE: Odds & Ends From Akumal 8/25-9/7/2012 - 9/9/2012 1:03:04 PM
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sandinmypants
Posts: 4401
Joined: 2/17/2007
From: Iowa
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Thanks for all the pics!
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RE: Odds & Ends From Akumal 8/25-9/7/2012..... Co... - 9/10/2012 3:26:02 PM
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Bosco
Posts: 6895
Joined: 5/8/2006
From: Another day..another seedy hotel
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TT..thanks for the report and pics.
It was fun being an extra on the set.
Bosco
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I'll make it my home sweet home...
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RE: Odds & Ends From Akumal 8/25-9/7/2012 - 9/10/2012 5:11:46 PM
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GRUMPERS
Posts: 1790
Joined: 8/18/2007
From: Kansas City, the "Heartland"
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It was great seeing you and Toes again, and spending some time with you out on the beach that night I 'got lucky'.
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