Saving the sea turtles and finding our purpose

We all search for our purpose, for that one thing we were put on this Earth to do.


It's different for all of us, of course, but deep inside we all have a passion that sustains our hopes, our dreams, our souls.


We found ours at Land's End on the tip of Baja California.


During our first trip here, my wife and I sat on a beach and watched the whales play gently offshore.


We were humbled as we were reminded of the power of the sea and the graceful beauty of those that live beneath its surface. It's why we spend so much time by the water, where we have also seen dolphins, manta rays, sharks, sea lions, and lots of different birds. Soon we will have an encounter with baby sea turtles.



We spent most of last Saturday on the beach at Todos Santos, about an hour northwest of Cabo San Lucas, in the company of people dedicated to the preservation of sea turtles. There are a number of organizations in the Los Cabos area that are involved with the effort.



Some charge volunteers for room and board to spend a week or so combing the beaches for the eggs of nesting sea turtles. Other groups simply take all the volunteers they can round up and put them to work gathering the eggs and placing them gently into pens to protect them from skunks, feral dogs, coyotes, crabs, and hungry birds.


On Saturday, we were given a private tour of the lengthy and beautiful beach at Todos Santos. We saw a pen where the eggs of the Olive Ridley sea turtles will be protected and we looked down a quiet, white sandy beach where the females will come in once or twice this season and lay up to 110 eggs at a time. There are indications that the turtles will start making their way to shore any day now and we are scheduled to go back and take part in this effort in about three weeks.





We met a man named Enedino Castillo, a marine biologist and the director of Grupo Tortuguero de Todos Santos, an organization that participates in the preservation of these beautiful creatures.


His soft brown eyes reflect the gentleness of his soul as he describes how he witnessed the slaughter of these turtles for food and profit.


He doesn't accept a penny for his work, but is still a rich man because he is following his dream with a fiery passion that leads him to not only work the beaches to collect sea turtle eggs and do all he can to see that as many as possible return to the ocean, but to also educate the local children, as he has done for years, about the need for an environmental conscience to protect our planet.


We saw things most turistas never see.


On one end of the beach stands an old, abandoned lighthouse where a very small fleet of boats sets sail and returns every day to fish the calm waters of the Pacific Ocean. Nearby there is a small shrine dedicated to the fishermen who, for centuries, took to the sea from that very spot to feed their families, their communities.


There is a freshwater lake just beyond the beachhead, where pelicans dive for the hybrid sunfish that thrives in the mixture of fresh and salt waters that flow into the lake.


Atop the tallest hill overlooking the beach is a huge palapa, reserved for weddings and special celebrations, that provides an undisturbed panoramic view of the ocean. On this cloudless day the water was flat and calm, not a boat in sight; nothing to disturb the pristine view as the colors of Pacific Ocean blue and a pure, clean sky mingled and their separation became indistinguishable off on the horizon.


The waves broke gently, sending soft, white foam up the beach, delivering little crabs from the shallows onto the shore as hungry seagulls and pelicans circled overhead.


There was tranquility and peace as we viewed the scene from about a mile away on the porch of a hilltop hacienda where we visited with our gracious hosts and Castillo during an afternoon of discovery and friendship.


A stream that feeds the freshwater lake runs past the home, down a little crevice, where there is lush greenery and tall palms are rooted. Like most of The Baja, cattle roam the area freely, grazing on the succulent grasses offered in this little oasis. It's populated by a variety of mammals that range from the strikingly odd-looking coatimundi to its cousin -- the raccoon -- plus an assortment of other bright and graceful birds that ride the thermals as they circle overhead for food.


There are three paved roads in all of Todos Santos -- one along the main drag where Mexico Highway 1 runs through town past the police station, Miguel's restaurant and some shops and fuel stations. Another curves around in front of the original Hotel California, which really is "such a lovely place." It is surrounded by gift shops and art galleries. The third paved road takes you to a large municipal park, more shops, more restaurants.


The rest of the town sits along dusty, dirt roads. The closer you get to the beach, the more over-growth there is, with towering palms and trees heavy with mangoes. An ATV is a must to negotiate the steep, winding roads which, in some places are little more than a trail.


Very expensive, modern haciendas line up next to smaller, more traditional homes and the neighborhood dogs all know the shadiest spots to shelter themselves from the hot, mid-day sun.


It's a place to reconnect with the life force, to search for the core, the hum of humanity that you simply cannot find unless you reach out for it and embrace it.


I spent a lot of years stringing a lot of words together, some of them good, some of them not so good. There were times when I thought I had run out of words.


Not now.


There's a culture to explore and write about; there are creatures great and small to write about; there are places most people will never see that we must write about.


You see, it's our purpose. It's why we are here.