Protecting the Marine Turtles in Mexico

For over 15 years, this project has been organized in the Turtle Camp at Colola Beach with extraordinary results. This project is the source of many beautiful stories; hundreds of volunteers from all over the world had participated. The aim of this project is to protect the marine turtles working in tight collaboration with the local population who lives in Colola Town or as they say "the place where dreams come true". Volunteers, along with local people, will realize activities to protect the turtles, and will help to ensure the survival of the turtles for the future generations. There are two species of turtles arriving to this area: Negra (Black Turtle) and Golfina (Olive Riddle Turtle). The size of the turtles varies from 1 meter to 1.5 meters long and the weight from 40 kg to 100 kg. Every turtle makes a nest of around 150 eggs. If you like nature, enjoy spending time in an astonishingly beautiful virgin beach far away from hotels and tourists, and are willing to witness the magic that nature had made for millions of years, this project is for you!

The main work consists in patrolling the beach at night, finding the adult turtles and collecting the eggs, burying them in a secure place (vivero in Spanish) and setting the baby turtles free back into the ocean. This must be carried out at night since turtles do not go out of the ocean during the day (because of natural predators, it is safer for turtles to get out of the ocean in the dark). In collaboration with local indigenous people from Colola, volunteers will seek for the turtles, taking care of their eggs and the baby turtles. Locals are very friendly and working with them is very pleasant as they explain to the group what to do. We need very motivated volunteers who really want to get involved in this project, willing to interact with the local people and their culture. There are also some extra activities to do with the local people to help improve the town such as setting names to the streets or helping to arrange an all purpose playground for the children and maybe some cleaning tasks, but it depends on your initiative! Local people are very open to participate in other activities and volunteers can also propose their own initiatives, so your ideas will be welcomed!

Project dates:

May 8 - May 24, 2013 ◆ May 29 - June 14, 2013 ◆ June 19 - July 5, 2013 ◆ July 10 - July 26, 2013 ◆ July 31 - August 16, 2013 ◆ August 21 - September 6, 2013 ◆ September 11 - September 27, 2013 ◆ October 2 - October 18, 2013 ◆ October 23 - November 8, 2013 ◆ November 13 - November 29, 2013
◆ December 4 - December 20, 2013 ◆ January 1 - January 17, 2014◆ January 22 - February 7, 2014 ◆ February 12 - February 28, 2014◆ March 5 - March 21, 2014 ◆ March 26 - April 11, 2014 ◆April 16 - May 2, 2014

Colola is located on the Pacific coast of Mexico. It's a remote place that offers an excellent opportunity to be close to nature, on a virgin beach, with no tourism around. The closest city is Tecoman at 200 kilometers.

For more information, please visit www.cadip.org/volunteer-in-mexico.htm

CADIP International Volunteer Program: www.cadip.org