Taking a dip in the pool. Golfing your best game yet. Reading the latest bestseller on the beach. Strolling along the thundering ocean waves.

All popular holiday activities, no? Typical, sure, but for a darn good reason—they’re fun and relaxing.

But how about if I added in another activity to your holiday in the sun? Say, releasing a group of baby turtles to the sea.

For guests of Estrella del Mar Golf & Beach Resort, it’s a reality. A really fun, awe-inspiring reality.

Inside Estrella del Mar

When the folks at Estrella del Mar Resort call their property an estate, they aren’t kidding.

Spanning a whopping 800 acres on a peninsula called Stone Island (Isla de la Piedra), the resort’s grounds house just about all you’d need for your Mazatlan vacation:

• 3.5-mile stretch of golden sand beach

• 18-hole Robert Trent Jones Jr.-designed championship course, with several holes running parallel to the gorgeous beach

• A 8,000-sq-ft clubhouse, bar, fitness center and pro shop

• Full-service hotel (called Las Villas Hotel) and spa, plus a slew of condos

• Onsite water purification plant

But, in my books, of all the things on Estrella del Mar’s vast grounds, the turtle sanctuary is by far the coolest.

Turtle Sanctuary

There are currently seven species of sea turtles left in the entire world. Six of those species are endangered.

Predators like crabs, foxes and birds often kill turtle hatchlings either when they’re still eggs buried in the sand, or when they’re making their way to the ocean after they’ve hatched.

But another threat to the survival of turtles is, sadly, humans—between harvesting turtle eggs, and disturbing nesting beaches through development.

Estrella del Mar established a turtle sanctuary in 1998 to make sure that the baby turtles hatched on its beaches would be protected.

How the Sanctuary Works

Every summer, Olive Sea Turtles return to Estrella del Mar’s exquisite golden sandy beach to lay eggs.

Volunteers track where the turtles lay their eggs, and painstakingly re-bury the eggs in Styrofoam containers filled with sand.

After an incubation of period of about 45 days, the turtles hatch themselves from the eggs.

When the onsite biologists deem the little guys are ready to go back to ocean, they’re set free in small batches on Estrella del Mar’s beach. (This usually wraps up in January).

Because staffers at the sanctuary monitor each release, they can do everything in their power to make sure predators like birds don’t swoop down and kill the baby turtles. 

And the sanctuary’s success is clear. Since 1998, the number of eggs collected and the number of hatchlings released back into the sea has increased five-fold.

In 2008, 83,866 baby turtles were released into the sea.

Releasing Turtles

I was lucky enough to visit Estrella del Mar Resort in October, when the sanctuary was in the thick of its busy season.

Even above the crashing waves of the mighty Pacific ocean and the light swoops of wind, I could still hear the clicking and clipping of the tiny turtles’ fins as they moved around the bright yellow bucket.

They were anxious, it seemed, to go home.

I had to laugh at the brief stunned look they seemed to have once they were scattered on the beach. Before long, though, they all made a beeline for the shore—some faster than others.

As the final turtle got swept away by a wave, I said a silent prayer that they’d all be safe in that big ocean.

Want to be a part of this cool eco-activity? Any guest of Estrella del Mar Resort (whether it’s the condos or Las Villas Hotel) can stop by the sanctuary during hatchling season to see when the next turtle release will be.

Video

Check out footage from my own day of releasing turtles at Estrella del Mar Resort.