Tortuga Bay

Thanks for the pic, Perri!

Sea Kayaking (3 Dec. 2008)

After lunch Tom, Jennie, Britta, Pat, Perri, Christina and I took a taxi to the trailhead for Tortuga Bay. There was a stone path that lead from where the taxi left us to the two beaches at the bay. The path was basically a double track footpath paved with small paving stones through a fairly arid part of the island. Of course there were the requisite dozens of lava lizards scurrying underfoot. The footpath itself gave the impression of walking across a miniaturized Great Wall.

Once we walked the 2.5 kilometers to the beach, we walked through the waves following marine iguana tracks and watching Sally Lightfoot crabs. We stopped to have a short visit with a marine iguana who was hamming up all the attention. We left Pat and Christina at the first beach and rounded the point to the second beach and Tortuga Bay proper. The first beach was secluded—aside from us there was only one other person—and then the second had the person renting out kayaks and that was it. There's definitely a perk to having to walk a mile to get to the beach. After the walk, though, we were starting to run out of time until dinner, so we debated just walking down the beach and coming back. It was one of the best decisions of the trip to keep going. The kayak rentals were $5 per person per hour, so I got a kayak, Tom and Perri shared a double, and Jennie and Britta shared a double.

The water in the bay was calm and clear, which helped us to see all of the sea turtles. I lost count on sea turtles, as you could see a flipper or head pop above water and then you could paddle over and float alongside of it for a few minutes. We also saw a few rays and three sharks. We think they were white tipped sharks, but I'm not sure. For two of them we only saw fins, but the other swam right through our group so we could see the whole body. We also paddled in-and-out of the mangroves that bordered the bay, seeing herons and lots of colorful fish. Awesome experience.