Releasing turtles along Mayan Riviera

USA 3000 flights and Apple Vacations make it really easy to to get from Cleveland to Mexico’s  Mayan Riviera, south of Cancun. It’s about a three hour morning flight and you can be on the beach before noon.
If you’ll be making your getaway   in the next week or so, you’ll want to check out Sunday’s Travel section (8-14) and my story about buying prescription drugs in Mexico. Videos of the Valentin Imperial Maya resort where I stayed and of Playa del Carmen, just a few minutes south of there, are imbedded in the online version of that story at News-Herald.com.

This is the season turtles hatch along the beaches of that Caribbean coast and a Playa del Carmen resort is awaiting the hatching of a batch of about 120 of round white eggs between late August and early September. I’m not personally familiar with the Mahékal Beach Resort, but I admire its initiative to invite guests to be part of the release of the baby turtles, which have been protected from predators since a Loggerhead turtle laid her eggs on the beach at the end of June. Several guests witnessed that event, the third time it’s happened in the past two years.. Loggerhead turtles weigh between 200 and 500 pounds and grow to almost 4 feet long.
“We will  invite our guests to name and personally release each baby sea turtle into the Caribbean Sea,” said Emilio Palazuelos, general manager at Mahékal Beach Resort.
Visit mahekalplaya.com or call  +011-52-984-813-0611 Ext. 113