Huatulco!

Huatulco (wah-TOOL-co) is a little town on the south coast of Oaxaca on the Pacific Ocean. It was selected for tourism development and has a bunch of big, expensive, all-inclusive resorts. Happily it still has some cute, small hotels. If you don't go around Christmas or Easter, it's a sleepy resort town with lots of empty capacity! We spent a day and a half on a small boat snorkeling and took a one-day trip to a small town called Mazunte with a turtle sanctuary. Our puppy, Tortuguita, gets her name from the turtles and because "tortuga" is Ian's favorite word in Spanish!


The holiday started at a restaurant on the beach with a baked pineapple stuffed with seafood. Ian was in heaven!


We saw grey whales very near the boat on several occasions. They were usually traveling in groups of two or three.


This one went under slowly, but we didn't see it again. Curse the giant lungs of big whales!


This is a jumping ray; it was about one meter across. It jumps vertically out of the ocean, flips over two or three times, and then plunges straight back into the ocean. We saw this one jump three times.


We saw several turtles in the ocean. I believe this is a Hawksbill.


This is the underside of a giant manta ray with a wingspan of around 5 meters (estimated by the snorkel guides). When we saw this giant, the two guides, the diver, and Ian threw on their masks and jumped into the ocean to swim with it. The driver and I stayed on the boat - somebody had to! Ian was totally amazed by the experience, and it increased his interest in getting scuba certified.


The very cool Oaxacan squirrel up in a coco palm....


And it's alter-ego - the rarely seen coco-head squirrel!


We visited an ecotourism location called Ventanilla where people rescue and rehabilitate animals that should be wild but were held as pets. The lagoon was filled with wild crocodiles, turtles, and iguanas. The location is very near a former turtle processing plant that, until 1990, "processed" (read: slaughtered) between 1500 and 2000 turtles every day for their meat, oils, and shells. The government of Mexico and the international community helped the area develop alternative livelihoods to replace the turtle processing jobs.


A big crocodile in the lagoon.


Baby crocodiles at a rehabilitation center. They were born to a female who could not be rehabilitated and will be released when they're big enough to fend for themselves.


Aren't we darling??


Ian loved his big fins and fancy snorkel mask!


Ian saw an eel...


And a skate - a small ray.


We saw fields of multi-colored coral.


There were schools of sardines (the photo hardly does the experience justice)!




And lots of big grey fish with yellow tails!