📝 Detailed information
🏢 About the local organisation
For over 14 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 these projects are to protect the marine turtles working in tight collaboration with the local population who lives in Colola Town or as they say 'eoethe place where dreams come true'e 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 vary 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, to spend a time in an astonishing beautiful virgin beach far away from hotels and tourists, and witness the magic that nature had made for millions of years this project is for you!
💼 What the programme involves
The main work consists in patrolling the beach at night, find the adult turtles and collect the eggs, burying them in a secure place (vivero in Spanish) and set the baby turtles free back in to the ocean. This must be carried out by night since turtles do not go out the ocean by day (because of natural predators, it is safer for turtles to get out 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 to improve the town like setting names to the streets or helping to arrange an 'eoeall purpose'e play-ground 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!
🏠 Accommodation on site
Volunteers will stay at the turtle camp in Colola which is a wooden construction made of coco palm trees. It is safe and very fresh (needed in the warm weather of the beach!!!). There are wooden beds (no mattresses!), a kitchen, a rustic bathroom and a place to stock food. There is electricity just enough to light some lamps. It is necessary to bring sleeping bag and mattress.
📍 About the location
Colola is located in the pacific coast of Mexico, if you want to see a Map please follow this link, http://www.viajeros.com/destinos/colola/mapa the closest city is Tecoman.
There are many nice activities that can be done close to Colola Beach http://www.visitmichoacan.com.mx/la-costa/aquila/3397-Colola.html , for example you can visit Chicuasa, it is a small spot protected by reefs that make a natural pool where you can go to swim every day, it is also possible to discover other towns such as La Placita or Maruata, also if you prefer you can visit for the weekend big touristic centers such as Ixtapa http://www.ixtapa.net/ and Manzanillo http://www.conocemanzanillo.com/