Travel Guide La Escobilla

Escobilla occupies a special place in the world of marine turtles, as it is the most important place in the world for the reproduction of Golfinas turtles: since 1998, more than one million nests are counted per season. After the ban on the commercial exploitation of sea turtles, the members of this coastal community created this pioneering turtle protection centre in 1997. The area can only be visited with certified guides. All year round, the turtles arrive on the beach at nightfall to bury their eggs: this is solitary nesting. The eggs are then kept by the community in a corral, in order to protect them from unscrupulous bipeds who would like to gobble them up or resell them. They are kept during their incubation period (45 days) and then released at the water's edge.Between the months of July and December, the beach is the seat of a fabulous phenomenon, here called the arribada: it is the arrival of thousands of turtles at the same time on the beach. It is a complex phenomenon; the days of arrival are impossible to foresee, nor the exact periodicity: let us say that on average, the massive arrival takes place once a month, this one being able to last from a few hours to several weeks... The eggs are then left on the sand, and the volunteers go up the guard day and night during 45 days while waiting for the babies turtles to leave the egg and to run away towards the sea. Only a tiny fraction of them will reach adulthood.