Located 80km north of Salvador, this former fishing village is now a resort town with roads of sand. It’s been bought up by a German who decided it would be a good idea to turn the fisherman’s houses into shops full of resort wear. I wish we’d realised that before we set out early this morning.
We’re here for the Tamar Project (oddly sponsored by Petrobras, one of the largest South American oil companies. Guilty conscience??) which overseas the protection of turtles in this area. Five of the remaining seven sea turtle species are found here in Bahia and workers or volunteers at the Tamar patrol the beaches at night to keep it that way. Unfortunately, ever since mankind started to encroach on the habitat of the local wildlife by building hotels closer to the sea, the turtles have been mightily confused and, since they head for the nearest light, have more often than not hatched and headed for the lights of the local hotel, thus ending us in the swimming pool or worse, rather than heading out to sea. The workers at the Tamar try to locate the nests and, if necessary, move the eggs to a safe place at the Tamar hatchery where they will blossom into beautiful little turtles before being released back into the sea. The remaining local fishermen, who previously used to hunt the turtles for their meat and shells, are now paid the same amount, if not more, to protect the turtles and their hatchlings.
The kids are loving seeing the turtles in these shallow tanks, as well as stoking the rays and sea snakes and Harley’s not really paying attention to where he’s walking, so it’s not too much of a surprise to us when he takes a tumble and lands face first onto the concrete and ends up with a Tom and Jerry style tennis ball bump on his head. Boys, eh?
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