Turtle Habitat

Today's rant has largely to do with turtles, hence the name, so I apologize in advance for the not so interesting content.

Was a travel day today, headed to Valencia. As I am super psycho about being places early and not missing things we ended up being at the train station just over an hour early. Lucky for us they had a turtle sanctuary that kept us occupied for almost a half hour. 

Turtles are creepy folks. They have the tongue of a frog, legs of a lizard, and thankfully a shell that hides the overall spidery appearance to them. They also have nails on the end of their webbed feet. They have crazy long legs and neck that ultimately give off the creepy vibe. We watched as they swam (rather quickly might I add) around their little habitat, and attempted to climb up out of the water, some succeeding. Some when they got out of the water would stretch a leg or their neck out super far so they could dry, or warm from the sun. Pretty funny as they just climb over each other and end up resting on one another, especially when the one on the very bottom decides it is time to go back into the water, they usually all topple over each other. 

 

Turtles upon turtles upon turtles. Look at them all! To the right of this picture there were three more little island that were full of turtles. Also tons in the water! 

Now to make this post a little more interesting I have decided to add an anecdotes about turtles. 

My family and I were in Hawaii and we decided to do a snorkelling tour. I was much younger at the time, maybe ten or so. We got to a stop and the captain came over the intercom saying that there are often sharks that live around this area, this time of year they are in usually in their caves but to still be cautious, and watch the boat for a flag to signify to immediately come back. Mom decided to sit this one out and dad ensured me we wouldn't see a shark, so he Mitch and myself went for a snorkel. Well I am in no way a shark person. Nope nope nope! I am afraid of going in lakes because the Sharks are going to get me. Yes I know they don't live in lakes, but in my dreams that haunt me at night they do, and you can't see the bottom of the dark creepy lakes that we voluntarily throw ourselves into, needless to say this isn't my favourite. Anyways so clutching my Padres hand quite tight the three of us went for a snorkel. Another you must know is that snorkelling in general kind freaks me out, I always enjoy it in the end but not so much till I am out, this I have learned over the years, but still force myself to go. Alright back to the story. So we were swimming along, when Mitch being the adventurous guy that he is swims off a little to far. Dad tells me somehow under the water to follow but he is going to swim ahead to check on Mitch. Soon I continue to follow as close as I can when I realize I am almost all alone. Being as freaked out that I was going to die for some reason I decided that it would be a great idea to turn around and see what was going to eat me. BAM! HUGE ASS SEA TURTLE RIGHT IN MY FACE! I can honestly say I peed my pants out of fear, loosing my mouth piece and breaking the seal on my mask, causing myself to have to get enough out of the water to fix it and then trying to find the courage to stick my face back into the water. Sea turtles are GIGANTIC! I am super not kidding about this, they are big and I was incredibly terrified. Even on our honeymoon I was constantly scared of the turtles. The ones that we eventually could see and the ones that we didn't. They also swim fast.

 

Not sure if you can see this guy sticking his leg out or not. Don't look scary now do they?

We even saw one guy flipped on his back. It was a sad sight as none of his friends helped him flip back over. You can see in the back ground of this picture the turtle trying to climb up, it was both impress and funny watching them. 

 

 

This is what the front of the trains look like, just thought I would share as we think they look funny.

Like I said today was a travel day so there wasn't many exciting things to go on. We did find our way to our hostel and found some dinner as well. Starting to plan what the two days here will look like and see what there is close to our new home base.

And so adventure continues...