Sea Turtle Protector for LIFE

June 5, 2013

John had to go to work this morning, but left me a key and told me I was free to come and go as I pleased. Over dinner last night, I mentioned my obsession with street tacos and John told me the gas station across the road from his house served some pretty killer tacos for breakfast. Being the taco connoisseur that I am, I made it a point to sample them, and boy, were they good.

Since John was moving, there was no internet available at his house. I made a pit stop at McDonalds to use the wifi where I sent a few requests on Couch Surfers for whenever I left the island. Keeping my fingers crossed that something works out.

Though I probably should have headed out and taken some pictures next, I opted to cruise down to the private beaches and planted my butt in the sand for a while. When I drove down, I quickly realized the private beaches were not so private and about 100 other cars had the same idea as me. I parked next to a cute little family and busted out my camera for a few pictures of beach goers. With so much beach activity, it was difficult to capture photos free of people, but it was a nice little escape. Since I completely suck at geography, I didn’t realize just how close South Padre is to the border of Mexico. That probably explains the delicious breakfast tacos… Not only do they have ice cream trucks that drive up and down the beach, but they have elote trucks as well! Elote is my most fave, yum.

After hanging around for a couple hours, a guy parked on the opposite side of me sparked up a conversation and offered me a beer. His name was Stephen. He told me that his friend had been dying to talk to me all day, but couldn’t work up the courage. Haha, aw. Stephen and I chatted for a bit while his friend frolicked alone in the middle of the ocean, all the while having no idea that his dude had swooped in and broken the ice for him. Stephen and I made a master plan to catch his friend off guard when he returned. Instead of hanging around and chatting longer with the two of them, I casually introduced myself to the friend when he came back to the car, said it was nice to meet him, hopped out, and proceeded to walk away. Stephen and I had a little inside laugh while homeboy was at a loss for words. To complete the plan, I was supposed to drive away into the abyss, but of course, my car got stuck in the sand! Hahah, talk about freaking karma. At least Stephen and friend were there to push me out.

Shortly after returning back to the house, John got home. We headed to the Sea Turtle Rescue to check it out. It was pretty awesome. A presentation about sea turtles and how to protect them was just finishing up when we arrived, but we caught it just in time to hear the announcer say, “Now raise your hand if you promise to be a sea turtle protector for life.” I nudged John and giggled as we both raised our hands. During this excursion, I learned that sea turtles can live up to 150 years! Gerry was the biggest turtle at the rescue and was 33 years old. Someone asked a worker why Gerry was at the rescue if he wasn’t injured or missing a limb. The worker told us that Gerry loved people and if he was released he would come back to shore to find them and get stuck. John pointed out how crowded the facility was and mentioned that they were hoping to expand because they had nearly outgrown the current location. When the Sea Turtle Rescue first began, the local brewery created a beer especially for the turtles called Khemp Ridley Boch. The money for every purchase of that beer went straight to the Sea Turtle Rescue so that they could fund the building and keep sea turtles safe. As a “Sea Turtle Protector for life” this made me happy to hear. ;)

Sea Turtle from the Sea Turtle Rescue- SPI, TX

 

After learning about the turtle beer, you know where we had to go for dinner. Unfortunately, the brewing company wasn’t serving Khemp Ridley Boch at the time, seeing that it was a seasonal beer. Instead I had a raspberry beer which was rather tasty. John and I shared a killer pizza, which was much more budget friendly than last nights’ dinner, and super delicious as well.