After our trip in December, I had promised the girls we could go back to Club Med when it was turtle egg laying season. I like to keep my word when I can, so I booked us for five days the week after school finished. I think it's fair to say that this time was even better than our first trip, so I have a feeling another trip is in our future.
We got there too late for regular buffet lunch, so we went to the special noodle restaurant which was great, because we got to pick our broth and our noodles, and everyone enjoyed their selection.
Elena did her usual dance about not being sure she wanted to do the kids club, but then she saw the giant slip and slide they had set up on the beach.
"I need my bathing suit." And she was off.
She had dinner with us, but then it was back to the kids club in the evening for a dance party.
The next day, we established our routine. We started with family breakfast, then dropped Elena off at the kids club. Vivian hung out with us and read for a bit, and then I took her to trapeze time while Jeff picked Elena up from the kids club for some pool fun before lunch.
We would have family lunch, and then drop Elena back off at the kids club. For the afternoon, she played, and Jeff, Vivian, and I walked to the other side of the resort where there was an "adults only" pool area.
It's called the Zen Pool, and basically, they didn't want any yelling or screaming youngsters around. Vivian wasn't a problem. We all had books we wanted to read, and we made friends with the barkeeper who kept us supplied with libations.
This was our view.
If we got fidgety, we could walk along the beach and through a passage that was only open at low tide to another part of the beach. We had the whole place to ourselves.
On the second day, our new friend the bartender offered us pancakes and honey. Vivian was a huge fan.
If we got really hot, we dipped in the infinity pool to cool off.
Eventually we would have to pack up, head back to the main part of the resort and then retrieve Elena. As a baseline daily routine, it was pretty fantastic, but Club Med does not lack for things to do. The most important was seeing baby turtles and helping with the baby turtle release, so one day, after beach and before dinner, we got in a van that took us down the coast a ways to the turtle center.
There were lots of other families there, and the person in charge was great about making sure the kids could come up to the front and see everything. She started by explaining what they do. She said the beaches near the resorts are all protected, but the large portions of public beach are not, so when local people find turtle eggs, they can sell them at the market for food. What this organization does is pay them just enough more for the eggs to incentivize people not to sell them for food. Then, they replicate the incubation conditions, keep track of when the eggs hatch, and then get volunteers like us to get the turtles from the hatchery to the water.
She showed us some baby turtles that had recently hatched and the reaction to the cuteness was audible.
The little dot on their bellies is leftover from the egg sack, and it's what they live on as they float on the waves. She went over the turtle life cycle and then how to hold them safely. It was really interesting. Next, we walked over to the hatchery where the sand was moving around a bath of eggs that had recently hatched. Each little nest had a basket over it in case some of the hatchlings got out early.
Our guide carefully scooped away the sand to reveal a baby turtle nest.
She then carefully placed them one by one in a basket.
Some adults were allowed inside with her, but, wisely, the kids were all asked to watch from the other side of the fence.
Then, we walked down to the beach and got in a long line parallel to the water to wait for our turtle.
All the younger kids got coconut shells to hold their turtles in, because the turtles want to MOVE, and they are super wiggly. This batch was all male, and the guide told us to come up with names while we waited, although Elena said she had to see hers before she could pick a definite name.
Meet Timothy and Shakespeare.
Elena decided on Dennis and said he kept looking back at her as he walked away because he missed her so much. The fastest by far though was Jeff's Racing Rodrigo who made a beeline for the water.
As if that wasn't enough excitement for one day, Elena had a final rehearsal for the Mini Club Show after dinner. She told us she was the "main character". Since we knew from last time that the show consisted of each age group doing a choreographed dance number, we weren't sure what that meant, but we took our seats with great anticipation.
There was no dialogue (too many languages going on to make it simple), but the show opened with Elena walking around the Atlantis scene in full costume, looking for something.
She and her friend discovered that the treasure chest was empty of whatever was supposed to be in it.
So they set off to find the missing objects, which ended up being shiny "pearls" in various colors hidden around the audience.
As they found each pearl, they put it back in the chest and then sat down to enjoy a performance by one of the kids club groups.
My loose interpretation is that these pearls restored the dancing magic of Atlantis. Luckily, Elena's costume was versatile enough that she could quickly transition to participate in the 8 year old dance with her pom poms. She was fantastic.
By the end, all was put to rights, and she was celebrated with a flower necklace. Then she went out to celebrate some more with the tower of treats and some very large friends.
We thought nothing could top that day, but our last day gave it a run for its money. First of all, Vivian was invited to extra evening trapeze practice to work on her back flip dismount. We teased her that the next challenge is learning the catch, but she said she wasn't quite ready for that yet.
They had announced that dinner that night would be served "in the garden", so we went out back to see what they were setting up.
It looked promising. Elena, with her eagle eye, saw that most of the prime tables in front of the performance platform had "reserved" signs on them, but there was one four seater with no sign, so she declared it ours and proceeded to stake our claim to it.
As we entered, everyone got a rose, and then Jeff went to the steak station to get me one of those to go with my rose.
We enjoyed dinner and dessert and struck up a conversation with the couple sitting near us, so we had a lot of fun as the sun set and the lights came on. Then, it was time for the show.
It was especially fun to watch and cheer, because the performers are the ones who run the trapeze lessons during the day, so Vivian knows them all now, and they absolutely know what they're doing.
As things were wrapping up, a full strawberry moon started to rise over the water, so I took the girls down to the beach for a picture.
Elena went back and got another great shot of the moon farther up.
It was a magical evening, and the perfect ending to a wonderful holiday. I'm not sure when we'll be able to go back next, but it is definitely on our list.
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