The 14th Festival de la Tortuga Marina was held Oct 21-23, with the opening ceremony at Xcacel, then Saturday all day in the domo of Akumal pueblo. The closing ceremony took place on Sunday in Tulum at Concha Maya. The event was opened by newly elected officials of Tulum and other special guests who enjoyed seeing all the children’s work and fun. Fabulous prizes were given, including bicycles, boogey boards, and more for the sand turtle contest. CEA was one of the main sponsors and the Tortuga Staff hosted educational games that traveled to each event and were enjoyed by all. The event in Akumal and the games were created and organized by Mauricio Batista – he was loaned to the event by Hotel Akumal Caribe where he is the Sustainability Manager(and quite an artist, teacher, organizer and more!) A fun time for all to learn more about our Tortugas Marinas and a celebration for the staff that works so very hard to help protect our tortugas.
Officials attending to open the ceremony included newly elected President of Tulum, Romi Dzul, the new Director of Ecology for QR, the port captain and more
The CEA tortuga staff and the mascot(the most popular guy at the event)L-R, Jorge, Nancy, Gabi, Romina and Jose Manual-coordinator
Sand turtles were created by the students of Chemuyil and the prizes were amazing-bikes, cameras, boogy boards!
Xcacel opening enjoys the Mayan blessing of the turtles with officials
Tortugaritas!! Even the staff gets excited.. no matter how many you see, it is always like the first time-so cute!
What is an opening ceremony without baby tortugarita release?? Very well organized by the staff at Xcacel.
CEA hosted a true Mayan ceremony to honor and bless the turtles
Members of the CEA Voluntourist program even helped with the softball tournament
Of course there was food
Nice crafts were available-TAO Tortuga Team leader Pam Bruno checks out the hand made wooden turtle necklaces
The staff enjoys helping paint a picture to hang in the office
The final product of all the childrens(and some adults) artwork from the Akumal event for the CEA office-great memory
The puppet show created by the CEA Tortugueros was a HUGE hit at all the locations. A learning experience for the kids
Winners of the Softball Tournamnet- the Akumal Jaguars-awarded a beautiful crystal turtle and a cash prize
Gracias Sponsors!!
Native dances were enjoyed by all
Loading up one last time to move all the games and puppet show – 3 days of Festival keeps the turtle team busy
The educational games the CEA team hosted were very popular
Making turtle visors was enjoyed by all ages
A great turn out in Tulum
Painting little turtles for a wonderful memory of each locations event was a special time
The tortugas teach the children that they love to eat jelly fish but plastic bags look very similar and are dangerous for them
The CEA Tortuga Staff and the creator/director of the puppet show and event-Maurisio Batista
The employees from the new L’Aquarium in Playa del Carmen came to the Tulum event with not only tortugas but a balam!
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