Next to our house in Mexico was a turtle hatchery. The people who run the hatchery collect the eggs left on the beach, bury the eggs in the sand, and then push sticks into the sand above each "nest," so it is known where the eggs were buried. When the eggs are ready to hatch, the "caregivers" dig them out of the sand, let the turtles "acclimate" for one night, and then put the baby turtles in ocean. There is only a 2% survival rate of these itty bitty turtles.

We were incredibly fortunate while we were there to share in this experience. This night, the kids were able to observe the eggs being dug up, the turtles emerging from the shells, and the following night, some children were able to carry the baby turtles into the ocean. This particular night there were over 20 turtles (two nights later, there were only 2 that hatched!)

I was really missing my "big" camera this night, as I could have really used the additional ISO to capture the low light. The photo is still very special though.

My daughter is a bit shy, and sometimes cautious. She observed all of the other children picking up the baby turtles for quite sometime before she picked one up of her own. She then picked it up and just looked at it, pet it a bit, and very carefully put it back down in the sand, (on it's back of course :)

I hope this is a memory that sticks with my daughter for quite some time. We were so very fortunate to share in this experience...definitely one of the high points of our vacation.