The trip into the Mangrove lagoons on or in the Island of Rabida gave us an excellent opportunity to see the turtles gently sculling about. I've no idea why they were there, as they didn't seem to be doing anything, but I assume they knew where some food was. The Red Snappers also found the place attractive, perhaps they followed the turtles.The water was shaded, salty rather than fresh, cooler and fairly murky with a green suspension of what I took to be free floating planktonic single celled algae, which is why we couldn't see what the turtles were up to.Turtles in the Mangroves
Turtles
The Rib and the fibre-glass boat took us in from the Lobo de Mar and when we were close enough we turned off the engines and paddled, that made it even better since the area is very calm and peaceful. The guides seemed to appreciate it as well, although they were doing the work.The turtles were bobbing about quite happily, and seemed to come up for air more often than they did in the open sea, so either they couldn't see what they were doing either, or they were keeping an eye open for us. I did get the impression they found us entertaining in some way and certainly weren't avoiding us.How the mangroves manage to grow on the rocks is a mystery to me, I'm used to the idea of muddy beaches, swamps and generally boggy habitat. Here, if you looked between the trees, there was just raw chunks of volcanic rock.An additional treat was the Pelicans sitting in trees and diving for fish. Well, diving isn't really the word for it, they sort of crash into the water, only getting a few inches down, and generally make a complete hash of it. I didn't see one actually getting a fish, but presumably they must occasionally, otherwise they'd give up. Especially since it doesn't do their eyesight any good at all. 