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It’s always been a bucket list experience for me to be a part of a sea turtle release. When we started planning for our trip to Puerto Vallarta I came across ‘Saving Sea Turtles in Puerto Vallarta’ or ‘Campamento Tortuguero Boca de Tomates’. They work on conservation efforts for the sea turtles.
Sea turtle releases take place from June to December. You can follow the organization on Instagram or Facebook and they’ll post their stories when they have sea turtles available for release. Just send them a message once they post, but spots do fill up quickly! I recommend turning on story notifications for their posts to get notified as soon as they post when they have spots available!
We arrived at the release location about 15 minutes before it was scheduled for. We had our Uber driver drop us off at the end of the road and we walked about 5 minutes on the beach to the release site. I’d recommend showing up a little earlier than we did as we made it with just about 5 minutes to spare before they started the educational talk.
Releases take place just before sunset. Be sure to bring a donation to help with their conservation efforts as this is free for the public to take part in!
Before the release, they had an educational talk and spoke about how they help the sea turtles. It was super interesting and Kevin and I both learned new things. With their organization, they’re able to save tons of sea turtles! Then it was time for the release! Each person was given a coconut shell and a baby sea turtle was put inside. You can’t touch the turtles, to protect them, but this offers a up-close look! We were told to pick a name and a wish, and on the count of 3, we let them go!
Watching the turtles make their way up to the ocean was a magical experience that I’m so glad to have been a part of. If you’re visiting Puerto Vallarta this is something I highly recommend taking part in.
