Bright lights along the waterfront confuse the hatching turtles! They are programmed to head towards the star and moonlight bouncing off the ocean to guide them to the sea. The bright lights wreck havoc on their internal instincts! Saludos, Roberto y suerte con las Problemas en paradise!

¡Hola, Eric! ¡Un fuerte abrazo!

Yes, we've found hatchings in the street. Something we never saw before these bright lights were installed. They also appear to disorient and shy the nesting turtles themselves. A normal nesting more or less comes straight up from the water to a nice dry spot high up the beach and far from the waterline, then doubles back towards the water. This year more than ever I'm seeing tracks that wander randomly over great lengths of the beach. A little wandering is normal, but some of these run quite a long ways parallel to the water for no apparent reason. If there were dogs harassing them we'd normally hear them barking. Haven't heard any dogs on the beach at night lately.

The Sea Turtle Conservancy has quite a bit of useful info about beachfront lighting and how it affects sea turtles.
https://conserveturtles.org/

Health officials for Guerrero report there are currently 17 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Zihuatanejo, 1 in La Unión, 2 in Petatlán, 2 in Técpan, 47 in Acapulco, and 223 in the entire state. Let's hope the return to classes doesn't start another wave. Unfortunately a lot of parents didn't get their children vaccinated when the shots were available due to a lack of timely notification.

Downtown Zihuatanejo looked like a ghost town last night. Unfortunately this is the time of year when holdups and break-ins occur. A friend was held up last night on the Parque Lineal, so I recommend not walking late at night on the edge of town if you can avoid it. Since the vacation season ended the police have returned to simply driving by every now and then in their trucks, which is practically useless. Foot patrols are the best way to keep the town safe.

The weather today was absolutely perfect again. A tad warmer than Monday, but there was a nice breeze off the ocean that helped keep things quite comfortable.

I hope now that the summer vacation season is over and the kids are back in school that the city will finally take down the ridiculous decorations hanging from the lamp posts and the trees along the waterfront along with all the twinkly lights they hung in the trees. Got to get rid of this Disneyland look!

¡Cuidemos nuestro patrimonio!
#NoBlueFlagEnNuestrasPlayas
#PreservemosPlayaManzanillo

I thought this was a pretty scene on the beach this morning. There were turtle tracks ranging all over the beach but I only saw one nest. Many turtles appear to be bothered by the extremely bright lights along the waterfront.