Centro Ecoturístico Escobilla en el Santuario Playa Escobilla — Attraction in Oaxaca

My partner and I showed up at 3pm on a week day having done very minimal research about the sanctuary. We were not necessarily interested in doing a baby turtle release—we just wanted to see the nesting grounds, beach etc. The area is a quiet, beautiful and peaceful place to spend time and bird watch.

After about 20mins of walking the beach alone, an ATV approached us with 2 staff members riding. They had 4 baby turtles with them and offered for us to release them into the ocean at a price.

We agreed and paid 200 pesos to release the turtles in the broad day light. We had no idea that within moments of putting the babies down on the beach, a swarm of birds would come and feast on them all. It was a pretty traumatic and disheartening experience as we hopelessly tried to protect the babies from swarms of birds. It seems unlikely that the staff didn’t know this would happen…

We would have happily left a generous donation and trusted the staff to release the babies at night so that they might actually have had a chance at survival. Really regretted not doing our research ahead of time, and would definitely recommend going after sunset if you’re interested in...

I don't have enough good things to say about this. We did it as part of an eco tour with Maxi Travel and had Carlos as our tour guide. He was great and so much fun, we loved his stories and views of his Mexico. Sadly we were with a few crusty older people who weren't happy woth anything. This experience was life changing. We all got to put baby turtles on the beach by the ocean and helped make the population a bit stronger. Those seagulls were just waiting to try and eat them but Carlos and one of the ladies who works the Sanuario were waving and showing them away. The Pacific waves came in hard and crashed loud on the beach pulling them out to sea to start thier dangerous adventure. The beach was full of hatched eggs and even a few adult turtles that didn't make it. If you have a chance to go do this, I highly suggest you do... well worth the money which was...

Pay a little to get to take a bucket full of baby turtles to the ocean. It's very cute and you'll be taught a little about sea turtle conservation too.

You have to wait for sundown to release the tortuguitas so the birds have a harder time finding them in the water. You'll bond with your infant turtles and seeing them get picked off the waves by hungry birds is a little like watching your own children...