Centro Mexicano de la Tortuga — Attraction in Oaxaca

Guess there must be some good work going on in conservation. As a visitor I would have been happier just to donate and see something of the conservation project. Instead, it has the feeling of a sad zoo. Inadequate enclosures. Stressed turtles, swimming against the glass, desperate, trying to climb on top of eachother, unable to climb the impossibly steep collapsed plank for a rest, one wedging itself in a corner the only place to get out of the water. Turtles from the amazon that do not belong here. Turtles swimming in fetid stink. And the introduction notice with the beautiful story of how this place was constructed to compensate the locals who previously benefited from killing the turtles, a nice list of all the great things you used to be able to do with turtles, from eating them to making handbags, all that came to an end in the 1990s when they...

Was excited to go after reviews showed good caring for the turtle but turned out to be a very sad visit. Some turtles had it good, but 80/90% have a rough go. Some enclosures have walls so steep out of the water the turtles can't get out, so they're stuck in the water 100% of the time. Others have wooden ramps to get up that, again, are obviously far too steep so they're stuck there. Some info signs say "these certain turtles like low current rivers" but they have a waterfall flowing into their water. One tank was so unclean the water was thick and dark green full of algae - the turtles in it had a thick layer of algae on their shell. I understand it's under budgeted and I'm assuming understaffed (only saw 2 gardeners all afternoon) but most of the issues would be a simple, obvious fix.

Beautiful turtles,...

There are many different types of turtles here and it is great to see (particularly the sea turtles) close up. However it seems like the project is perhaps a little underfunded. I got the impression that maybe they had begun a renovation but had run out of money as it seems unfinished. Some enclosures are empty and many of the enclosures are quite small. Some looked too small to me, but I'm no expert on how much space turtles require so I may be wrong on this. I certainly didn't get the impression the animals were being exploited just that maybe more resources are required. I understand they do very good conservation work and rescue eggs from poachers, releasing the baby turtles to the sea at a later date, however we didn't see anything about this, perhaps we visited at the wrong...