Campamento Tortuguero | Informal Campsite

This place is permanently closed.

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This place is permanently close due to work on the site. Not know if it will open Back someday. But People around seems to build something else.

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We arrived today and were told that the place is closed for the public. I did not ask until when

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We stayed here for 2 days as a volunteer. It was an incredible experience, we received a very warm welcome from Mireya, the manager. In July it is the start of the turtle season but we were able to patrol in quad with Eduardo the 1st night and Fili the 2nd night (9pm to 12pm). We could see a turtle laying and harvesting the eggs to put them back in a safe place in the nurcery. The day with Andrea we saw the birth of babies and could put a total of 122 at sea. The other tasks we did to help: cleaning, waste collection, cleaning of hatched nests, creation of puppets for awareness. The atmosphere is family, everyone is very nice. No one speaks English but they take the time to explain and understand you if your Spanish is weak. We slept in the courtyard with our camp, we had access to toilets, showers and kitchen. A point that makes the difference, here everything is FREE !!! We had previously been at the Vivemar center in Oaxaca, our experience here was incomparable! For information children are welcome but they cannot participate in patrol activities, however they can participate in everything else. The peak of the season is in September and October, in this season they do not bore, at night they can collect 100 nests and free 5000 babies a day! Only downside, there are mosquitoes and sandflies. Do not hesitate to ask for the password for the hotel next door.

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Good vibes, nice beach - not much to help in off season // donations are always welcome//

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great place and great people, very recommended!! we stayed 2 nights, no need to pay (camp in our car), very basic bathroom and shower. come with spray , there is tons of mosquitos!
even though its not the season we got to see and help with all the process! taking the turtles from the send and free them in the ocean at night. we where thrilled! at the second night we went with Eduardo to walk on the beach and check if there is any new eggs even though its not the season he took us and on the way back we got to see a female turtle and took her eggs to the camp. everyone at the camp was very friendly and nice, we ate with them and gave our part in buying groceries. they let us feel very welcome and part of the family!

July, August and September is the season,at the camp they said they really need more help then so don't hesitate, this is really special and unique experience, just go there!

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We stayed only for one night but it was an awesome experience! There was not so much work to do, so we couldn’t help a lot but we were able to care about the baby turtles and in the evening we brought about 500 baby turteltes to the ocean and helped them to freedom 😉

You can camp there for free. There are toilets and cold showers. The area is right in front of the ocean.

The guys are really friendly and explain a a lot about turtels and how can you help them. As discribed it was awesome to see a baby turtle and help them.

Highly recommend!

We gave them a donation for there great work.

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Ok this place is AMAZING. A lot of love and care from the workers, and they did a lot to teach us and made us help them (Eduardo is great!).

We could camp for free if we did some help with cleaning, releasing baby turtles, cleaning nests. They have some toilets and cold water showers you can use.

We spent New years eve here with Eduardo and his family and was lots of fun. Other days we rode the quad to look for turtles and nest, collect baby turtles, clean and hang out. Between January and May there isn't a lot of turtle activity. So these months are not in need of many volunteers. but you could probably still camp here. We gave them a donation after the week we stayed.

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Stayed 3 nights in our way to the Guatemalan border, awesome experience. Waking up at 2am to patrol the beach and look for turtle eggs. Bring something to cover you from the rain while working plus a flashlight if you have. They receive volunteers all year round. Not much work when we were there. Free. Atmosphere is super relax and very friendly people. There are three turtles programmes in the same street, this is the last one and belongs to the Government of Chiapas, black entrance. Paved road and good size entrance so any vehicle can get here, no height limitations. Toilets and shower at the ‘Laboratorio’ door. Bring enough food and water. Enjoy!

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So friendly! Safe, spanish-speaking, and hospitable. There was no work needed to help with the turtles even though we offered multiple times, they let us stay for free and use their bathrooms/showers.

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As described.

We have visited for 6 days/nights in low (dead) season, some turtles were still hatching, but the numbers were nothing as in high season. So, we did our share of beach trash collecting.

Our 15ft CamperVan fited quite nicely under the trees, so we had some shade. Higher/wider RV units may not have that option.

The staff of the Center is a friendly bunch and we really enjoyed our time there.

* 3 bars on Telcel

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Pat & Nic en Rialta
Je recommande cet endroit où il y a beaucoup de travail pour sauver les tortues, aucune subvention du gouvernement. Nous pouvons faire un peu de bénévolat . Les dons sont volontaires. La place c’est gratuit mais vous pouvez donner selon votre appréciation. La saison des pontes juillet à septembre, possibilité d’assister à la remise à la mer des petites tortues.

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Hello I stayed here for 4 months...
From July to the begining of November is high season for sea turtles (specially the golfina).
So in those days they need more volunteers than never (because they're only 4 workers).
=July-November=
Wakeup at 5:00 to collect hatched turtles and release them (Carefully, the body has to be completely outside).
You still have to go to the incubation zone "corral" every 2 hours because the sun can kill the baby turtles and take them to the dark room (beside the bathroom)

During the day you can paint the wood and recolect trash from the beach and streets.

During the night, your release the turtles from the day and do the monitoring for adult turtles is in two rounds:
The first round starts around 20:00 so get ready, and finish at 1am (bring jacket and shoes).
The second round is from 2am to 6am. (You can see amazing things).

You can park your camper/car/motorbike inside and they have beds for volunteers.
There's kitchen and bathrooms.

= November- June LOW SEASON=
There are not monitorings normaly, so the work is at day:
Painting wood,picking up trash from the beach and street, and helping to repair or clean anything you can.
Also, if you have artistic habilities, you can help Mireya making drawings for giving classes to kids, and help her to make the puppets (she have the instruments)

If you can speak spanish, that's perfect because you can help them to give environmental classes to the tourists.

---Donations--
If you want to help them, the best way is giving them material, like gloves for construction, white house paint, and gasoline (in December they usually don't have).

Name of the workers: Mireya (Manager)
Fili (really nice guy)
Darinel
Cristobal
You can also met the researchers Pepe and Karen and help them with their research.

If you have any question, I left blackboard in the bathroom with more information.
P.S. In the world the're 7 species of sea turtles, 6 in México and 4 in this place.

Enjoy it!

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As described, really good place ! You have to come here, it's a really great experience. You can have the Hotel's wifi.

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This was an amazing stop on our way to Tapachula and definitely worth a visit!! You can help the staff collect the turtle eggs at night (times are exactly the same like mentioned above) and bring them to the turtle station. Every morning at around 6 am you also have to help collect the new born baby turtles. The people are very friendly and explain you everything you want to know about the turtles and why they need to protect them. As mentioned you can park on there ground and use water/electricity and also a kitchen with a refrigerator and a stove! And it’s still for free if you help. To see how the turtles build theire nests on the beach at night was a really great experience!
Puerto Arista offers some restaurants but in Tonala is also a mall “plaza las Flores” where you can get free wifi.

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We arrived and asked if they needed volunteers - no problem! Got to collect eggs, free baby turtles and help out with mechanical issues - stayed 7 days.

Definitely an awesome stop! They let us park on premises and use the electricity, showers, bathroom and kitchen. The beach is right there (although we did swim - HUGE undertow - apparently lots of drownings here). Filiberto and Maria were awesome!

You'll have an easier time if you speak Spanish - although we used Google translate.

Reception is limited - used wifi in town at the only internet cafe - 15pesos an hour.

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As said in the tourist attraction comment, this is a conservation center for turtles, mainly tortuga golfina.
We came here and stayed a week. The staff is very friendly and you're allowed to camp for free on the campamento in exchange of a little help. Toilets, cold shower, water at the tape. One can also plug onto the electricity.
We were there at the end of october. The biggest activity is between august and september where you can find over 100 nests during the night. Help is needed and more than welcomed.
Early in the morning and during the day, you can help collect the new born baby turtles and then release them to the ocean. Sometimes we collected over 5000 baby turtles in one morning !
Patrols are at 9PM or 3AM, depending on the time of the year. Even though it was late in the season, we saw turtles nesting on the beach during the night.
Great experience ! Great people !
Make sure you've got all the food necessary, there isn't much in Puerto Arista and you might want to stay more than planed.

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