The Turtle Farm - La Granja de las Tortugas

The turtle farm also known as the « Granja de las Tortugas » is now named « Criadero de Tortugas » is located near the marina Cayo Largo. When you enter the village from the main road (in fact, there is only one!) you turn left. You will encounter the clinic (on right), the office of Mintur (on left) then you will arrive at the turtle farm on your left. This project is part of the conservation and protection programs of the natural resources of the Cayo Largo del Sur Tourism resort.

For many years, this work has been done by Octavio. Unfortunately, in 2004 he left Cuba for Germany. We would like to thank Octavio for sharing his love for this endangered species. We learned a lot about sea turtles from him and are very grateful. Many tourists appreciated Octavio for all the informations, he gave us. ¡ Muchas Gracias Octavio !

Here are the employees of the turtles farm. They are doing a great job in protection of this endengered species. ¡ Muchas Gracias a los trabadores de la Criadero de tortugas !

 Ruben

 Leonardo

 Carlo Ramon

   Carlos
« El Lobo »

Each year they collect hundreds of turtle eggs from the most vulnerable beaches, and brings them back to the breeding farm for incubation (~ 2 months). After the eggs have hatched, the baby turtles are kept for a little while in the pools and then released back to the sea on a safe beach. The release of the baby turtles is a very special event which the tourists are invited to take part.

A 1 CUC fee is charged to visit the turtle farm (payable to the marina before the visit). Open from 9h to 18h everyday.

If you are lucky, They may invite you to see an even more outstanding spectacle ... turtles laying eggs on the beach!

However, you will have to be prepared to stay up late. This event occurs at night. You will have to crawl quietly up beside the turtle's nest, and, by the weak illumination of a small flashlight, actually see the small eggs falling down into the pit that the turtle has excavated in the sand.

Between April and September, three different kinds of sea turtles come to the beaches of Cayo Largo to lay their eggs:

The eggs are then collected and brought to the turtle farm for an incubation period of about two months.

During our many visits at Cayo Largo, we were lucky to witness events like...

The first baby turtles of 2000

Tagging of an hawkbill turtle

Turtle laying eggs on the beach.

Click HERE to read our story of that wonderful event in the evening of July 2002.

The friends of our discussion board « forumcayolargo.net » gathered few times at Cayo Largo during an event organized by Lily. The release in the sea of baby-turtles was always an important event. Click the following links to see our photos...

Click HERE to access the site of our photo albums of Cayo Largo.

Recently, we incorporated new Adobe flash videos into our website, click HERE to access the index page of our videos (FLV) of Cayo Largo. (Flash player required).