Since the olympic games in 1992 sparked a rejuvenation of Barcelona’s beaches, their number has grown from one to seven. They’re situated along a 5km stretch of the city’s coastline, from North to South. Staffed by lifeguards from June to Sep, they cater for a growing number of holiday makers and can be accessed in only 20 minutes from the town centre.

More than 3.5million tourists now visit the beaches every year. The city’s council is continually improving services, making a cleaner and safer place. Part of this mission has included the founding of the Barcelona Beach Center. Here you can take part in a number of free exhibitions and activities or just relax with the day’s newspapers.

In each Barcelona beach section, from Sant Sebastia to Llevant, you will find beach bars called ‘chiringuitos ‘. Serving a good range of drinks and food, they’re always highly regarded. The chiringuitos can be more expensive nevertheless , given their beachfront position.

A few of these bars are known to throw beach parties, continually going on late into the evening. DJs are often hired to play music and attract masses of revellers who come to dance on the sand. With nobody to disturb and the sea close by for a midnight dip, Barcelona’s beach parties have become legendary.

But dancing isn’t the only activity that you can do on Barcelona’s beaches. During any trip to the sandy shores you’re certain to see joggers and walkers. The promenades are also always busy with skaters, rollerbladers and cyclists looking to keep fit. And, of course, no beach in Spain would be whole without groups partaking of a volleyball match. You can read the Oh-Barcelona blog to know more about Beach Volley tournaments and beach activities

The sea is also very safe, with no major currents, making it popular with swimmers. All of Barcelona’s beaches have the EU Blue Star rating making it superb for bathers. There is also a good supply of disabled access. One word of advice however : look out for the waves. On breezy days the surf can get a bit coarse, so weaker swimmers are advised to stay near to the shore.

This fact has made Barcelona’s beaches very fashionable with surfers. You can see surfers taking their boards to the beaches all through the year. One reason for this is the cleanness of all the city’s beaches. A clean beach campaign was started in 2006 to raise pollution awareness among bathers and the water quality has improved no end.

Dependent on what kind of beach experience you’re looking for might affect where you choose to stay. As usual, renting a loft is the least expensive way to stay in Barcelona. The beaches at the southern end of the town - Sant Sebastian and Barceloneta - are nearest to its centre and are livelier. For students and young visitors, these are the places to select an apartment.

For those looking for somewhere a bit quieter, the beaches to the North will suit better. These include Nova Mar Bella and Llevant. They are much less busy and are used more often by families and residents searching for peace and quiet. For simple access to these you will need to find a house around Poblenou or Selva de Mar.

With some actually wonderful beaches, Barcelona ranks alongside Spain’s most well-liked destinations for a summer holiday. With seven beaches on offer, there are those to cater for every class of person. Whether you are away with family or on a break with chums, there are heaps of apartments to meet your needs. You can also mix the best of both worlds with a town retreat joined with a beach break. Therefore prior to heading for one of the islands, or Spain’s famous ‘Sunshine Coast ‘, you should usually consider Barcelona.
You might want to check Oh-Barcelona.com website to find out what’s the best apartment that fits your needs.

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Vacationing with your relations in Mexico offers loads of benefits. Though several cities are associated with constant partying, there is also loads of fun stuff that are designed for young children and teenagers. Many children receive discounts at many well known tourist attractions. Selecting an all-inclusive vacation package for the whole family is one of the best methods for all to enjoy their holiday in Mexico, without having to worry about the money.

If you are interested in visiting Mexico with your relatives, you will want to explore a few of the many attractions that are specifically targeted towards children. These attractions and activities are ideal for making the most out of your family holiday. Below is a summary of just a little of the many attractions and resorts that you may find exciting in Mexico. For additional information, you are encouraged to contact your local travel agent or use the internet to guide you in your research.

Located on the Mayan Riviera is the Xcaret Theme Park. The Xcaret Theme Park is a extra ordinary attraction for those who are looking for a lovely family resort. Located in Cancun, Mexico, the Xcaret Theme Park is a theme park that is often compared to Disney World or Disneyland. Similar to Disneyland and Disney World, you can expect to enjoy a fun filled day at Xcaret, thanks to brilliant rides and the fun things to do.

A deep underground river is a popular feature of the Xcaret Theme Park. You and your family can see plenty of beautiful tropical plants as you enjoy the river. Xcaret is also host to many wild and exotic animals. There is a butterfly pavilion, a coral reef aquarium, and you are given the chance to swim with dolphins. Many children, as well as adults, will be thrilled with this theme park. In addition to the Xcaret Theme Park, Cancun offers many family friendly resorts. To find a luxury resort that offers family oriented activities you may want to check on the internet or speak with your local travel agent.

Cozumel also offers many great attractions and activities that are designed for individuals of all ages, including children. Cozumel is ideal for family vacation, especially because it has one of the lowest crime rates in Mexico, as well as the world. Cozumel is home to some of the most beautiful coral reefs. This often creates an incredible adventure and learning experience for children. If your children will enjoy scuba diving or snorkelling, then you will want to plan a trip to Cozumel.

With so many options for families, choosing a Mexican all-inclusive vacation is a great idea. The vacation package will also include items such as snacks, drinks, meals, as well as hotel accommodations and airfare. Teaching children about various cultures and customs and letting them view the Mayan ruins first hand is an amazing lesson in geography and history. While education is nice, the above mentioned locations do not completely just focus on it. There are so many fun filled activities such as snorkelling, diving, swimming, hiking, fishing, sailing, and parasailing. These activities are great for families with active children.

In addition to the above mentioned well known Mexican destinations are that are designed for the whole family, you may want to consider extra sights and attractions. Mexico has so much to offer you and your family. In fact, you and your family may desire that you could stay in longer.

Want to find out more about mexican vacations, then visit Marc Carson’s site on how to choose the best playa del carmen vacation.

The fact that olive ridley marine turtles are seriously threatened is really difficult to believe because, after all, they have been on earth more than 100,000,000 years.

To put this into a bit of perspective, imagine the mighty T Rex. It roamed North America nearly seventy million years ago and, as surely as night follows day, it feasted on olive ridleys when they came ashore to lay their eggs.

These ancient reptiles of the 7 seas have flourished for unimaginable eons, despite being eaten by just about everything under the sun for tens of millions of generations. Incredibly, probably 30,000,000 or more generations of marine turtles were preyed upon by reptiles and other dinosaurs and fish before the first Tyrannosaurus Rex walked the earth and, since then, another seventy million generations have suffered the same fate. Still, they flourished.

They even survived the greatest extinction the earth has suffered. Indeed though all of the mighty dinosaurs perished—they lived and flourished.

These ancient mariners spread across the face of the planet, swimming all of the tropical and temperate seas. They thrived in incredible numbers from the east coast of the Americas to the Arabian Sea and from the Pacific coasts of the New World to India. There were tens upon tens of millions, maybe more.

When Americans began to watch “I Love Lucy” the seas were still full of these turtles. The Pacific coast of Mexico alone hosted ten million olive ridley nests when the first episode of that TV show aired, each with about 100 eggs per clutch. Maybe a billion eggs were laid along just one coast of Mexico in just one year–1951—and these animals were found virtually every place that the oceans were temperate or tropical. The number of eggs was limitless.

There were so many eggs that were easy pickings and so much profit to be made that, during the incredible arribadas, or nestings, massive pack trains of horses and mules were brought to the beaches. These animals carried out hundreds of millions of eggs each nesting season, year-after-year. And, so it was that within about 20 years or so, there was only one nest in one year on a beach where there had been several hundred thousand when we first laughed at Lucy and Desi. Unfortunately, this was being repeated across the world.

At the same time, many countries opened olive ridley fisheries.

The result? From limitless to endangered in a few short years. One generation of men nearly accomplished what seemed impossible: nearly destroying in the blink of an eye what had taken a hundred million generations to create.

However, as more and more countries finally realized the extent of depredation, some have begun taking steps to conserve and protect sea turtles. Little Costa Rica has created important wildlife reserves and worked with dedicated conservation groups and the local people of Costa Rica to rebuild stocks.

Today, Ostional Beach, on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, almost certainly has world’s largest arribadas of olive ridley sea turtles. Every month, often when the moon is in its last quarter, female turtles gather close to shore for several days and suddenly come to the beach in large groups, over the course of several days and nights. The greatest arribadas are often in October, November, and December and the biggest arribada in recent years was half a million females coming ashore in 1995. If you are interested in Costa Rica ecotourism, this is a must-see.

Costa Rica finally recognized that these ancient creatures are worth more than the sum total of their meat and eggs. But what about Mexico? Remember that pathetic single nest on the beach that had once been overflowing with olive ridley sea turtles? Well, the government finally decided to protect it. By 1988, it had recovered to 50,000 nests. Twelve years later there were a million nests.

From a billion eggs to a single nest and then from a single nest to a million turtles. Unbelievable. It is clear that if we just give these animals a chance, they can be on earth another 100,000,000 years.

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The teenage olive ridley sea turtle was just 15 years old as she waited 500 yards offshore in the warm, tropical eastern Pacific ocean off Ostional Beach in a small land that, more than 500 years earlier, Christopher Columbus had discovered and named “Costa Rica”, the “rich coast.”

The nearly daily afternoon tropical rains of November had slipped away as the marine turtle waited in anticipation. The moon was in its final quarter and, though she did not know why, it was having an effect on her.

As it has done for uncountable eons, the moon was gracing the earth with its timeless phases. Though she could not know it, it was drawing this olive ridley turtle ashore. She was not alone. At first, a few yards away, another Pacific sea turtle joined her, then a third, followed by a dozen, then hundreds, thousands, now tens of thousands of marine sea turtles. For more than 100,000,000 years it had been thus: vast migrations of ancient creatures, culminating when the moon was in this phase.

Life is always magical. Just a few months earlier, this turtle was foraging in the middle of the Pacific Ocean more than 2,500 miles away. And the tens of thousands now alongside her were scattered across several million square miles of ocean.

Although there was plenty of food far out in the Pacific, something had begun to stir within her. Hundreds of thousands of marine turtles felt the same timeless need to return to Costa Rica. They, and she, were all going back to where they had hatched.

Now, months later, she waited in the soft moonlight just a few hundred meters from her destination. She was ready. Over the thousands of miles she had traversed, she had encountered several different male olive ridley sea turtles in the clear tropical waters and bred with them in the deep ocean. Like her, they too were being affected by something unseen, a force nearly as old as life itself. It was something so compelling that her species had been going back to the same Costa Rica beach since the days of dinosaurs.

In the tropical night this olive ridley sea turtle was waiting. She had somehow returned to the very beach where she had hatched in 1995. We do not know how a Pacific marine turtle finds the exact beach where she started life. There are only a handful of nesting beaches on earth and they are not very big. In fact Ostional Beach is only a few hundred meters long. Now part of Costa Rica’s Ostional National Wildlife Refuge, it is almost certainly the most important olive ridley marine turtle nesting site on earth. Incredibly, in 1995, the year this turtle hatched, some half a million female olive pacific sea turtles had come ashore to nest here in huge waves. These massive invasions are called “arribadas.”

For fifteen years, the mother of this hundred pound marine turtle joined massive Costa Rica arribadas annually and she would have done so again except that she drowned in an illegal shrimping net just a few weeks before. Thousands more were killed by long line commercial fishermen. Even more died needlessly by swallowing plastic bags carelessly discarded. So many have been killed, the race is endangered.

Of course, the hundreds of thousands of olive ridleys just offshore know none of this. In the tropical pale moonlight, we can see them even though they are still half a mile away. There are now so many gathered that it almost seems one could walk on their backs for at least a mile and never get a wet foot. We can only gaze in wonder and awe as they gather silently. These ancient beings will never know that they were here long before there was a dinosaur walking the earth. They cannot appreciate our capacity for destruction or efforts at preservation. They only know that this little stretch of beach is where they’ve always come.

Then, though no one knows why, it happens. As quietly as they first appeared, as silently as they gathered, their patience has been rewarded and they begin to come ashore. A single olive ridley turtle followed by a second. Then there are hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands—even more than that—each intent on one task: bringing new life. All night they come. And all day, day after day. It is a wonder of magnificent Costa Rica and as timeless as the phases of the moon. It is the spectacular display of life called Arribada.

A Costa Rica scientific fin and satellite tagging project recently got underway at Cocos Island studying its green sea turtle and hawksbill visitors.

Conservation organizations and marine researchers spent about 30 hours going to the island in their pursuit for more knowledge about these ancient marine animals.

They are engaged in a kind of scientific working Costa Rica vacation that they anticipate will contribute to preserving these marvelous reptilian mariners now endangered in much of their range.

Cocos Island was described by the famous seaman, Jacque Cousteau, as the most beautiful island he had ever encountered. The small island, just nine square miles in area, lies some 340 miles off the Pacific shoreline of Costa Rica, almost halfway to the Galapagos Islands.

It was not the tropical sunsets and beaches that captured the imagination of Captain Cousteau. Its beauty is just off its shores, under water, in a place that Costa Ricans have voted as one of the Seven Wonders of Costa Rica. It is there that one finds priceless treasure: vast schools of fish, porpoises, whales and turtles.

Since the days of dinosaurs sea turtles have swum the Seven Seas of the world.

The mighty Tyrannosaurus fed on them more than 200 million years ago as they paddled ashore to lay their eggs on ancient beaches.

These ancient beings roam all the planet’s seas except the frozen Antarctic and Arctic.

Sadly , no more. Today, our indiscriminate development of beaches and plundering of their nests have put them at risk. Millions have been in South America to make expensive shoes for Europeans.

Jacque Yves Cousteau presciently remarked that: “If we go on the way we have, the fault is our greed and if we are not willing to change, we will disappear from the face of the globe, to be replaced by the insect.” A being visiting from another galaxy might conclude that such a result would be just.

But, conservation organizations have not given up and are working to restore at least some turtle populations. Scientists are now tagging pelagic turtles like the green sea turtle in far-away places like Cocos Island. Some turtles are fitted with flipper tags while others bear satellite transmitters to help track their movements and it has been discovered that some species roam across thousands and thousands of miles of oceans, from tropical waters to the deep waters off Canada.

We cannot undo the past but the men and women who tag sea turtles know that we do not have to be doomed to repeat it.

The writer, Victor Krumm, lives in tropical Costa Rica. Follow his fun site Costa Rica Vacations and for info about great beaches check out Costa Rica Beaches