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This mass arrival has a special name, an 'arribada', which means 'arrival' in Spanish. Under the cover of darkness, the mother turtles ride the waves onto the sand, dig nests with their flippers, lay their round white eggs, and slip back into the sea before sunrise.
Olive ridleys are among the smallest sea turtles, about the size of a large dinner tray. They spend almost their whole lives at sea, swimming huge distances, and only the females come to land, returning to the very beaches where they themselves hatched.
Weeks later, tiny hatchlings dig their way out of the warm sand and scramble together toward the moonlit sea. In El Salvador, people help keep the beaches safe so more babies can begin their long ocean journey.