Cruise ships and birds

Thursday the 28^th

Cruise Ships and birds

Judy and I are heading to the beach today. No question about it. In all of our years down here I don’t think I have ever gone this long without spending time on the beach. It has hit a week now. We need to see who is here. This is the time that more friends show up.

There are two cruise ships in the bay this morning. You don’t see two very often. You start seeing the tour busses come by taking people up the hill to take a few photos of the bay and Zihuatanejo Centro. It is a great view from up there. They might even encounter a vendor or two up there when they get off of the bus to snap a few photos. The taxi drivers that can speak English do a great business all day long. You can always tell the taxis that are giving a tour, because they are the ones driving nice and slow. Not like the regular go like hell until you have to slow down for the topes, (speed bumps) in front of the house. I spoke with some folks last week from one of the ships. They had just finished a little tour with one of the locals. I think the local was free lancing with a private vehicle. Don’t let the taxi drivers catch you! They were happy with the tour which included up the hill by us, out to Playa Larga, Ixtapa, and finishing up driving through the squatter neighborhood where there are roads. You have to make a living somehow.

One of the reasons for not going to the beach has been wedding plans and our head colds. The colds are almost all gone now, but the wedding plans still have our attention. It doesn’t absorb the whole day though. All of the big items are in place now and little details are being worked out. Sean and Ellie will be here tomorrow and will have a few things to approve or change if they want. Mom and Camille arrive on Saturday and the bulk of the others arrive Wednesday through Friday. It sure is quiet here right now.

We were in the Madera neighborhood a couple of days ago for breakfast at La Casa Café. Took our friends from Ferndale there and then walked into town from there. The road follows along the canal with a couple of foot bridges to get you to the Centro side. The canal is one of my favorite bird watching locations, especially around the mouth where it empties into the bay. The city has improved some drainage issues up stream now and the canal doesn’t flow much water unless it rains. Consequently, I haven’t seen as many birds up stream. This years spotting has been a Roseate Spoonbill that just showed up a few days ago. I ran into my friend Larry the other day at the Comercial Mexicana and he told me what the bird was. He is a much more avid bird watcher than I am. Google Roseate Spoonbill and you will get lots of good pictures and info. There have been lots of the regulars flying around the house and you can hear the Chachalacas calling from the trees up the hill. I went for my first walk up the hill yesterday and saw a few up in the trees. They are hard to get close to see. When you are tasty you tend to be a little more elusive! Check out the Plain Chachalaca on Google. You can even get a sound bite to hear what they sound like.

Got to go to the beach now, I have worked hard enough for the day. Not much in the way of new pictures right now, but a couple of cruise ships might bring a photo op of some sort today.

Warren