San Blas, Mexico. Oh, the birds!

 

We anchored off San Blas, dinghied to shore and arranged with a palapa restaurant to leave our dinghy there (remember the post about things getting easier as we figure things out?).  Walking down a dirt road to the bus to town, we saw a pond through a break in the mangroves, with a great diversity of wading birds.  Including my first Roseate Spoonbill!  How I’ve longed to see this distinctive bird, and what surprise and satisfaction to encounter it steps from shore.  To pile on, amongst the Roseate Spoonbills waded Great Egrets, White Ibis, Wood Storks, Tricolored Herons and Boat-billed Herons. Whaaaaat???!

Has anybody seen my spoon?

Roseate Spoonbills middle, Great Egret shirking at right.

White Ibis, Great Egrets, Roseate Spoonbill mash up. Tri-Colored Heron in middle left.

But wait, there’s more!  On our second day we took the famous mangrove tour, which amazed us right from the get-go.  We saw SEVEN kinds of herons (Great Blue Heron, Bare-throated Tiger Heron, Tricolored Heron, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Boat-billed Heron, Green Heron).  The panga whisked us through a mangrove tunnel, ending at the crystal-clear pools with a crocodile sanctuary.  The crocs are huge.  That’s the thing to watch out for – there are crocodiles in these waters and in the marinas.  They remain so still you can hardly detect them, until they STRIKE!

I'm not threatening, I just look that way.  Come hither, my pretty.

Hi!  Get into my belly!

It's fair to say that between Isla Isabela and San Blas, these last two weeks have been some of the best birding of my life.  It’s wonderful! 

The town of San Blas we found lovely.  My favorite Mana song, El Muelle de San Blas, is about the locura (crazy lady) who lived here waiting for her fisherman husband to return from the sea.   So, we had to see the Muelle (dock).  It was just a working fishing dock, with a plaque for the sad lady that the crabs bit in the Mana song.  We hiked up to the old stone fort and church remains, which is the subject of Longfellow’s “Bell’s of San Blas”.  It’s amazing to see these stone ruins amidst the jungle and tropical flowers.

Faded, broken down opiate of the people.

Also, we’ve been enjoying the fresh fruit paletas (popsicles) since Mazatlán, and San Blas had three vendors in the plaza alone (I think we hit all three).  Our Mazatlán Christmas friends Cynthia and Rich on Catspaw came into the anchorage, and we met new friends on Nomad.

On our last day occurred a couple of “interesting happenings” of note.  An older woman was stranded in her dinghy and couldn’t start the outboard.   She was bobbing about in the anchorage, on her cell phone calling someone who did not seem to be answering.   We dropped the dinghy and motored out to her and I got the outboard started with a couple quick pulls on the handle and she was on her way to pick up her son on the beach.  It felt good to give a little back after receiving help on several occasions from other cruisers.  Cruisers are amazing, and have saved our asses a couple of times, and they will save your ass if they can. 

Second, when we dinghied back to Brightnest from the palapas on the beach we noticed a flag in the water, and then realized a long fishing net had been strung by fisherman between the palapa beach and the anchorage!  Since, luckily, we spotted it, we steered around it.  But we never would have seen it at night!  This might contribute to the fear factor, but basically you need to accept that you need to be on your toes a lot more at sea than on land life.  Think you’re safe because you got to your dinghy and can see your mothership?  You can just go straight there?  Maybe….not, if some fisherfolk strung nets that will foul your outboard prop.  Also, this reemphasized how much we like to get back to the boat before dark. You never know what’s going on once it’s night.  I’m sure we’ll get over it, but for now we stay on the careful side of this.

P.S. Check out these White Ibis.

White Ibis fest at La Palapita.