04 – 2008 – San Blas CROCODILES & Isla Isabela – BIRDS

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: The next day we motored in calm conditions, (about a 4 hour trip) arriving just east of San Blas and anchored in Matanchen Bay. Cindy went for a swim and the fields of fire in the distance could be seen. This was probably sugar cane being “burned off”… Note that the water was anything but clear. Matanchen Bay – San Blas, Mexico

: San Blas, Mexico

: San Blas, Mexico

: As you can see, in Mexico….building codes are, well…….non existant. San Blas, Mexico

: Open air “tiendas” or markets are everywhere in Mexico. San Blas, Mexico

: San Blas is known as a “surf town” in the summer. For the nature group it is reported to have the best of the Mexican Jungle Cruises. San Blas, Mexico

: We took in a taxi into this very small fishing town. This was classic for coastal Mexico. San Blas, Mexico

: During the winter, spring and fall, this area has so so surf. But come the summer hurricanes and Matanchen Bay becomes the north shore of Oahu… It will hold a 15 foot wave for about a 1/4th of a mile. San Blas, Mexico

: Kind right out of the 50’s and 60’s around here. San Blas, Mexico

: Surfing is so big here, they even have a local surfing museum. San Blas, Mexico

: This is the town center. San Blas is growing and getting less sleepy, every year. San Blas, Mexico

: This was the little islet right off the beach and anchorage. This beach is lined with restaurants who live by the summer surf crowd. San Blas, Mexico

: We had to get up very early to do the Jungle Cruise. Here it is a big tourist business. But as we were sort of “off season”, we had the first launch of the day all to ourselves. San Blas, Mexico

: This was our young guide for the Jungle Tour. He had very sharp eyes for “crocs”. San Blas, Mexico

: The estuary had a tremendous amount of bird and other animal life. This is bird is the “Anhingas”. San Blas, Mexico

: My eye caught this iguana at the top of the tree with the moon in the background. San Blas, Mexico

: This little 3 footer was our first croc… But wait till you see his big brothers and sisters! San Blas, Mexico

: At the end of the estuary, we came to the dock at the crocodile reserve. San Blas, Mexico

: We saw several fresh water river turtles too. San Blas, Mexico

: At the end of the estuary, we got to see the full grown crocodiles (fortunately behind pens). They were very agressive. San Blas, Mexico

: These bad boys chased us right up to the fence when I was taking their photo. I’ve heard of “please don’t take my picture”, but this brought that to a whole different level. San Blas, Mexico

: Don’t be fooled by what appears to be lethargic behavior. These guys would lunge and rush the fence a lot faster than I could run. San Blas, Mexico

: San Blas, Mexico

: The heart of darkness is yellow! San Blas, Mexico

: This is where the hatchlings they raise for release on to the river spend their formative years. San Blas, Mexico

: Just in case you thought all the crocodiles were in cages. THEIR NOT. This guy was wild outside the reserve. I was quite cautious when approaching this guy, I was kind of behind a tree….sort of. San Blas, Mexico

: On our return trip, we saw this 6 footer. They get up over 12 feet here in San Blas. San Blas, Mexico

: These were observation stands that had wild (but mostly smallish) crocodiles around them. No swimming here. San Blas, Mexico

: Back at the shack. We safely and happily re-entered civilization. San Blas, Mexico

: This was Antonio who was very nice to us and watched our dinghy for us when we went on the jungle tour and into the town of San Blas. San Blas, Mexico

: As always, we took the dinghy ashore from the boat. About a 500 yard journey here. We had to walk the dinghy through the surf and wheel it up to Antonio’s restaurant. WEAR YOUR BUG SPRAY, this place is NO-SEEUM CITY. San Blas if famous for these unseeable biting sand flys. San Blas, Mexico

: We were getting an early start to Isla Isabela to see the nesting Frigate and Booby birds. A distance of about 45 miles. We came within 20 yards of hitting a local unlit fishing net. We always have to be on the lookout when near other small boats or shore for these types of obstacles that most boaters never need to think about. Matanchen Bay – San Blas, Mexico

: Isla Isabela is a Mexican National Park and Bird Sanctuary. When the water is clear, it’s supposed to have very good diving too. The water wasn’t clear. “It’s not usually like this down here?”…. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: These rocks are called the “Monas” (Manequins in Spanish). This is the main anchorage for the cruising boats at Isla Isabela. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Isla Isabela, Mexico

: We had the anchorage to ourselves except for two boat that only stayed a few hours en route to Mazatlan. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: We went on a tour of the anchorage in preparation for going ashore at the local fishing village the next day. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: This was the small fishing village on the south side of Isla Isabela about 3/4ths of a mile from where we were anchored on the east side of the islands at the Monas. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Here is a tough life. There are transient living quarters where the fisherman eek out a tough living out here. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: There is a park headquarters, but it seemed abandoned. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Cindy and I found evidence of human habitation, but for the most part, the iguanas reigned supreme. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: We had found at Islas San Benitos and several other eco-tourist locations, that their were signs describing the nature areas at the various parks. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: All over and almost inside the park headquarters, we found dozens of frigate bird nests. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: These nesting fledglings looked as if they would never be able to fly. They are almost full size, but seemed helpless to move. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Males have a red throat pouch which they enlarge as a display behavior. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Iguanas were everywhere. In some places you had to avoid stepping on them. Jurrasic Park came to mind. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Mom and her baby. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Ungainly came to mind. These birds look like they could live in the Adams Family’s front yard. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Nesting Frigate. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Fledglings were everywhere. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: We had heard that there was an extinct volcano crater in the center of the island and that there were nesting Boobie Birds on the north side. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: The islands crater was lined by sulpher encrustation. It sure smelled of it too. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: The sulpher bleached this dead wood brilliant white. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Finally we found signs marking the trail. The tree pattern you see behind me was everywhere we went on the island. You really couldn’t see over it and it scratched us up if we weren’t careful. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: The birds would squak if we got close, but as you can see, they would let you get in for a tight view. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Frigates can be cute too… Isla Isabela, Mexico

: We finally came upon these “Blue Footed Boobies”. The males guard the nests in turn with the females. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Boobies seemed to take turns guarding their eggs. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Isla Isabela, Mexico

: The boobies seemed to stay closer to the water than the frigates. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: These guys would not back down. If we came to a narrow trail head and they were in the way, we had to figure out how to go around them! Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Mom & Dad minding the flock Isla Isabela, Mexico

: You could get up close and personal with these guys. They didn’t care a lick how big I was. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: We saw what at first appeared to be a fishing camp, but as it turned out, it was two young University students who were living on the island for the last three months doing a tag and head count of the birds. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Dad and his fledgling Isla Isabela, Mexico

: At first we didn’t see any brown (or yellow) footed boobies. These birds looked like Nuns with a modified habit. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Isla Isabela, Mexico

: We had walked all the way back to the boat and this was “Boobie Beach”… Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Drift wood sculpture Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Monas with Beach House anchored. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: This was one of only a few Yellow footed boobies we saw out of a tree. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Out of the bush, quite literally, we came across Juan Carlos and Lucia, the two naturalist students who were capturing birds, counting and tagging them. They had been here for 3 months and looked every bit of it. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: As graceful a flyer as these birds are, they sure were homely on the ground. They looked more like vultures up close than they do flying majestically in the sky. Frigates were given their names after the old sailing ships that they would follow and land on hundreds of miles out to sea. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: Boobie Beach…Hundreds of them. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: On our way back we stopped in this wild banana tree grove. We could see the brown recluse spider nests. YOU DON’T want to touch a brown recluse. Their bite is painful and dissolves tissue in the area of a bite…. Isla Isabela, Mexico

: That evening, we decided to up anchor and head on a night passage to arrive at Mazatlan around dawn the next morning… Goodbye Isabela….a very interesting place. Isla Isabela, Mexico

SV Beach House

04 – 2008 – San Blas CROCODILES & Isla Isabela – BIRDS