Day 6 - A Really Nice Day

Today was a really nice day.  First, we walked a rural road, looking for birds.  It wasn’t hard, birds were everywhere.  The early morning light gave a golden glow to the world.  It took us nearly 2 hours to walk a mile on the road, there was just that much to see.  I listed 30 different species seen and I couldn’t hear all the names so there were even more than that.  The first birds I saw were blue, very blue —-the blue grosbeak and the indigo bunting both eating seeds from drying sunflowers.  My favorite bird was the loggerhead shrike, a thick billed biggish white bird with gray markings.  It was very visible sitting on top of a big far away bush.  It flew over our heads and was gone, then reappeared carrying a big lizard.  It was still so cold, the lizard couldn’t move fast enough to get away.  A good lizard hunting time for the shrike.  It then disappeared behind some brush, was gone for a short while and reappeared without the lizard.  I was told shrikes impale their prey on big spines.  Then another shrike flew in and they both disappeared behind the brush.  One of them fly out carrying the lizard.  Mark said they must be a resident pair—-the male hunting and then giving the food to his mate.  Neat behavior to see.  The morning made for happy birders.  Second, we walked up the road to Yagul, another Zapotec site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Benito, our driver and guide, walked us through the site, giving us excellent information about this place from so long ago as well as up to date information about land use in the Oaxacan Valley.  Third, we stopped at the workshop and home of some alebrije (wood carving) artists, Zeny y Reyna Fuentes.  We learned about the wood carving process and watched them do their carving with incredibly few simple tools.  The way Zeny used the machete, so fast, made me hope he wouldn’t slip and chop off his finger.  The wooden animals are then expertly painted by Reyna and her daughters.  We watched them paint using Ajave spines

.  It was hard to choose what to buy, there were so many beautiful little and bigger animals.  It was a pleasure to be in their workshop and watch them creating such beautiful art.  Then we drove 2.5 hours south into the Sierra Miahuatlan and the ridge top  town of San Jose del Pacifico, where we are staying in the rustic Hotel Puesta del Sol.  My only comment about the trip is the roads are really bumpy in Mexico and traffic speed is controlled by frequent speed bumps all signed with the word: Reductor.  It was a perfect day with three varied and wonderful experiences.