Yesterday, after a morning bird walk, we had the mid-day hours off, to do what we wanted here at Cerro Largo. Bob and I put on our bathing suits and headed for the beach. There is a steep stone path down the cliff to the beach. We found a paltry bit on shade from the noon sun, staked it out and went to the ocean. The water was warm, the waves medium sized and the beach nearly deserted. Bob plunged in and went out past the breakers. I took longer to get wet and stayed in the surf. There were too many riptides for me. Back in our cabana we “showered” (washed with the gourd filled with water) which felt incredibly wonderful and then I got in the hammock on our porch and got really relaxed. I drifted in and out of sleep, waking to watch the soaring black frigatebirds, turkey vultures and brown pelicans. I marveled at their ease soaring and wondered about their nervous systems that must be attuned to very small changes in air flow. Bob napped. After a lunch of tostadas with guacamole and fresh fruit, we slowly made our way to a small fishing village near here, Ventanilla. The birding was excellent as we walked through the village with the sun at our backs, but it was the village that impressed me. Bob bought a sombrero for $4 from a grandmother tending a baby. I thought it might have been her only sale that day, there were so few tourists. I found I am looking at Mexico with soft eyes, seeing the beauty of the people, their culture and of nature. Mexicans love children. I don’t think I’ve seen a baby not being carried. At our lunch, the fellow serving us carried his baby daughter while he served and cleared our plates. Today driving into the mountains again, we passed through town after town where all the school children we walking to school. They were very neat and clean, all wearing uniforms: blue skirts or blue pants, with white shirts. The girls wear long white pull-up socks and every child had a parent walking with them. In Ventanilla, a car full of local people stopped by our group and a fellow asked what we saw. His English was perfect and I thought, “he’s been working in the States.” My dad always said, Mexicans don’t like to live in the States, they so prefer their warm hearted culture and they find the States so very expensive. The nature here is very beautiful. The forests are full of flowers and colorful birds and many colorful butterflies.
Today, we went back up to the broadleaf evergreen forest and walked a road where coffee bushes have been planted in the deep shade. They fit right into the forest understory. It was a riotous time of birding, the forest was full of birds, most of them directly overhead 30 feet above us. We all got sore necks. I recorded we saw 30 species. My favorite (and the birds) was the gumbo limbo tree full of fruit. It has shiny red bark like a madrone that grows in N. CA forests but is much bigger. But what was remarkable during this time were the stories Mark had to tell us about the birds’ behavior or whatever we noticed. He waxed eloquent about a termitory (a mud termite nest up in a tree). First we all looked at it with our bins. He pointed out the mud tubes running down the tree. He had us guess why termites went to that much trouble and then explained, when none of us had the right answer, that termites have very thin exoskeletons and use the tubes to keep up the humidity so they don’t dry out. The tubes are built of termite poop, mud and leaf litter. Then he gave us a long and really interesting explanation about wood and how the termites digest it. Wood is made of cellulose and lignin, cellulose being the rebar and lignin, the cement. Termites have protozoan with bacteria in the gut that digest cellulose but for millions of years nothing could break down lignin. That’s where our carbon energy comes from. It was classic Mark. We stopped at a coffee finca for our picnic lunch and a tour. Antonio is the 4th generation to run this finca. Since about 2000 they have been certified for organic shade grown coffee. They sell all their beans to Mexicans who are increasingly buying special coffee. Now back at Cerro Largo, I’m going for a walk on the beach.
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