Laguna Manialtepec

Monday after lunch and we've just returned from our boat tour of Manialtepec Lagoon. Alex was a great guide and Sergio did the helmsman job. For the most part the birds have not yet left for the north so we saw thousands. 3 or 4 types of herons, several types of egrets many many different ducks, 3 or 4 types of hawks and ospreys, storks, kingfishers, it just went on and on. The most amazing sight was a whole area of palm trees filled with Storks nests complete with growing baby storks in the nests. The babies were crying for food and the parents were struggling just to keep making the nest larger as the babies were getting pretty big. We were positioned no more than 30 feet from the nests. We ended up on a huge ocean beach with nothing but a thatch shelter on it. There was one other couple there (from B.C.) and a local woman baking sopas. She showed us a bucket full of newly-hatched baby leatherback turtles. Apparently she collects the babies hatched each morning and keeps them for a few days training them to walk on the sand. After a few days, she releases them to the ocean. This makes for a much better survival rate.

Yesterday we just chilled out at Villa Carrazalillo where we're staying. It's a place overlooking a small beach thats maybe 2 or 3 km from the main downtown beach where we stayed the first couple of days in Puerto Escondido. Our villa is very nice with two separate bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom, covered courtyard, garden, and a dining and hammock area in the courtyard. The birds here are pretty wonderful as well including one really agressive hummingbird of some sort.

It's a tough life. We have to rest and stay out of the sun this afternoon but later we'll go down to the beach for a swim then watch the sunset from the terrace overlooking the Pacific.