Our weeks in Mexico are getting better and better. I hardly have much time to dedicate to writing about it. We have so much to do here in Lake Chapala. I spent Monday and Wednesday morning sorting out pictures and writing but after a few hours needed to get outside. The weather here has been gradually warming up and afternoons are spent by the pool a lot of the time. 31 Celsius or 88 degrees Fahrenheit. I still walk at least 2 miles around the resort each day and the trees are coming alive with color! Lots of orange, yellow, and purple blossoms right now. It's very beautiful at Roca Azul . The monarchs are emerging from their Chrysalis and we are seeing new birds every day.
In the afternoon on Monday, we went to the Malecon in Jocotepec. It’s about a 10-minute drive from the park. We were looking for new birds. We find the majority in the early mornings or late afternoons. The Malecon had more folks walking around and the vendors were setting up for the evening. We had very good luck finding birds too. Both Larry and I were snapping pictures. We go in different directions sometimes and we double our sightings. We walked up and down the jetty and on the way back, near the boat ramp in the water plants, Larry spied a long black snake.
We got some good shots as it seemed to be sunning himself. Soon, with our snake eyes on, we saw another. Larry tried to get to them but they were in the soggy plants, it didn’t work. We weren’t really even sure what kind of snakes they were but my hunch was that they weren’t venomous. We usually go by my hunches! We later found out it was a Blackbelly Garter snake. Some fishermen said they were good to eat! I decided we would come back again to find snakes here. We continued to walk and birdwatch. I like to use Inaturalist to look up birds and reptiles.
Tuesday, we drove into Ajijic to hike with our camping friends, Deb and Robin.
We wanted to hike to the chapel we discovered last week. We thought it would be an easier hike and we could get lunch when we finished. Well, it was a super easy hike. We finished it in less than 20 minutes! We had great views of Lake Chapala and Ajijic. Larry and I wanted to hike further to the ceremonial grounds but Deb and Robin felt accomplished at the chapel. We continued for another hour of hiking while they walked down to Ajijic for breakfast at Emilia’s. We met up with them on the Malecon when we finished the rest of our hike. It was their first time at the Ajijic Malecon so they were happy just walking around this area. On the way back to the park, we did stop for a beer and snack, mostly for Larry. He had a full lunch! We ate at El Arca. They had lots of animal statues and colorful stained glass windows. Deb and I had Micheladas! I have discovered a new drink I like. Yum!
Wednesday after I finished my story and doing laundry, we still had some time for a mini-adventure. We have only driven on the northside of the lake so far. We thought we’d take a drive on the south side. Carol and Marvin, our camping neighbors like to have shrimp at a cute little place in the town of San Juan Soyatlan. It was a short 30-minute drive. We explored the Malecon for a bit. It was small and seemed like more for the local fisherman than tourists. That’s okay with us.
We walked out on a small pier that literally went nowhere... just into some trees. We made a spectacular discovery there. We watched a brilliant green hummingbird building a nest! I got a few pictures of her. We are planning on going back again to check on her babies. We found some chickens and ducks on the beach that someone was keeping there. Larry picked up a baby chick for a quick second as the mom watching was keeping an eye on him. We also found a donkey tied up on the beach next to his hut. Very interesting place. We found the little restaurant that our friends described and decided it was time for a beer and snack. It was called La Cabana.
The owner, I presume, was super friendly and very attentive. He was young and smelled like he drank all of the profits. We tried the shrimp with our beer and complimentary chips and salsa. Our new friend put on some ‘Rock” music for us on his jukebox. He offered to take our picture together and kept telling us, “He loved us”! He didn’t know much English so this was quite comical for us.
Thursday was a big day for us. We got up early to go birdwatching in Ajijic. We were confident we would find the meet-up point as John, from the Lake Chapala birders, had sent a map! We had a group of just 6. We wore masks or distanced ourselves for the 2-hour walk. It was just up a road right off highway 23. It took us past a beautiful event center and along some tall trees. A great place to spot birds. John was great at identifying them, sometimes just by the calls. Both Larry and I got some pictures of many of the birds we saw. Larry walked way behind and he was able to find a bird that John had missed too! As we walked toward the canyon, Larry spied something in the distance in a bald tree. It was hopping around like a squirrel. We all were very excited to see 3 more of these Squirrel cuckoos. Soon after this discovery, we found another of my favorite birds, a Russet crowned motmot. All in all, the birding was great! We saw 44 species of birds. Larry and I got pictures of at least half of them!
