Sunday, March 18: Curu Wildlife Refuge and Ballena Bay

We were given three choices for the activities of the day: a three-hour birding walk, a two-hour forest walk or an easy meander. We chose the two-hour walk.

Our guide, Angie, was charming and knowledgeable.

The forest was described as a 'dry forest', different from a tropical rain forest - not as wet or dense. The trees stretched high up into the sky.

These are views of the dry forest as we left the area in early evening.

                           

                           

The first animal that we saw on our walk was a raccoon. We had to laugh, as we had fought to rid our yard of them last summer. 

Staff photo

This little guy was hiding from us but we saw lots of holes in the dry mangrove.

I'm told by may daughter that this is an agouti,
unfortunately common in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

 
   We looked carefully in the water and the brush, watching for birds, caimans, or other animals.

We saw a number of interesting birds - my best guess as to species. No photos of the pretty little Cinnamon Hummingbird and the large turquoise butterflies that we were to see in several locations. 

                       

Green Heron?

Turquoise-browed Motmot

Squirrel Cuckoo? - staff photo

And then a small caiman crocodile resting just below the surface of the water. 

Termite nests were easy to spot at eye level and far up in the trees.

Lloyd was a great spotter. Can you see the anteater high up in the tree? He was really having a feed on a termite nest. Lloyd was quite the celebrity that evening for his discovery.

                           

with my camera

                                     

Staff photos

These are staff photos - of birds we didn't see but they are typical of the birds of the forest. 

Great Kiskadee?

White-throated Magpie-Jay?

an Antbird?

White ibis

We saw a number of white-tailed deer, much smaller in size than we see in southern Alberta ...

a small, very delicate version of a white-tailed deer fawn

and a pretty blue striped lizard who hung around for lots of photos.

In the afternoon we sailed to Ballena Bay, where we had an opportunity to enjoy the sun on the beach. The staff had worked hard to provide umbrellas, chairs, towels, drinks of all kinds, cookies and other snacks. 

Trish from Ottawa

Robert and Mary from Ottawa, chatting with Barb

Beverly and Troy from Salt Lake

Back to the ship by skiff

Water shoes drying on the deck

Dinner was served just after sunset, followed by a fascinating talk by Erica on the ecological value of mangrove forests. I was very disappointed that this was as close as we got to a mangrove.