26 25.37 N, 108 37.26 W
This morning Nacho had a small wake up breakfast for us, some strong coffee and toasted sweet rolls. After a quick bite we met Nacho and Felipe at 6:30 am by their zebra painted truck, towing a trailer with a panga. We were off to go bird watching.
We drove outside of town and upstream of the El Fuerte river. We passed black buzzards sitting on cacti and drove through an Indian village before arriving at a place to launch the panga. With Phoebe and I in the front, Rich and Reg behind and Felipe in the rear with the oars we started to drift down the river. Felipe was continually pointing out different birds. He spoke excellent English which put us at ease especially when he was naming all of the variety of birds. After drifting for a while we came to a stop on the far shore. As Rich's ankle was still very sore, he elected to stay with the boat as Felipe said it was only a 10 minute walk. Phoebe, Reg and I followed Felipe down the path, our cameras ready to catch a shot of the many birds. He pointed out Cardinals, red wing blackbirds, jays, magpies, on and on. He would whistle and get an answering call and we would all anxiously look for the bird. Our progress down the path was slow. After awhile he asked if we were ready to see the petroglyphs. We passed though a y shaped branch that was part of the barbed wire fencing. The Y was wide enough for us to go through but not for a cow. We came to a seemingly unremarkable pile of small boulders. On closer inspection we could see the designs that had been carved into the rocks. Stick figures of men, upside down ones meaning death. Suns, coyotes or wolves, owl faces and spirals. It was a shame to see that one carving had been a target of graffiti. A short distance away were more carvings, including a fertility symbol of a pregnant woman as well as a series of dots, pointing toward the canyons
As I mentioned before this was a 10 minute walk. Rich had been waiting about an hour and a half, wondering where we were and what happened to us. So he grabbed his backpack and set off down the path, favoring his left ankle. Soon we met him on the path as we were returning. He was relieved that we were fine. So back to the panga and we continued our trip down the river. We saw Blue Herons, Spotted Brown Herons, Night Herons and White Herons, magpies, hawks, falcons, kingfishers, sand pipers, a phoebe and more. It was a beautiful morning and we were amazed at all the varieties of birds we saw. Felipe rowed us back to shore near the hotel. Nacho picked us up and when we got back to the hotel he made us a larger breakfast/brunch with fruit, eggs, bacon and toast.
We could easily have stayed another day but it was time to catch the bus back to Los Mochis. We said goodbye to Charles and Nacho gave us a ride to the bus stop. The one legged taxi driver saw us and waved goodbye as we got on the bus for a 2 hour ride back. The bus to Los Mochis was $70 pesos a person.
There was an interesting incident on the bus. An older man got up from his seat in the front of the bus, walked to the back and took at seat in the last row. The young woman right in front of us left her seat and went back to join him. They closed the curtains over the side window and when I glanced back, they were in a passionate embrace, kissing each other. I am not sure if this was a lovers' tryst or if the woman was conducting business on the bus but the man who was collecting money for tickets on the bus was directing new passengers to seat in the front of the bus.
The bus dropped us right at the TAP bus station in Los Mochis but Reg and Phoebe had to walk about 5 blocks to catch their bus to Topolobampo. Since I was unable to buy the tickets online, it cost $830 pesos each for our tickets back to Puerto Vallarta. We waited in the bus station until we could board the bus, just before 6:00 pm. In the meantime we watched the movie 300 in Spanish.
The ride back to Puerto Vallarta was uneventful. We did not even have any agricultural inspections as we did on the way north. I tried to watch "The Devil wore Prada", again in Spanish but it was too fast for me to pick up anything.
Early tomorrow morning we will be back on Windarra
Sent from SV Windarra iPad
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