At first it seemed like I was lucking out big time when I flew out of the Ciudad Obregon, Sonora airport with my mom, bound for Cancun onthe Yucatan Peninsula.  We left the house at 36 degrees, the coldest morning of the year and were looking forward to mid 80's on the beach!  As luck would have it, a 'norte' (as the Yucatecos call them) was right behind us, and the temperatures dropped precipitously after the driving rain ceased!  So much for lucking out!  On the other end I see that my weather station in Alamos clocked today's high temperature at 97 degrees!     Day One - Meeting day was a bit strange! I don't remember a trip when things went as wrong as the did for me, hopefully the group didn't feel much of stress.  The first big surprise was the the hotel in Puerto Morelos didn't have our reservation when we arrived, nor did they have any available rooms!  More discouraging was the fact that they didn't have my reservation for the group coming in the following day!  After some quick calls to Solipaso world head-quarters it was determined that, indeed, it was the fault of the hotel and they made sure that we had rooms the next night.  So in the meantime,  my Mom and I went to another hotel that was arranged for us which turned out to be just fine.    

Northern Tamandua at Jardin Botanico

Day Two -The first stop of the day was the Central Vallarta Road, just minutes away from the hotel.  It was a gray morning with a bit of wind and the bird activity was a bit slow.  We did mange to get excellent looks at a couple of Ferruginous Pygmy Owls, Hooded Warbler,  and a rather uncooperative Golden-Olive Woodpecker.  Rather than beat ourselves up for too little, we headed off for the Jardin Botanico and a walk on their trails.  Once again the birds were not that active, but we did get great looks at Wood Thrushes and Ovenbirds walking along on the trails in front of us.  Two of the high points of the walk around the garden were the two mammals that we saw.  The first was an Aguoti, and a big one at that.  It is sort of a giant Guinea Pig.  The second was a Tarandua, a beautiful white and black vested Anteater that was calmly working its way up a tree not twenty feet from us!  That was a life mammal for me!  The walk is not short, about 2 kilometers, and even though folks were getting a bit tired, I convinced some of them to climb the wooden towers and scale the 'Hunging Bridge' .  Not super birdy today, but an excellent morning for sure.     After our good long walk we were off to the town of Tulum and lunch at Charly's, a long time Tulum    

Beautiful Tulum

establishment that offers wonderful Yucatecan food.  Most of us enjoyed a bowl of  sopa de lima, a traditional soup made from chicken and limes, and others tried the excellent mango licuados...just good clean and outstandingly delicious food!      After lunch we went back up the road and to the ruins of Tulum, where we were immediately spoiled by fantastic views of Yucatan Jays, literally as we stepped out of the van!  Then there was a pretty good look at a Canivet'sEmerald before heading over to take the train to the ruins.  On the way we were high-jacked by the local volante group.  These are the guys that spin around a 100 feet off the ground in cool costumes. They hit me up for a significant "tip" to perform their show and it was worth it!      Today the ruins were absolutely fantastic for birds.  On the entrance trail we had great looks at  Gray Catbird, Indigo Buntings, our only Yucatan    

Yucatan Jay

 Vireo of the trip,  Yellow-backed, Hooded, Altamira and  Black-cowled Orioles, as well as even better views of Yucatan Jays     We pulled ourselves away from the ruins for the quick hour and  half drive to Felipe Carrillo Puerto (FCP) and Hotel Casa Regina.     Day Three -The entire scene at FCP could not be different than the touristic mayhem that goes on just a few hours to the north in Cancun I find it to be a breath of fresh air to be in a true Yucatecan town after being in the tourist world.  We took all our meals at the Faisan y Venado, a great place at the center of town which offers excellent regional food.  Our first morning we were off to Vigia ChicaRoad which was exceptionally slow today.  I think it had to do with the pending arrival of the 'Norte', a strong storm front that sometimes drops in from the north with rain and lots of wind.  We put up  a good fight searching for birds all morning before we were finally turned around by a nice strong down pour...it was time for lunch anyway!     In the afternoon we were back and the weather was much improved. We managed to get our first looks at  Turquoise-browed Motmot.  It was hiding but we still managed to get a scope on him. Masked Tityra, Groove-billed Ani, White-fronted Parrots, Aztec Parakeets,  and a mob of 30 plus Yucatan Jays were the highlights of the afternoon.     After dinner we walked the plaza, visiting the church and the cultural museum that was having a rather lame exhibit related to the birds of the area.  I got everyone Marquesitas, a local dessert item that can best be described as a crisp and sweet tortilla cooked to order on a griddle and filled with your choice of strawberry jam, condensed milk, cheese or chocolate sauce!      Day Four - We started out once again on the Vigia Chica Road and didn't much better luck than the day before.  The temperature was still quite low and bird activity was as low as I have ever seen it on the road.  Flycatchers were nearly non-existent and I think I was the only one who got a look at a a very shy Gray-throated Chat and a Sulpher-rumped Flycatcher that just shot across the road and never showed itself again. I have to chalk up the lack of activity to the cold.    

A confiding Collared Aracari

I have to say that birding in the Yucatan in a fleece jacket and long pants was a new experience for me, so I did get something out of it!  We did manage to get better looks at the Motmot but not a lot better.  One of the most fun birds of the morning was a very confiding Barred Ant-shrike that dashed back and forth across the road and gave us great looks.  Later on we had a great run in with a very content and apparently hungry Collared Aracari doing its very best to clean every small fruit out of a road side tree.  We watched him for a very long time while he worked away oblivious to our presents.     We had a quick 2 hour drive to Valladolid, including a stop at the church where the Caste War began.  Saul gave us a quick interpretation of just how it all went down.  As we left town I caught a flash of the telltale blue of a Turquoise-browed Motmot as it dove to the ground for an insect.  Immediately, it sprang up and landed on a chain link fence not 3 meters from the road!  An awesome look finally!     Lunch was at a fantastic restaurant just off the Convent Plaza that Saul knew of from previous visits.  We had the owner do up the regional specialty family style feast.  It was over the top good!     After lunch and a 30 minute drive we were at the ruins of Ek Balam where we spent about two hours    

A great roadside look at a Turquoised-browed Motmot

 birding a enjoying the ruins with very limited people around.  The birding turned out to be excellent.  A little Pygmy Owl brought in a flock of 12 Scrub Euphonias that had been busy working some of the biggest mistletow bunches I have ever seen!  They were followed by a White-eyed Vireo and our first Northern Parula of the tour.  Later we found at least three more Parulas and a couple of Hooded Warblers too.  It was a great way to digest some of the huge lunch we had!     We spent the night in Ria Lagartos, a town named after a river of Alligators, which is a bit strange considering that there are not any Alligators here, nor is there a river either!  I hear that Riais a local term for an estuary that gets its brakish qualities from the intrusion of fresh subterranean water. Being that there are no rivers on the Yucatan Peninsula I'd say that this is a likely scenario.     We went out for a late dinner at Isla Contoy, but mostly we all went just to get some homemade coconut ice cream and a beer.    

Yucatan Wren at Ria Lagartos

Day Five - We had a rather windy al fresco breakfast at 6 a.m. Roger, our host, was up early to prepare it complete with coffee from Chiapas. It was just the perfect thing that early in the morning.  It was  a bit on the windy side but watching the sunrise over the estuary was worth the suffering!  I had hired a young guy named Santiago Navarro to show us around a little bit and to take us on a boat trip.  Our first stop was Rancho San Salvador just a short distance from town.  Right off the bat we had photograhic looks at the first endemic on our hit list, a female Mexican Sheartail Hummingbird.  It came in and perched for a long time.  Within minutes, a Yucatan Woodpecker flew over and perched in a dead snag right next to a Golden-fronted Woodpecker for comparison purposes. We were off to a great start!  A short walk up the road and Santiago was pointing out our next endemic, a good sized flock of Yucatan Bobwhites that were flying away from us.  I decided to do my best bird dog imitation and headed off into the thorn scrub to try and push them back towards the road and the group. I was mildly successful as everyone got to see them fly again and Frank and I did get looks at them on the ground.     The boat trip up the Ria to see the Flamingos was wonderful.  The weather had cleared and warmed up a bit but the wind was still with us.  We stopped first to look at a variety of shore and water birds in the disappearing mudflats as the tide was rising fast.  We got good looks at Sandwich Terns and Black Skimmers parked out in the mud.  Santiago treated us to a show by a very cooperative common Black Hawk who obediently came to a thrown fish for photos.  We made a rather mad dash for the salt ponds where we were treated to several hundred Flamingos feeding and posturing for females in the ponds,  There were also lots of swallows - Tree, Mangrove, Barn and Rough-wings were all well represented.  After everyone got their fill of salt for the ride back, we loaded up and were off, back to town.      We pulled back into the dock at Isla Contoy just in time for lunch.  I had the Veracruzana which was very good and we all plowed into the coconut ice cream that had won rave reviews the night before.     I think I can speak for everyone when I say that driving into the Hacienda Chichen is a rather jaw dropping experience. From the

The ever elegant Hacienda Chichen

 entrance gate,     the short drive through the elaborate tropical gardens is quite impressive.   I had hoped to get in a bit earlier so that everyone could enjoy the grounds and the ambiance of the place before dinner, but I always forget how long the drive is from Ria Lagartos.  The dinner at the Hacienda was elegant and beautiful. It took me a while to start on my stuffed chicken breast soaked in chipoltle honey sauce, as there were many photos being taken of it!  It was quite the constructed piece!  We had fun with the food and the wine and the mariachis were a kick too!     Day Six- Breakfast at the Hacienda was nearly as elegant as the dinner and it was nice to be birding while sipping coffee and enjoying the morning.  Most everyone opted to visit the ruins at Chichen Itza, but Margo and I decided to take a little walk into the forest and look for some birds.  As luck would have it, we ran into the owner of the Hacienda on the way to the trail and ended up spending most of the morning watching birds and talking with him while standing under a spectacular flowering ceiba tree that was absolutely filled with birds!  Six species of orioles, two Squirrel Cuckoos, Aztec Parakeet's, Blue Buntings, two species of saltators, woodpeckers, trogons  and a variety of warblers.       

Yellow-backed Oriole

I found Pat and Frank as soon as they returned from the ruins and I took them over to the ceiba to see the spectacular, it was much slower than it had been but will still managed to find the Yellow-backed Oriole that Frank wanted to see.  On the way back to the room to pack up, we ran into an Ivory-billed Woodcreeper hanging around with a gang of Green Jays, the best views of the trip for both species!  But the 'oriole tree' certainly won as the spectacle of the morning!  At one point we had six species and at least 50 birds in the flowering ceiba tree behind the laundry area of the Hacienda.      Saul convinced me to take a back  road to the 'Gold Town' of  Izamal and I am glad that we did. It was in decent condition and the scenery was better than the autopista.  Saul has been a great addition to the trip.  It is nice to have a driver that speaks good English and is happy to interact with the everyone on the trip. I liked his gentle demeanour and professional way of doing things.Lunch at Kinich was a fun affair...too bad people were holding back on ordering more of the good   

Cochinita Enterada at Kinich in Izamal

food!  Fortunately, Frank and I made up for everyone else and the pitaya ice cream was to die for!  I had the Relleno Negro which is essentially a chicken in a not so spicy mole sauce, that actually is not that flavorful at all. The good news is that the chicken turns out to be incredibly tender!     After lunch we had a chance to tour the convent and the second largest out door atrium in the world, as well as the market and the beautiful town center of Izamal.  Lois even took a ride in one of the horse drawn carriges.     The drive to Uxmal gave everyone a chance to take a much needed nap and it only took an hour and 45 minutes to get to the hotel.     Day Seven- Rest day at Uxmal...Well, rest day is not really a proper interpretation of the day! Really, it was a day to enjoy this amazing ruin and to spend some    

Lineated Woodpecker

relaxed time looking for birds and not riding in a van for even one kilometer!  We started the day with breakfast at the hotel which was fast and easy and were off for a quick walk to the parking lot of the ruins and the San Simon Road.  The birds were really slow to come out, probably due to the rather dense fog that covered us.  Eventually we did get some good birds including our first good looks at Blue-crowned Motmot and a fantastically cooperative Lineated Woodpecker who hung around long enough for all of us to get good looks and photos.    

Nothing like a Cold Towel at Uxmal!

I have always loved the ruins at Uxmal, and today with the big puffy clouds and the complete lack of crowds I was reminded once again at how amazing the place is.  We also had great birds.  Our first good look at Yucatan Flycatcher was a relief for me, and finally the Pygmy Owl mob scene came into play with a good warbler-vireo flock later on.  A great way to spend the morning.     We left the ruin and headed to the 'Lodge' for lunch under the big palapa.  On the way, a nice Maya girl named Laura  stopped us and offered us a complimentary 'thing'.  I was not quite sure what to expect but she was so nice and insistent that it was impossible to say no.  So, we sat down at an outside table in the shade and waited for what she was to bring.  Well, it turned out to be  an absolutely fabulous idea... Cold towels, indeed partially frozen. The same idea as a hot towel, which would not have felt that great after a warm walk in the ruins.  It was a brilliant idea and just as we were enjoying the towel, she brought us a delicious orange water that was icy cold. What a way to start the lunch buffet!  We were so relaxed and happy after our refreshment, that it was difficult to get up and walk the 10 meters to the restaurant!  Eventually we did and managed to have a wonderful lunch.  

Uxmal

After all the walking of the morning it was great to take a little siesta back at the Hacienda. At 3:30, we were off for a quick walk up the recently opened up road from the hotel to old Hacienda that I had never been to. It took us a good two hours to bird and walk our way from the hotel to the Hacienda, and maybe 20 minutes to walk back!  The birding was quite good along this new road, good enough that I will certainly be including it in future stays here. New birds included a very secretive Yellow-billed Cacique and a Thicket Tinamou that crossed the road for Frank.  Our good luck also gave us looks at a very busy Nine-banded Armadillo who was obliviou to us in his diggings as we approached him.     One big highlight of the walk was arriving at the abandoned Hacienda in the faltering light of day. The area immediately surrounding the old 'home' had recently been cleared of vegetation but the property itself was still covered in a few decades of tangled fig trees.  It was really neat in a spooky sort of way.  I am constantly amazed at just how many of these giant old places there are as one drives about in the Peninsula, they are everywhere!  I'm guessing but I think that this hacienda was abandoned for good about 50 years ago, but had ceased to operate years before that.  The place was established in 1673.     Day Eight - We had enjoyed the afternoon walk on the new road behind the hotel so much , that I decided to do it again the this    

I love this sign!

 morning!  It was a bit slow starting out, again we found ourselves in what was even denser fog than the previous day, but we did all finally get looks at a Rose-throated Becard and our first definitive Couch's Kingbird of the trip.  We ended up walking just about as far as we had the previous afternoon and the only new species were slightly better looks at White-browed and Spot-breasted Wren.     Saul picked us up mid-morning and we were off to visit the rather recently abandoned Hacienda at Yaxcopuil, which was one of the largest haciendas on the peninsula at over 22,000 acres.  One of the guys working there adopted us and started offering up detailed information about the place, and it turned out that he had worked there for many years.  Fifteen years cutting agave leaves in the fields and then 5 years in the baling house before the place closed down for good in 1984.  He was great, a wealth of information and really put a face on the whole sisal production that took place thoughout the region. We had lunch at Hacienda Oxchil.     We arrived at the Hotel Manglares in Celestun with plenty of time for people to take a swim in the Guld of Mexico and for some of us to do some coastal scrub birding.  Those of us that went out got better looks at Yucatan Bobwhite and finally a couple of male Mexican Sheartail's.    

This Mockingbird would not give it up!

Saul had met a German guy in Celestun a couple of months prior who had just opened a new restaurant, a welcome addition in a town with very few options for food in the evening.  On his reccomendation, we went to the recently opened Casa Peon for dinner.  The building where the restaurant is housed is fantastic, probably one of the orignal buildings in Celestun.  The decor and painting on the walls are both interesting and unique.  My guess is that the idea of serving food in the place came as an after thought once they were done painting the walls!  Certianly the young couple that was working at the place could cook, well at tleast the woman could.  The food that we eventually got was outstandingly delicious and beautifully prepared!  The bartender spent most of the eveing checking his Facebook page while the woman took her sweet time 'creating' dishes in the kitchen.  If the food had not been so good and the atmosphere so bizarre, I might have gotten upset with the absolute lack of service!  It was amazing!  One of the best moments of the evening for me was when the woman came out to serve us the wine that the Facebook boy could not seem to figure out how to open.  She eventually pulled the cork with some difficulty, and then poured a rather hefty splash that I thought whe was going to give to Lois to taste. Instead, she threw it back and announced to us that it was 'good stuff' with a proper German accent and proceeded to then pour wine into our glasses.  If it wasn't so funny I would have been very upset! Great food, weird night! Day Nine - We birded the coastal scrub to the north of the hotel looking primarily for the elusive Lesser Roadrunner, in the end it remained that way...elusive!      Our final bird outing was a boat trip on the Ria Celestun that was great!  We had a very nice boatman named Rolando who knew the birds and wanted to know even more.  We got great looks at far more Flamingos than I have had there on the last couple of trips, and we got really close!  The other great bird was a very cooperative American Pygmy Kingfisher that was all but posing for photos at the 'ojo de agua'.  We also finally saw an adult Bare-throated Tiger-Heron and another Crocodile at the 'ojo'.    

American Pygmy Kingfisher

We finished off the morning looking for Rufous-necked Woodrail which had most likely left the area when the soldiers set up the check point right next to their usual haunts.  Our last lunch was a nice seafood place on the beach, La Palapa.     Our final meal of the trip was dinner at the Portico de Peregrino, an old establishment in the center of Merida.  I had a wonderful layered eggplant and chicken dish that had been baked int he oven, as well as a wonderful green salad, the first one in a few days.     We gave our goodbye toasts to our tight little group. It was a wonderful melding of nice and interesting people that got along well and liked to have a good time!  We did a lot fo neat things and saw a lot of cool birds, somewhere in the neighborhood of 190 species.  Thank you all very much for a wonderful tour in the northern Yucatan! Below is a photo gallery of from the trip