Ria Lagartos

Hi all,

I'm not much of a wildlife shooter mainly because I don't have the skills. When I have a long lens, I'm usually shooting something like a kid's soccer game. But, we spent the day up at Ria Lagartos. I just couldn't stop shooting the birds.

They started following us when we left port.

Because they expected a little propina.



Then there were the web foots.

Along with a few cormorants.

There was a worried mom (to be) that was hiding in her nest (bare-throated tiger-heron).



Not only because we were below, but because there was a black hawk above. Black hawks are egg eaters.

There werealso crocs below, but they were not into posing.

The egrets hung out with the herons.

And then there were the flamencos. These were the most amazing to watch... such big birds here and just gorgeous fliers.

As we were poling back our guide reached down in the water for a while, and then pulled up a couple of horseshoe crabs.

Did you know that the horseshoe crab has been around so long that it predates most species on this earth.


They are more closely related to spiders than crabs.

I have never seen or played with anything quite like these. We returned them back after tickling them for a while.

I must show some of my fellow boaters.

Our superb boatman who had an amazing ability of finding the wildlife in all the nooks an cranies.

Thanks for looking...
Tim

ps. The a more complete gallery can be found here...
http://community.webshots.com/album/547583895kLeHVs

It's February!!!

February 2, 2006

It's hard to believe that it is February already. It's also hard to believe that we've settled in, and life is somewhat "normal". It's funny... before we left I never really believed that we would really do this. It never sank in until after we arrived.

The kids have completed almost two weeks of school now. They are enrolled in a public school that is just a walk around the Convento from us. Sasha just loves it and seems to be just plain fluent. She participates in all the assignments along with her classmates. The Ainsworth immersion program has prepared her well.

Stefan is just so brave, and I completely admire him. He goes to class not understanding much, but tries and tries. I'm sure it will not be long before he passes me up in the language department.

The weather has been nice... not too hot -- yet. It's funny to see people around us pulling on jackets and snuggling up while we walk about in shorts.

This evening we went to the church for the Virgin of Candelaria. There have been calibrations and masses all week. The shot above is hot off the camera from a couple hours ago. (You can click on the image to see a larger version if you wish.)

I have also updated my gallery with shots from a Chichen Itza tour with Stefan and Sasha. The album can be found here:

http://community.webshots.com/album/547034485DoBEeS

Chichen is one of the more popular Mayan sites and is about 40 minutes away from Valladolid by buss.

Cheers,
Tim