In my last posting I mentioned seven cruisers, including Dan and me had spent a great four days exploring Tikal, Yaxha and Flores. While reading our local paper, a website called Chisme Vindicator that provides news of happenings on the Rio in English, we read that there was to be the Second Annual Workshop Birding in Guatemala by Tour Green Caribbean right at our marina, Tijax!
Should we attend?
Actually, we wondered why we hadn’t yet heard about the workshop weekend as it was already Wednesday of the week and the program was to begin Friday afternoon with 3:00PM registration and 4:30 to 6:30 guided bird identification walk. The article mentioned the names of the attending bird guides and another man, Esvin Chacon to email for more information. I first emailed Eugenio Gobbato, the owner of Hacienda Tijax, to see if the workshop was meant for any interested birder(such as us) and if the offerings would be in English, because sadly, our Spanish just would not do for a lecture situation.
While deciding about the weekend, of course other activities happen around the Rio. The first of the boats are beginning to leave and this huge power boat with only a single screw engine was struggling to leave his tight slot at the marina dock. He had to move his boat 90 degrees in no space at all. He was shoe-horned out of Tijax by a combination of dock guys (in the small launcha), who pulled him sideways, then by the stern backwards to the open river. We cruisers were all giving advice and monitoring the spiderweb of lines to the remaining boats while staying close to defend our own, should anything go wrong with the plan. Eventually the owner-driver Ray of Sweet Mellisa was able to leave without a scratch. A fine mornings entertainment with our coffee!
Another event that was held on the Rio was a fund-raising event for a local Mayan vocational training school, Ak Tenamit. To raise money cruisers paid an entry fee and dinghied around the Rio to the various marinas picking up one card for a poker hand and sampling the free or reduced fare offered at each stop. Then at the end, at Mario’s Marina, Jim, the owner served everyone All you can eat- Tacos while the hands were played by the people with the best cards. Now- I wonder- HOW did they get the best cards?? Yep, chase other people, bribe, exchange cards- saying “It doesn’t matter, ‘cause it’s all for the kids” Enough money was raised for two kids to attend school for a year and some new materials for learning projects. Tourism is one of the offerings at the school.
Here are a few pics of Mellisa and our Poker Run fun afternoon.
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| Oct. Poker run |
We were pretty busy with the above but we received our answer from the Bird Tour Organizer almost immediately, that yes, the offerings would be in English and that Esvin was already on Tijax property at the restaurant. We missed him there, but soon a knock on the hull of our boat produced Esvin, a young and friendly local Guatemalan who was the organizer of the birding weekend. This was a way of introducing interested eco-minded tourists to many other natural sites quite close to the Rio but not included in the “usual attractions”, like Tikal and Antigua.
After chatting a bit, receiving a nice gift of a cd of birds matched with bird calls and filling him in on our birding experience at Tijax, Tikal and other places we’d had the opportunity to explore, he described how the groups would be formed for the tours. The bird experts Leo Donabo, Bryan Mendez and the head scientist from the Nature Preserve of Cerro San Gil, Miguel Ramirez were scheduled to attend.
Very excited, Friday 3:00PM, still a hot, sunny day Dan and I suited-up; our new Tilley hats, hiking shoes, binoculars and headed up to the Tijax Restaurant to register. We mentioned we had a birding scope and Leo encouraged us to bring it, saying “we can get a boy to carry it for you”. Ok, super. I ran back down the dock to grab the scope and our third binocular for a friend to use.
Friday’s Walk
Dan and I alone were assigned as “the group” with the very experienced but Spanish speaking Miguel Ramirez, the most experienced guide, and 19 year old Bryan who is an English speaker.
The rest of the attending participants of two more adult cruisers, a 10 year old and 13 year old brother and sister; two lively cruiser kids but very serious and interested, and at least four Guatemalans; two men and two women went out with Leo and Esvin. Among that group some needed coaching in use of binoculars and some did not bring any, and had brought cameras instead. They made their way a bit slower than our group and returned to the start earlier than we did.
The four of us, with Dan lugging the scope began to slowly climb the winding, well-cared for path to the upper trail. It was a comfortable evening cool with a breeze and not many mosquitoes. We walked quietly and many of the regular birds we see often when we walk at Tijax were spotted as well as some migrants as this is the time for the Northern birds to arrive in Guatemala- a few Yellow Warblers and a Magnolia Warbler we captured in the scope as well as Blue-gray Tanager, Yellow-winged Tanager, two ? parrots and a Collared Euphonia. All of the last were located on one far away bare-branched tree and the birding scope was helpful to see them clearly. By this time, Bryon offered to carry the scope-so I took his job of logging our sightings in the official record and he carried the scope up the hill and over the two sections of hanging, swinging bridge we had to cross (60 feet above the ground and maybe 150ft across!) By the time we reached the top of the hill, the light was fading so we started back. Miguel was amazing in his ability to hear and identify bird calls or find both the male and female of the species and if the bird was juvenile or adult. He was very personable, but many times Bryon had to translate. It was obvious that Bryon looked up to this older man and enjoyed learning from him as we did.
Here are some pics of the "crew"
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| Oct. bird worksop |
In comparing notes later, at the end of Friday’s hike, Leo’s large group had logged many of the same birds as we did, but not everyone could have seen them all. Dan suggested that the following morning we all go together, as the group was not too large and the others could access the birding scope, also. I think Dan enjoyed getting the scope on the bird quickly so others could line up and see the parrots, a Grey Hawk, Woodpeckers, and the Tanagers among others. We heard but did not locate a Trogon in the woods, but where was he seen later? Right outside the workshop palapa where we were drawing birds!
Learning to Draw
For me there were two highlights from this interesting weekend. First was when we arrived back from our early AM Saturday walk, the quiet Bryon was the workshop leader. He is also an artist. His helpful technique that I’m sure will help many of us not truly versed in bird anatomy was to pass out paper and pencil and step by step give oral directions and model the drawing of a generic “bird” on a white board, with Leo translating for the Spanish speakers. It was engaging, starting with a rectangle for the body and a square to mark the head then using a mark on the first third of the rectangle to locate the wing and the second third for the legs which then clamp onto a branch. He patiently drew crucial anatomical bird parts for a birder to try to see, to distinguish among similar species in the field, naming them in English and Spanish. The next phase was to draw and see slide pictures of types of beaks. We found about fifteen different types. When you see the shape, length or thickness of the beak you know what the bird eats and its main habitat. We did the same with feet and types of tails!
By then we were ready for a break and a group of us shot over to a favorite restaurant across the Rio for prime rib Saturday special! Yummy!
Saturday’s Interruption
Although it was fun and relaxing to pursue an interest with like-minded people we were not to be able to relax for long. Even hiding in the Rio Dulce, a daily task is to check what’s going on in the Caribbean weather. A tropical wave, had become a tropical storm named Richard, near Honduras by Friday, and we were beginning to become nervous. According to four of the seven computer models supplied by NOAA, there was a possibility of the storm swirling along the coastline and curving west into Puerto Barrios or even Livingston at the mouth of the Rio Dulce, before continuing on to go ashore in Belize near Placentia.
We of course were not sure what would happen, but assumed the wind and rain usually associated with a large storm would be a problem for Sea Star, tied to a dock and possibly bouncing around, chafing lines or even pulling from the dock. Even the workshop leaders were concerned that a local stream would rise precluding access to the preserve, so cancelled a birding trip to a Nature Preserve, Cerro San Gil, scheduled for Sunday. Dan and I would have gone, but not when the weather was so unpredictable.
As the caretaker of the boat, your house, a cruiser just doesn’t know what action to take. Primarily we worry and check the internet regularly. There are many sites on the internet that show satellite pictures, are updated as often as every half hour but still it’s hard to know what to do and when to do it. In our case we were thinking – not safe tied to the dock in wind. We could go out on anchor and perhaps drop another anchor, or even two, but then we’d worry about loose boats that do drag, dragging into ours. We could drive the bow into the mangroves, drop an anchor and tie off to trees, but where exactly? What’s the depth and would we be in some trouble with scratching or grounding the boat? But maybe it won’t come here, we hope, so we should stay put. We’d feel a bit silly if we over-reacted.
So what happened was “Captain talk”, beers, showing each other the latest weather reports, and more thinking, watching and worrying until the storm was closer and the reports clearer. By Sunday mid-morning the storm was tracking more Northerly toward Belize and had become hurricane strength going ashore as a category 1 storm but in Rio Dulce we had not a breath of wind nor any rain or surge!
Not this Time- Again!
We had “dodged another bullet” as we often say. We do feel badly for the people of Belize where the storm did go ashore. We heard later that there was no loss of life, so that’s good, but of course there was damage.
Soo..Back to the Birds
We could see on the computer that the track had shifted. We stayed on the dock AND before the professional birders left the second best part of the weekend happened. Esvin came out to the boat to tell us they had located the Tijax mottled owl and we should come and see it. Dan was off the boat with binoculars in a flash, I followed behind with the scope. Dan saw the bird easily as it was in a tree outside of one of Tijax’ small cabins, and went back to the boat for his camera. Well, it was really a pair of owls and here are some pictures that resulted. We finished our birding weekend on an exciting note! Here are Dan’s pictures of the Mottled owl pair at Tijax.
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| mottled owls Tijax |
Some emails to use if you would like to contact Esvin for more information or to arrange a trip to Cerro San Gil or one of the other “off the beaten track” locations. We were told that due to terrain in some places in the nature preserves you would need a guide. esvinchacon@gmail.com
Time to Go to Sea
The major storms supposedly have passed now according to averages and dates, November 1 is the date when some insurance companies relax a bit about “coverage for named storms.” Sea Star seems ready with oil changed, new fuel, filled water tanks, repacked lockers, newly finished teak and waxed hull and lots of food. We are more serious about leaving the Rio and heading North to Florida. We have two boats to travel with, increasing security for all. We’re inviting our older and newer cruiser friends for dinners and last chats. We’re in the mode that is so hard for cruisers --goodbyes to good friends who aren’t going your chosen route.
Next week we should be ready, so this is my last posting until probably USA, possibly Mexico, Isla Mujeres, although there will be other stops in route to break up the trip until the last push over the gulf stream to Dry Tortugas, Key West and Titusville Marina, our ultimate sailing destination for awhile.
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