August 2009 Road Trip - Kelowna, Spokane (71)

Peachland - we were there for three nights and a couple of full days. Long enough to have a nice visit with Eric - not so much visiting time with Monique as she was working quite a bit. And the folks, of course.

These little humming birds occupy Mom and Dad's back yard and are a constant source of entertainment.

Eric and I went swimming. It was quite nice!

Eric and Mary.

Joe, Eric and Mary.

Elsie, Eric, Joe and Mary.

Mexico! Olah! (61)

Puerto Vallarta - January 2007

Whale Watching and a few Birds

Tropical King Bird

Frigate.

Frigate.

Golden cheeked woodpecker.

We went whale watching while we were in Puerto Vallarta. Humpback whales live in the bay there - all you need is a boat to get out to see them. This was one of the tours the tour company offered and we're always in for whale watching!

Taken from the boat on the way out to the whales.

This one doesn't really show any whales, but I put it in to show proximity to our resort, which is the complex in left centre of the pix. There are two Riu resorts - ours was the left one.

We also saw a number of little dolphins - I don't know what kind they are - Craig might know.

Note the little dolphin dorsal there, too.

Here we are back again - the blue awning marks the boat we were on.

New condo development.

Not much commentary necessary here - we love doing this kind of thing. The whales are amazing.

Mexico! Olah! (60)

Flora and Fauna - Huatulco and Area

We went on a couple of tours - both involving "nature" - one was an excursion to a sea crocodile sanctuary. This was about 1.5 hours from the hotel.

Apparently the area was home to sea crocs, but they were captured and moved so people could move in. The crocs are in a lagoon and well fed, so there is no real reason for them to leave. I believe we were told there are a few hundred of them at any given time. We saw maybe a dozen, if that. There were lots of birds and a lizard or two.

We also stopped at a turtle sanctuary, so we have pix of turtles.

The second tour was really a "booze cruise" - we were on a boat tour of the bays, stopped to go snorkeling, I saw lots of fish, which I didn't take pix of - our camera is not for under water. But again lots of birds and a few sea turtles.

We also took pix of some interesting vegetation.

I'm afraid the pix aren't necessarily in order - but hope you enjoy looking at them anyway.

Can you see the iguana in the tree?

These guys look like painted turtles to me. We have them here in Canada. If these are not painted, they must be close relatives.

There is an aquarium of sorts, which houses a variety of sea turtles.

And a big ol' snapping turtle. We have those here, too.

Little lizard on the tree.

Frigate bird.

We stopped for a late lunch here and were entertained by what seemed like hundreds of birds - they were being fed.

Iguana in a tree.

Sea turtle.

Orange fronted parakeet.

Lineated woodpecker.

Nutting's flycatcher.

Crocodile sanctuary entrance.

Sort of like Dry Gulch, except by the ocean!

We were given life jackets and told to put them on, so I mistakenly assumed that a boat would be waiting for us just beyond the entrance - but instead we ended up walking down the beach for quite a long way before we came to the croc lagoon.

We saw many of my new favorite birds: pelicans. Aren't they cool?

White heron.

Black necked stilts.

Anhinga (snake bird).

White egret.

Cormorant.

Croc.

Mangrove.

Female green heron.

Baby crocs in a pen.

Big croc in a pen.

This is what to do when your roof springs a leak!

Coati (we think).

White throated magpie.

Guinea hens - pets.

Green lizard.

Brown pelicans.

Black necked stilt.

White heron.

Marching back.

Brown pelican.

Great kiskadee.

Great kiskadee. (These are my favorite pix!)

Dinner time action for the pelicans!

Frigate.

Pelicans.

Hooded oriole.

White-winged dove.

Golden cheaked woodpecker.

This is a lot pix - but I deleted many, many more!

As far as the tours were concerned, I found the croc day much too long - just too much sun for me and I think I came close to sunstroke in spite of keeping a bottle of water on the go, sunscreen and hat. Otherwise, they were good. I LOVED the cruise! That's where the sea turtle pix was taken - I'll have more cruise pix in anothe post.