Birding San Blas

Having visited Mazatlan several times, this year Ray and I decided to go to the place we had heard so much about. The place in Mexico where every birder needs to go.  San Blas.

                                        White Ibis a block from our hotel.

I knew about San Blas mostly from reading a few blog posts.  Unfortunately they were not recent or did not explain how the birders got there.  I’m writing this so others will benefit from what we learned. (Saskatchewan birds will return to this blog soon. I saw 2 Canada Geese today and flocks of Horned Larks.)

                                        View from the old fort overlooking the city.

San Blas is a smallish city about three hours north of Puerto Vallarta along the coast.  We flew into Puerto Vallarta in the morning of February 24, 2014.  To avoid the expensive airport taxis, we walked out of the airport, turned left twice and walked up a ramp and across the busy Highway 200.  Waiting at the bottom of the ramp on the other side was a man saying “Taxi?”  He had a clean, white taxi standing there so I stumbled through “¿Cuánto a la Central Camionera?” and he immediately turned the conversation into English and said 70 pesos.  We said si, or maybe okay, and climbed into the car.  Minutes later he was offering to drive us all the way to San Blas. Now, we had already looked into the price of a taxi to San Blas, and our source, Superior Tours in Puerto Vallarta, had quoted us $220 USD.  Not interested.  We later learned that it is possible to get a taxi from San Blas to pick people up at the airport for $100 to $150 but I think you would need a contact in San Blas to make that arrangement.

                              Inside the bus terminal in Puerto Vallarta.

Inside the bus terminal, we lined up at the Pacifico Futura counter. When our turn came, I stumbled through more of my pre-planned Spanish. 188 pesos per person.  (Less than $20 Cdn)  Next bus: 12:30 p.m.  Less than 2 hours. We could easily people-watch that long. We had been told the last bus of the day to San Blas was at 3, but had no idea when others were, so were pleased to know we would arrive in day light. There was a snack booth and a washroom (5 pesos plus tip for the attendant) and at 12:20 we exited through the back door and looked for our bus. It was a Norte de Sonora second class bus, no washrooms but excellent air conditioning. (Bring a sweater.)  We had been told that Mexican bus drivers gave people receipts for their luggage, but in our three bus rides on the Nayarit coast this did not happen even once. And no one stole our luggage.

                              A group of students who'd ridden the bus for a few miles.

The driver had little regard for the speed limit, though a lot of respect for the topes (speed bumps) and got us into San Blas just before 4, (3 with the time change) after stopping several times to pick up or put down people. There were taxis at the bus stop which we could have taken, but we thought we knew the way to our hotel from the maps we’d studied so decided to walk. It probably would have worked, too, if the bus terminal wasn’t closed because of a strike and they were making do with a kiosk next to the taxi stand.  As it was, we saw some of San Blas as we pulled our luggage behind us, and were able to use a few more carefully chosen Spanish words asking directions, and found our way to the Hacienda Flamingos (an interesting name, given that there are no flamingos in this birdy town.)

 

                                Magnificent Frigatebirds hoping for some fish scraps.

During our time in San Blas, we relied on Mark Stackhouse to get us to where the birds were, and to find the birds for us when we got there.  I understand there are several guides based in San Blas but we chose Mark because I could find his email address (westwings@sisna.com) . He took us, along with Gale and Frank from New York City, and gave us two memorable days.  And lots of new birds.

                                Orange-fronted Parakeet

The first day we did some wetlands close to San Blas in the morning, watched the birds at Mark's feeder over lunch, then after a short siesta break, took a boat out onto the ocean to see the Blue-footed Boobies.

The second day we went into the mountains in the morning, then took the incredible boat journey through the estuaries to La Tovara springs in the late afternoon.  When Ray and I are asked what was our most memorable part of the two weeks in Mexico, that boat ride is what we both say. It was great. Even if I didn't get a decent photo of a Green Kingfisher.  The boat was owned and operated by another local birder whose name I'd come across in my research, Chencho. He was amazing at navigating the boat through the estuary in the dark.

                                  Limpkin                           

We are very grateful to Mark Stackhouse for showing us the birds of San Blas. It was the best kind of holiday.  The kind where you get up early and see great new birds!

                                      Masked Tityra

                                Golden-cheeked Woodpecker