I wrote an article about finding birds in San Blas, which was published in Birding magazine in August 2002. You may view a copy of it on my website here.

Day 1
Sunday, December 7, 2003
Puerto Vallarta

We arrived at the Puerto Vallarta International Airport in the early afternoon, around 2:00. After checking into our hotel, the Villa Del Mar in the center of town (not a bad little hotel; clean and relatively cheap at $30 US a night for 3 people), we spent the afternoon walking around the city. We saw a few birds, including the abundant Magnificent Frigatebirds always circling overhead and Great-tailed Grackles at every turn. At the mouth of the Rio Cuale there was a small flock of birds in a tree which included Western Tanager, Social Flycatcher, Hooded Oriole, and Great Kiskadee.

Playa de los Muertos in Puerto Vallarta

Day 2
Monday, December 8, 2003
Puerto Vallarta

For our first full day in Mexico we spent the day in the area around Puerto Vallarta. After sleeping in late, we walked around town a little bit and took a tour of the historic house that Richard Burton gave to Elizabeth Taylor while they were filming the movie, "Night of the Living Iguana."

Then we spent the remainder of the day walking a dirt road that runs up the Rio Cuale from Puerto Vallarta, through the village of Paso Ancho, and up into the mountains. We had a nice lunch at the "Paradise Cafe" with excellent guacamole, watching Snowy Egrets fish in the river next to us. Along this road, once you get out of town, is varied forest habitat, and possibilities for good birding.

Rio Cuale near Puerto Vallarta

We found Black Phoebe, Green Kingfisher, Neotropic Cormorant, and other waterbirds along the river. In the trees were Yellow-winged Cacique, San Blas Jay, Black-and-white and Black-throated Gray Warblers, Great Kiskadee, and Orange-fronted Parakeet, among other birds. Once we had walked a couple miles up, the road forked off to the left and we hiked up into the mountains a ways and saw a female Rose-throated Becard, Dusky-capped Flycatcher, Plumbeous Vireo, American Kestrel, Golden-cheeked Woodpecker, and Scrub Euphonia. Blue-gray Gnatcatchers were abundant everywhere we went.

We stayed in Puerto Vallarta again in the same hotel.

Day 3
Tuesday, December 9, 2003
Puerto Vallarta - Tepic

After checking out of our hotel, we headed for the bus station and took a bus to Tepic, a city of about 200,000 people, which is a 2-3 hour drive north of Puerto Vallarta. We arrived in Tepic in the afternoon, with some light left, so quickly checked into our hotel (the excellent Sierra de Alica, right in the center of town) and took a taxi for a 45-minute ride to a nearby volcanic lake called La Laguna de Santa Maria de Oro.

La Laguna de Santa Maria de Oro

There is good birding around the lake, but we were there at the wrong time of day, so didn't see as much as we could have. We did, however, find a few birds, including a flock of White-faced Ibis, a Rusty-crowned Ground-Sparrow, Greater Pewees, Black-headed Grosbeak, Summer Tanager, Gila Woodpecker, etc.

Our greatest discovery was a Canadian birder named Ben who apparently spends each winter living in an airstream trailer at the lake. He was very glad to have birding company and took us on an evening walk around some trails in the area.

Finally it got too dark to bird and our taxi driver showed up to take us back to our hotel in Tepic.

Day 4
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
Tepic - San Blas

In the morning we slept in and had breakfast in Tepic, then hired a taxi to take us to a place called Cerro de San Juan, a road near Tepic which provides easy access to a variety of mountain forest habitats. We followed the excellent description and directions in Howell's Birdfinding Guide to Mexico, which proved very useful on the trip.

We had the taxi drop us at the top of the road and spent 3 hours walking downhill, birding along the way. This may have been the single most productive birding spot of the entire trip in terms of different species than at other locations. Among the flocks of birds we found Painted Redstart, Hermit and Townsend's Warblers, Rufous-capped Warbler, Rusty-crowned Ground-Sparrow, Hepatic Tanager, White-eared and Berylline Hummingbirds, Green Jay, Varied Bunting, Grace's Warbler, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Black-headed Siskin, Buff-breasted Flycatcher, Acorn Woodpecker, and Tufted Flycatcher. Beware that this road is very dusty; they were doing road work while we were there and trucks kept going up and down the mountain. But it was well worth the effort!

Our taxi took us back to Tepic where we checked out of our hotel and took a bus to San Blas, an hour or two away.

In San Blas we stayed in the highly recommended Hotel Garza Canela, which proved once again to be a most enjoyable experience. In the evening, after dinner in the central zocalo, we watched a procession go into the church as part of the preparation leading up to the Festival of Guadalupe.

Day 5
Thursday, December 11, 2003
San Blas

This was our first of four full days in San Blas.

In the morning we slept in and ate breakfast at the Hotel Garza Canela's excellent restaurant. Then we spent the day walking and birding in places close to town.

First we ventured off to the delectable San Blas Sewage Ponds to see what might be found there. Along the road on the way in, most of the tall trees had blown down the in the recent hurricane, making birding somewhat less productive than it had been in 2002. However, we did find some interesting birds in the open areas, including Cattle Egret, Groove-billed Ani, and a Short-tailed Hawk and an Anhinga overhead.

At the sewage ponds themselves, we were pleased and somewhat surprised to discover that the terrible smell was almost completely nonexistent, in sharp contrast to a year and a half previous. One of the local people told us that they had been cleaning up the sewage ponds so houses could be built nearby. The birds were still there, too -- Least Grebes, Northern Jacanas, Black-necked Stilts, Greater Yellowlegs, Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks, etc.

After lunch, an afternoon siesta, and some lively Ping Pong at the hotel, we arranged with Josephina at the front desk to go on an evening boat trip upriver from town to see and photograph birds. We went with a guide named Chencho who knows the birds and will stay out after dark to find Northern Potoos and other night birds.

The boat trips, in my opinion, are the highlight of any birding trip to San Blas, and even nonbirders enjoy them. We started at about 3:30 in the afternoon and stayed until well after dark. Winding slowly upriver through the mangroves, we found an array of waterbirds, including Boat-billed Heron, Bare-throated Tiger-Heron, Black-crowned and Yellow-crowned Night-Herons, White Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, Wood Stork, and Muscovy Duck, as well as a few landbirds such as Mangrove Cuckoo, San Blas Jay, Masked Tityra, Mangrove Warbler, American Redstart, and Northern Waterthrush.

As always on the boat trips, the photography of wading birds was exceptional and I was able to get pictures of a variety of species. As I was taking photos of an unwary Green Heron standing on a mangrove root only five feet away, I was thinking, "This would never happen at home!"

After dark, Chencho dug out a massive spotlight and started shining it all around. He located Northern Potoos hunting from the top branches of trees by the riverside. There were night-herons along the bank. A couple crocodiles swam lazily along, only their eyes showing. He shone the light straight down into the water and dozens of mid-sized fish were lit up.

In the evening we had dinner and turned into bed at the hotel, looking forward to what tomorrow would bring.

Roosting Northern Potoo

Day 6
Friday, December 12, 2003
San Blas

Leaving my mom to sleep in at the hotel, my dad and I got up early and met a local bird guide named Armando Santiago in the lobby. We planned to spend the morning birding at La Bajada, an area of coffee and banana plantations a short drive south of San Blas.

Armando turned out to be a great guide -- he spoke fluent english, knew the birds quite well, and was enthusiastic about the subject. We took a taxi to La Bajada (he didn't have a car) and spent the morning birding there.

As we walked up into the plantations, the birding was a little slow and somewhat frustrating. We heard jays calling in the distance but couldn't see any. Armando heard a Rosy Thrush-Tanager in the undergrowth but it wouldn't come out and soon was quiet. However, we then ran into a couple flocks and were treated to great looks at Black-capped and Golden Vireos, Boat-billed Flycatcher, Violet-crowned and Cinnamon Hummingbirds, Plain-capped Starthroat, Yellow-winged Cacique, Sinaloa Wren, a variety of wintering warblers, and a Short-tailed Hawk overhead. I found a Kentucky Warbler lurking in the undergrowth, a rare bird in the area, but unfortunately it flitted away before anyone else saw it.

On our way back to San Blas, we birded along then entrance road to some crocodile farms. A Collared Forest-Falcon streaked in front of the car, on a mission to somewhere else. We also found a Solitary Sandpiper, Northern Jacanas, Zone-tailed Hawk, and Common Moorhens along this road. At the crocodile farms themselves, we watched crocodiles both inside and outside the cages (!) as well as Rufous-bellied Chachalacas in the trees.

My dad and I returned to the hotel and met my mom, who had spent the morning walking around town and shopping. We played Ping Pong in the hotel again, ate lunch, and headed to the oceanfront, where we took a boat over to Peso Island, across the river. We walked on the beach there for a while, seeing a few birds (Painted Buntings in the bushes and Snowy Plovers on the beach) then returned to town for dinner.

In the evening we watched more celebrations of the Festival of Guadalupe then ate an ice cream and retired to our room.

Day 7
Saturday, December 13, 2003
San Blas

In the morning my dad and I got up early (leaving my mom to sleep in) and went upriver on a boat trip with Chencho to a couple of large lagoons which are great for birds.

As the sun came up over the horizon, we had high hopes for great bird photography, but this morning, out of all the mornings of the trip, clouds obscured the eastern sky. The sunlight eluded us.

However, we still saw some great birds and got a few pictures to record the experience. At the lagoons we saw thousands of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks, quite a spectacle. As usual, there were many wading birds, including a couple Bare-throated Tiger-Herons, Little Blue Herons, Green Herons, White Ibis, Wood Storks, etc. We saw about 10 Snail Kites, a species that has colonized the area in just the last few years. We also saw Lineated Woodpecker, Gray Hawk, Common and Great Black-Hawks, American Redstart, Wilson's Warbler, Northern Jacana, about 7 Iguanas up in treetops, and a crocodile or two.

We returned to town and met up with my mom, and had lunch in town. After lunch we took a taxi to the beginning of a dirt/cobbled road that leads to a village near San Blas named Chacalilla. This is a pleasant walk and very birdy, it turns out. Starting from the highway, it's a couple miles one way to get to the village, where there is a store with cold beverages and a small church. The road wends past shrimp ponds, open fields, and brushy areas.

On this road we saw Blue Grosbeak, Common Ground-Dove, Inca Dove, Common Yellowthroat, Roseate Spoonbill, American Kestrel, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Yellow-breasted Chat, Lincoln's Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, Lucy's Warbler, and Painted Bunting. In the village itself there was a small flock of Bronzed Cowbirds mixed with the ever-present Great-tailed Grackles.

We had our daily dinner and ice cream in the zocalo with some excellent guacamole to start, then it was back to the hotel for the night.

Day 8
Sunday, December 14, 2003
San Blas

This was our last full day in San Blas. We had breakfast down the street from the hotel, then hired a boat to take us out to an offshore rock called Virgin Rock. This rock projects up out of the ocean and is so named for the statue of a virgin that stands on top, facing toward land. You can take a boat out to see the rock up close (but not land on it) and get close views of boobies, pelicans, frigatebirds, gulls, and terns.

The birds were there and we saw Blue-footed and Brown Boobies to our hearts' content. Magnificent Frigatebirds and Brown Pelicans were everywhere. We also saw Heermann's Gulls perched on the rock.

Next was a long walk on Peso Island, where we found American Oystercatchers on the beach among the usual Whimbrel, Willets, and Sanderlings. Caspian and Royal Terns lined the beach. In the trees we saw a Rufous-bellied Chachalaca and some of the usual flycatchers.

In the evening we went up to the San Blas fort. We intended to watch the sunset for a green flash as the sun passed over the water, but we were too late -- the sun had already gone below the horizon when we arrived. It was still a fantastic view of the city and the ocean beyond.

Day 9
Monday, December 15, 2003
San Blas - Mexcaltitan

We checked out of the Hotel Garza Canela in the morning and, after walking around town and sending a few postcards, hired a taxi for the 2-hour drive north to Mexcaltitan.

Mexcaltitan is a small island village in the middle of a large swamp that is only reachable by boat. There is some thought among the experts that it may have been the original Aztec capital because of its geography. Anyway, we had not been there before and were anxious to explore new territory.

The taxi dropped us off at a dock where we transferred our luggage to a small boat. Mangrove Swallows were flying around and perching on the dock. The boat driver took us on a winding ride through the swamp for about five minutes before we reached Mexcaltitan (en route passing a Wood Stork, Neotropic Cormorants, Great Black-Hawk, and numerous other waterbirds).

The island is circular and is quite small -- only about 5 blocks across. There are no cars on the island. Apparently some of the local people have never left the island in their whole life. We didn't see any other foreigners during our stay there, and at times it was uncomfortable to be stared at so much. There is only one hotel on the island, with three rooms, and it was under construction while we were there (the room we stayed in was pretty dirty, the bathroom smelled awful, and overall it wasn't exactly the most cozy place we'd ever been). There is one regular restaurant on a neighboring island to which you take another boat ride, but it mainly serves shrimp.

Since there wasn't much to do in Mexcaltitan besides walk around in circles, in the afternoon we made our way down to the dock and asked the first likely-looking person we encountered if it was possible to take a boat out in the swamp to see birds. We made a deal of 200 pesos an hour for the three of us, and off we went.

The swamp was great -- comparable to the boat rides in San Blas. We were impressed by how much the locals knew about the birds (our boatman didn't speak english but told us the names in spanish). We found Bare-throated Tiger-Heron, Crested Caracara, both night-herons, Caspian Tern, American White Pelican, Wood Stork, Roseate Spoonbill, White-faced Ibis, American Oystercatcher, Groove-billed Ani, Blue-winged Teal, and Long-billed Curlew, among the host of regular waterbirds.

In the evening we managed to find a place that would serve us tacos in the center of town, then turned into an uncomfortable night of sleep in our hotel room.

Day 10
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
Mexcaltitan - Tepic

In the morning we unwittingly slept in late, due to the fact that our hotel room had no windows. We scrounged up a quick breakfast from a lady who was selling some kind of bread. I was pleased to find Gray-breasted Martins roosting in numbers on the buildings in the center of town, as well as a few Barn Swallows.

We went down to the dock and again hired one of the locals to take us out in the swamp for the morning. It was a different person than the previous evening, but he had heard all about us (he was actually related to our previous boatman), and the price was the same for a morning boat ride.

The highlight for me was finding a very cooperative adult Bare-throated Tiger-Heron standing on a wooden fence in the water. We had the boat ease right up to it and I took three rolls of photos of this spectacular bird. We also found the usual variety of waterbirds arrayed in the mangroves and on the shorelines. A Crane Hawk was clambering around in one mangrove tree. Then our boatman pointed out a distant speck and started talking about strange birds that had arrived in Hurrican Kenna in October 2002 and had stayed in the area. He was pointing at a Limpkin. He said that there were 20-30 of these birds now residing in the swamp, and that they had definitely arrived in the hurricane. We saw about 8 Limpkins throughout the morning, and it was very interesting -- they only colonized San Blas a few years ago, and that had been a huge range expansion northward. Maybe someday we'll be seeing Limpkins in California?

Our morning excursion over, we landed at the dock by the exit road and waited for a bus to arrive, which it did, and take us back to Tepic. Once in Tepic we checked into the Sierra de Alica hotel, which we had liked the first time, and spent the evening walking around the center of town. There were a number of restaurants to choose from for dinner.

Day 11
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Tepic

My dad and I got up early, leaving my mom to sleep in, and hired a taxi to take us to Cerro de San Juan. This had been such a productive birding stop the first time that we decided to go back rather than try to find a different birding spot near town.

On our second visit we found many of the same species, some of the most common being Townsend's Warbler, White-eared Hummingbird, and Painted Redstart. This time we walked up from the bottom of the road then retraced our steps to meet the taxi back at the bottom 3 hours later. Unfortunately it was quite windy and at times the dust was almost unbearable, especially with the dump truck traffic up and down the road. After a long birdless period (besides the vultures overhead) we headed off onto a side road into the forest and finally found a sheltered spot, with a flock of birds. A beautiful Slate-throated Redstart put on a show, fanning and flicking its tail, right in front of us. Buoyed with success, on our way back down to our meeting place the wind died down and we found a pair of Red-headed Tanagers and a Russet-crowned Motmot, which was one of my most wanted birds for the trip.

We met up with my mom again and had lunch, then rested for a while, then took an afternoon walk around town. We walked to La Loma, a large park in Tepic with lots of trees, grass, and just about everything else you could ever imagine in a park, including a train, zoo, amphitheater, olympic sports facility, etc. There were a few birds there, including our only Orchard Oriole of the trip.

In the evening we watched a Christmas Parade go through the street right in front of our hotel in the center of town. It was a huge event; we estimated 5,000 people watching in the one-block section where we were standing. The highlight of the parade was a full circus outfit on trucks with several elephants, tigers, and other circus animals.

Day 12
Thursday, December 18, 2003
Tepic - Puerto Vallarta

Our last day in Mexico was basically a day of traveling and waiting; we checked out of our hotel in Tepic, took a bus to Puerto Vallarta, took a taxi to the airport, and our plane departed in the evening. It had been a fantastic trip, and I hope to go back soon!

Annotated Bird List