Week 2 January 27 - February 2 Animals of Banderas Bay

It was not our objective to discover wildlife (no, not the girls-gone-wild type), but there are animals and insects are all around us as we walk the Banderas Bay area. It is truly amazing, the variety and the bright colored birds, and the sea-life on the shoreline – puff fish, rays, eels, turtles and sea snakes. The most amazing discovery on our walk to Nuevo Vallarta was turtle eggs that were hatching. From the shore we followed the tracks and discovered a nest. The majority of little turtles were gone, but remaining were the late hatchlings which were having difficulty leaving the nest. We dug them out and carried them to the water's edge. It was so cool to watch them swim away.

Note to self – don't try to pull an iguana by its tail from a hole. I gave this some thought before trying, but obviously not enough. There was meter long bright green iguana at our condo. I ran down to get its picture but it ducked into a hole when I came too close. I noticed that about 12 inches of its tail was exposed and I decided to pull it out so I could take its picture. The iguana's skin felt very rough, and I was surprised how strong the iguana was. I gave up pulling because I was scared that I would pull off its tail, which is a normal reaction of many lizard species as a last resort to avoid capture. I'm glad the iguana out-powered me. I had forgotten about the iguana's long and sharp claws that were being used to resist my pull. Had I been successful pulling the iguana from the hole, I might not have been prepared to deal with its sharp claws and the potential damage it could do to my body.  Mario that was dumb, just like the time when you chased the black bear to take its picture.

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