We’re back in the country and all settled into our lovely Colorado home.  We’ve gotten about 4 inches of snow in the last 12-18 hours and it is still falling!  We’ve already done some outdoor play here: cross-country skiing for Mama and downhill skiing for Papa.  On a few of the warmer days, we’ve headed out to playgrounds with Mia but we tend to stay in on the colder days because she is not a fan of being bundled up in winter coats.  And we do have the amazing rec center close by for swimming and water play, which we all enjoy.

Still, re-entry is always a bit of a shock: going from living outdoors in warm, humid weather; walking every where, every day; playing in/on/near the ocean every day…then returning to life mostly indoors and dry, dry, dry and cold weather, driving many places (strapped in a car seat, no less!) and no ocean in sight.  But home is always a good thing and we’re looking forward to more walking and daily life outside as the weather starts warming up.

Adios, Yelapa! Hasta pronto! On the panga (water taxi) headed to the big city & airport.

Pangas are the water taxis.  Here are Aaron and others boarding a panga from the main pier in Yelapa.

Loving the face-forward car seat, which was in our arranged  taxi to the airport in Mexico.

Mia calling her friends to let them know we are back in town.

Regardless of where we are (inside or outside, Colorado or Mexico), Mia is an active observer of all that goes on around her.  She gets quite excited about seeing other little people, happy & smiling people of any age, birds, horses, dogs, cats, and water and boats.  We all had a stellar spot for observations of the world around us, from the patio/living room at our place in Mexico; Mia took advantage of this observation deck many times every day.

Looking at the birds and waves on the rocks below.

Observations around town: Horse! Caballo!

One day, she started exclaiming ‘Bird!’ and it took us a moment or two to spot the bird she was talking about: it was a vulture (zopilote) perched on the palapa of the top deck of the house we were in.

Bird! Bird!

Vulture (zopilote)

Bird, as seen from Mia’s angle (good eye!)

And more viewing from the observation deck:

Looking out to sea (possibly at the kids playing in the surf on the main beach)

Looking down at the action on the rocks below

Looking up at birds flying overhead

And here are some of the birds we got to see.  This is only a small, small subset of the birds in the area and my bird knowledge is admittedly lacking.  We didn’t hike up river this year, but still saw the resident (wild) Military Macaws flying around…though no pics of those majestic creatures.  All these pics were taken from the place we stayed unless otherwise noted.

Big grey bird (egret?)

Egret or Kingfisher

Egret

Brown Pelican, close up — this guy was eyeing a couple of tuna that a fisherman had brought up to the beach. (At Playa Isabel)

Pelican fly-by.

The Magnificent Frigatebird — these birds have a wing span of 6-8 feet! They are also known as ‘tijeras’ or ‘scissors’ because of their split tail (see next photo). They like to ride the thermals and get quite high in the sky so that they look like a little speck. We rarely see them stationary. (At Town Pier)

The Magnificent Frigatebird (note scissor tail), with wingspan of 6-8 feet!

Vultures in flight below our deck

Black Vulture (zopilote) in flight

Cormorant spreading his wings on the the rocks, while his buddies swim near by. These guys dive pretty deep, both in the ocean and in the lagoon.

Cormorants sunning on rocks.

Cormorants swimming in lagoon behind the beach with egrets or Kingfishers (not sure which) near by. (On main beach)

Small yellow/black/white birds that dive in the ocean (surficial dive, they don’t actually submerge themselves like the cormorants). They were outside on the rocks in front of our place every day.

Three of the yellow/black/white birds in this photo…can you find them?

Oh, yes, we saw lots of parrots and parakeets — both in the wild and those that have become household pets but no photos of those guys, either.  Mia has entered the ‘parrot’ stage of vocalization: this started in Yelapa and has progressed rapidly.  Today, I said ‘Oh Geez!’ and she repeated it for about 15 minutes.  I suppose we better start watching what we say.  Abrazos, Stephanie