Saturday, January 15, 2011

Refugio de Vida Silvestre Cuero y Salado

About 30 kilometers west of La Ceiba is a marshy wildlife refuge lush with mangroves, a maze of estuaries and lots o' birds to look at and listen to.

Getting to this coastal wildlife reserve was half the fun.  We drove by car to La Union and parked when we saw the train tracks.  There were about a dozen men from the Policia National milling around the train tracks, too.  They were in the know and knew that the train would not be coming for at least a 1/2 hour.  As we waited, we learned that the guys use the little train to get to their base on the coast.  So as we waited for the narrow-gauge train to take us out to the wildlife reserve, we talked politics with the guys (very "light" political talk is  recommended... you never know who's on Mel's side and who's not) and bought malnutritious/tasty chips from the pulperia on wheels.

Our train arrived and we were on our way.

I snapped this photo from the train, intending to get the lush foreground with the mountains and clouds in the back.  This heron landed just as I took the picture!

Riding on the train...




       We made it! 

The 40 minute ride took us past homes, futbol fields, cattle pasture, marshland, and eventually the system of estuaries that make up the reserve that supports 196 bird species (about a quarter of all the bird species in all of Honduras) and 35 mammal species. The Cuero y Salado reserve was designated a protected wildlife area in 1986 to protect its endangered manatee population.  We didn't see any manatee on this day.  But we saw bats, howler monkeys, white faced monkeys, fish jumping sideways out of the water and birds.  Thanks to my parents for identifying (and recording) the 22 different birds that we saw, you too can appreciate the abundance of avian delight:

Osprey

Wood Stork

Herons: Little Blue, Great Blue, Yellow Crowned Night, Boat Billed and Tri-Colored

Jacanua

Neotropic Comorant

Kingfishers:  Belted, Green and Amazon

Egrets:  Cattle, Great and Snowy

Anhinga

Royal Tern

Pie Billed Grebe

Grackle

and

Vulture:  Black and Turkey

Crested Caracara

The Jacanua, or "Jesus Christ Bird" because it can walk on water.  This is the father bird with his chicks.  They're eating from the water plants.




                  Mangrove Trees


Can you see the 5 or 6 bats on this tree branch?  Our guide saw them and it took about a minute for all of us in the boat to focus our eyes on them.  We were about 8 feet away from  us and they tolerated our quiet whispers for about a half a minute before flying away.

As our boat tour ended, we went back to the visitors center to wait for the train to return to take us back to La Union.  We missed the boat, or the train, so to speak because we ended up waiting about an hour for the little engine to return.  In the meantime, we made friends with the local dogs, retrieved errant soccer balls for the local boys playing in a nearby field and visited another pulperia to buy more chips and drinks.  The kids entertained themselves by fencing/sword fighting and stalking chickens.




¡Por fin!   Our train arrived and we made our way back.



Yes, little D looks thrilled. 







3 comments:

  1. Lil' D always looks thrilled....inside he is having the time of his life! Miss you guys and loving the photos. JW

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  2. Every family has one, right? The one that won't smile? In my family, it was my sister! Thanks for always checking in on us, and chiming in, too!

    Love you Jessie.

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  3. Oh man....I was that person when I was a teenager and my mom took me to Africa. I regret it now! JW

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