A robberfly in Mexico.

I'd visited Puerto Vallarta with a friend two years ago B.I. ( Before INaturalist ) and was enthralled with the wildlife and the town. We'd hit it during the Day of the Dead festival. So much to look at. Genuine tradition. Slightly touristy with the beaches and shops - really not my thing. My friend really wanted to do stuff like that: drink his brains out and close every bar and lay on the beach the next day. He got frustrated with me as I stopped in every vacant lot and photographed butterflies and insects.
So, I gave into him and got one of the worst sunburns of my life on the tops of my feet. "You do your thing. I'll do mine." I didn't bring him back this time.
The first night I arrived, torrential rain, which was thrilling to watch from below an awning. Out crawled a Black Witch - a moth with the largest wingspan of any insect in North America. I was hoping to see one down here and boom! first night we were both dodging the rain together
This time I returned to meet up with someone I'd met here on iNat - Francisco Farriols Sarabia - a.k.a. "francisco3". He and his beautiful wife Lilianna met me in the lobby of Hotel Posado de Roger and we all three had a great instant connection. Francisco has a ranch in Mazatlan. My Spanish was much poorer than their English, but through laughter and gestures, we met at the language of Nature. Fantastic couple.
The Botanical Gardens south of Puerto Vallarta are stupendous. So many butterflies I didn't know where to point the camera. Shot a great deal of Odonates and Greg Lasley and others helped me key them. Cool to see my first Malachite. Great mud-puddling across the street. Watched hummingbirds from the deck at lunch.
Next day we headed north to the town of Sayulita - a sweet, little beach town thats...gone even more touristy in the two years since I'd been there. Brain-baking heat. Walked to the edge of town for butterflies and I watched a huge bead of sweat go down my finger and into my iPhone. It stopped. Kinda thought "Whatever.." Had oysters on the beach. Lots of beer. Roommate rebooted phone - Oh, that fixed it.
So glad to have returned to a place and made new memories.
iNat is it's own language: meeting others I only know through the website and the passion for what we all look at...does all the awkward pre-meeting stuff. Like a small band of...intimate explorers.

Posted on 05 de novembro de 2014, 04:14 PM by robberfly