What an amazing day we had today. We boarded a bus at 8:30 and began our trip to the town of San Blas – a town steeped in history. We stopped at the oldest church in the town built in 1878 and right beside is the newest church. Construction began in 1940 and is still continuing today. I guess for almost 70 years they have been working on Mexican time, cause it’s not all that complicated a design! Along the saw we saw tobacco leaves drying, jack fruit trees, mango trees fields of sorghum and watermelon. We learned that mechanized farming was not available until the 1990’s and now with NAFTA the importation duty on farm equipment has been lowered from 300% to 17% - so
more and more tractors and other equipment are gradually working their way into the area. We visited an old fort with a marvelous panorama view. I took a picture of the road that we had to turn onto. I don’t know what the incline was, but I was grateful we made it up and down safely!After our stop there, we went to the place where we would be eating lunch and preordered our meal. Then we went to the place to get on boats and go up the river on the tour through the mangroves. That was the amazing part. This area is teaming with life. We saw so many birds. We were lucky enough to see gold crowned heron, egrets, ibis, spoonbill, flycatchers, boatbills, night hawks, other hawks, grackles and I’m sure I have forgotten a few. I missed the kingfisher but I did see a weaver bird nest. We also saw an enormous termite nest. I got a picture of it – but I was so glad I didn’t see any of the inhabitants!
Further along, we saw turtles and crocodiles. It was an excellent tour. The boat ride must have been close to 1 1/2 hours. Being in and out of the shade made is so refreshing and the gorgeous views made for a wonderful experience. I am so glad we chose to go on this tour – it was quite an adventure.
We got back to the resort around 5:00 – but as we had lunch at 3:00, we are not going to need any dinner. It is a little cooler out just now and it will be nice just to sit and relax for a couple of
hours.Tomorrow we are going to Chikala – a close town with a nice beach. We are counting down the days and making the days count!
1 comment:
So good to hear from you tonight. I spoke to my friend Patty and she cannot remember the name of the restaurant but said it was probably the one she was thinking about. She also mentioned that on Thursday about 4pm at the end of the main street by the square where the church is the little children dance and it is very cute. The locals should know about it. She also mentioned that if a few of you want to hire a taxi and go way down by the naturalist reserve(?) there is an amazing sub division that is worth driving around with the most incredible houses. Anyway, that's it. Love you lots,
Eileen
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