Monkey Mountain, and the Vallarta Botanical Gardens

 I hiked up Monkey Mountain the other day, with my friend Jonny leading the way (pictured in the right) and his two friends from Vallarta.  Its a great view around the bay, and I've seen it for years and years but never gone up, but now I know the way.  It was a clear day with good visibility and the evening slant on the sun warmed our hearts and eyes with glory of the coming evening.

 Here is a view looking into the sun of the point of Punta Mita, where the surf break El Faro is.  I really like surfing this break, and you can see the wave sliding along the side of the point.  Sometimes I've surfed from the point all the way to the pier.

 A few days later, my dad arrived, and we did a trip all around Bandaras Bay, from La Cruz to Quimixto, then to Yelapa, then to Corrales.  Here is a map:

You can see some of the places on the south side of the bay, but not the north side, sorry.  This whole area is mountainous and full of rivers and green.   I didn't take my camera ashore because it is not protected from the waves (and there were many waves) but it was very nice.  At Quimixto there is a very steep surfing wave, a tube that barrels left and is shallow and fast.  I surfed a little bit there before going to sleep that evening we got in.
Corrales is a small town that is near an open anchorage that offers little protection from the wind and waves, but there was no other white tourists there.  It was just my father and I.  They had a little carpenter shop on the beach and he was cutting up some nice wood he'd got from up in the mountains and so my dad wanted to take a closer look.   He offered a piece of scrap for us to take home and my dad was delighted.

Then we sailed back.  It was a long and arduous journey, because the wind was against us and strong, and there were sizable waves that hindered our progress, but after a long day we got into La Cruz again, and then spent the next few days driving around looking at things.
We went to San Pancho, a town to the north, with a river and estuary, and found some nice looking birds:

 Here is a Northern Jacana, and a plover of some kind, it might be a killdeer.

 And then further up the mountains we found this Lineated Woodpecker.

 And at the botanical gardens we found lots of colorful characters, including this one, a Yellow winged Cacique

 and this robin, a Rufous Backed Robin perhaps?

 Then there were a lot of cool plants that I'll leave for Abe to identify for y'all.

 And a Chachala, which I really like these ones, since they look like little dinosaurs.

 And I like these ones, a Purplish Backed Jay.

 The robin again...

 And a grosbeak of some kind...?

 And this little woodpecker was always a delight to see winging around, its a Golden Fronted Woodpecker, I think.

And then on our last full day we went to a Cocodrillario, or a crocodile viewing area.  At this one, they have several kinds of animals there and they only do tours, so you can't just wander around.  Our tour guide brought us into the cage with the beast!  In fact, she was very adamant about how peaceful and safe crocodiles are, and that we shouldn't be afraid of them, but respect certain rules about how close to come.  First of all, don't get in the water.  Then stay about 30 ft away from wild crocs while on land and with these ones, which are used to people, about 10 ft.  The crocs are not very fast on land (she said) and I think that she was also careful to keep us away from the front of the croc, because I think they can't turn very quick. 

 I asked about if my wearing of my plastic shoes (crocs) would disturb the animals, but she assured me that they wouldn't be bothered.  In fact, most of the crocodiles we saw were unable to be released to the wild.  A few were captured by firemen and were blind or partially blind, so they took them in.  I believe they rehabilitate some and release them back into the wild as well.

 They had these little turtles, but they are an invasive species.  I've seen a lot of them in La Paz, at the Serpentarium there.  People tend to buy this kind in the pet store, then release it and they ruin the wild populations of a different turtle, so the folks here (and in La Paz) capture them and/or take them in from people who don't want them, and keep them out of the wild. 

 Our second Croc that managed to escape the Crock-Pot (our guide didn't really fully appreciate this kind of humor, since she wasn't a native english speaker) was fully blind and we got a look at the front of this one, with the mouth that has a fully sealed back to it.  They have to lift their heads out of the water to swallow as a result of this feature, but they can stay under for a long time without drinking any water.  I think this results in better flow through the mouth and less bacteria in the mouth.  I didn't find any cavities when I looked (carefully) at two skulls they had on display.  Its surprising, because on pretty much any other skull I've looked at, I've found dental decay.

 They had a Macaw, but I'm not sure if its a green or which kind.  I saw two large Macaw kind of birds in Yelapa as last week.

 The lurking eye.  This was the biggest croc they had and they dropped in a piece of chicken for him to eat, and it was impressive. 

 Here is a native turtle.  They look very similar to me, but the invasive have red cheeks and this kind does not.  Look at the eyes, and look again at the pupil from the crocodile.  I think its really interesting that you have a horizontal slit in the turtle (which I've never seen elsewhere) and a vertical slit in a fellow reptile.  And in Cats, which are totally different, being mammals.  So independently evolved.  I think Tigers have round pupils too, so that adds to the mystery.
So what good is a vertical pupil?  It has great resolution on the horizontal plane, so being close to the ground or being just barely above the water, being next to a flat surface means you mostly care about looking side to side, not up.  If that matters, then having a vertical slit means you can have a easily dilated pupil (less complex than a round one) and get good resolution sideways, and have gigantic aperture range (the size of the hole light goes through)  So this guy probably has great night vision and decent day vision and can't tell very easily if something is tall and skinny what it is, or what the difference between top and bottom is. 

Looking at this guy again, he doesn't actually have a horizontal slit, but just a dark part of the iris and a round pupil.  I think I'm going to investigate this a little more.