When Tomorrow Comes

First off, I'd like to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season!  For my US readers, I hope you all had a peaceful and delicious Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends. 

Gordon searches the skies for birds in the cold morning temps

On our last survey for the year, the Mexico team returned back to Rancho Aribabi in the state of Sonora to replace batteries and cards on the wildlife cams.  We continue to monitor this area for the elusive jaguars.  We know they are there, but jaguars are notorious for their invisibility powers:)  

Rural Skipper

Our trek for this visit was very much needed as the highway commission was thinking about placing a road through this important conservation area.  It had many people worried, but thankfully, everyone involved saw how important this riparian habitat was. Protecting an area from development is A LOT of work and it's something the ranch owner has to deal with every day.  

The Highway Commission visits

Our group had members studying plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and bugs.  We haven't really had any specialist in the fish area, but hopefully someone will join our team down the road.  Needless to say, this area is a rich biodiverse  corridor. 

During the course of 3 days, we surveyed every nook and cranny around the Cocospera River.  It's one of the few riparian corridors within the Sonoran desert and an important area for migrating birds, endemic amphibians and of course, mammals like the Coati, Jaguar, etc. 

The group is a fantastic bunch of experts brought together by our leader Kathy Cooper.  She feeds the crew with her wonderful cooking.  And while everyone does quite a bit of hiking, we still seem to add several pounds after each trip:)

Greater Roadrunner

The birders, Gordon and myself, surveyed the area for our feathered friends.  Of course, we kept our eyes open for other critters. Our current bird species count is at 151 birds. There have been two bird species that I have not been able to ID.  Both are night birds and continue to puzzle me. One sounds like an owl and the other sounds very much like a grouse. Ebird records began in 2005 for this area.  Today, there are 17 lists submitted for this relatively new hotspot. I'll continue to monitor this "patch" as we will inevitably return. 

I must always keep my eyes open around this ranch as the critters can be very active.  I've almost been attacked by a momma Javelina. On this trek, an oddly patterned Hooded Skunk popped out in front of us.  

An oddly patterned Hooded Skunk

The nights were extremely cold and froze many of us in our tents. Herpers during the winter months have to pick up rocks and logs to look for snakes and lizards. However, I suspect many snakes went further underground to keep out of the freezing temps. 

Herper specialist Jim Rorabaugh searched near a corral for anything with scales.  I smiled to myself.  Any respectable birder knows better:)  One doesn't go lifting up rocks and rotting wood unless you're up for a sudden heart attack:) But on this rare occasion, we found something softer and "cuter".....

Desert Shrew

This Desert Shrew was a sensation!  Everyone began to document this difficult to find mammal. Afterwards the shrew signed autographs.  We then returned this little cutie back to its secure and hidden spot. 

The desert is full of life.  You just need to know where to look.  The only problem is that there are things that bite back:) Cacti, lizards, and snakes are just a few of the obstacles that a Sonoran birder faces.  But it's so worth it.  Snakes are cool.  I just don't like surprises! 

Karina is another herper and she also likes to pick up spiders.  This is a tarantula looking Huntsmen Spider.  However, it's not a tarantula and completely safe to handle. I'll pass:)

Our leader, Kathy, joins us for a nice hot cup of coffee.  

The next set of pictures are not mine but from the crew during this past weekend.  We all share our data and finds.  At night during dinner, photo cards are loaded into laptops.  Everyone crosses their fingers for a jaguar sighting, but we love seeing the coati, ocelote, bobcat, bear, coyote, fox, deer, javelina and oh so much more!

Lowland Leopard Frog, Photo courtesy of Jim Rorabaugh

There is always lots of interesting data to share.  

Gray Flycatcher, Photo courtesy of Jim Rorabaugh

I'd like to thank Dean Goehring for giving me permission to use his photo below.  There are many Mountain Lions in this area.  Here is a mother with her cub/juvenile.  There is another cub not in the picture.  The work that we do on this ranch is very important and if it wasn't for the dedication of others, I'm not sure where this ranch would be today. Cut down for a highway?  Clear cut for development?  Carlos, the current ranch owner, is a strong believer in conservation.  Without his dedication and love for this land, Aribabi might look a lot different today. 

Mountain Lion photo courtesy of Dean Goehring

For now, I leave you with a video that continues to make me laugh.  It's a skit from Saturday Night Live.  If your dinner conversation turns into chaos, just remember this moment:) Until next time....

Tlatlauquitepec, Puebla

Standing on a hill above the village of Tlatlauqui.  In this photo, I stick out like a sore thumb with my Mexican mother(striped shirt) and very young nieces.  They all are older teenagers now.  Life flies by so have fun!

Back in the 90's, my Mexican host family took a trip into the Pueblan mountains and had a beautiful visit with relatives.  Mexico is a country full of wonders and surprises.  If you know the Central Mexican landscape, you'll recognize that most of it is grassland with fun yuccas and cacti sprinkled about the landscape.  However, this place shocked me.  About 2 hours out of Tlaxcala in the state of Puebla exists an area of tropical rain forest and a whole other lifestyle.  I'll never forget how excited I was to run around the village and explore the area gardens and forests.  Many locals call this place Tlatlauqui and it's definitely worth the adventure.  The sky is overcast and the flora receives quite a bit of rain. The trek takes you through low desert up into the varied layers of mountain plant zones.  The mountain range along the Pueblan/Veracruz borders are very dry, but after a certain point, entering into the Veracruz side, the "wet" side of the mountains soon turn tropical. Tlatlauqui offers some unique Mexican cuisine which uses a lot of delicious green salsa. 

A view from the road towards the downtown area.  I would almost like to call this type of zone a cloud forest.  If you are in Mexico for an extended amount of time, I highly recommend the visit.  Until next time......

Rocky Point

Things are rough right now for our friends in Mexico.  They're caught in a drug war that is crossing into the border towns of the US.  A lot of innocent people are dying all over and it is a sad fact that currently, I personally think it's too dangerous as an American to travel there.  Those of you who follow this blog regularly know how much I love this country, but from the Tucson perspective, it has gotten too dangerous with kidnappings and shootings.  There is a city that most Tucsonans love to visit besides San Diego and that is Rocky Point or Puerto Peñasco.

It is a place for us to escape and enjoy the beautiful waters of the Sea of Cortez.  Unfortuneatly, Mexican tourism has taken a major hit this year with the increase of kidnappings and killings of Mexican and Americans alike.  A recent example is the killing of an American man on Falcon lake near the Texas/Mexican border.  Mexican pirates shot and killed him while he was on his jet ski.  The wife called the police but by the time they had arrived, he was already dead.  The Mexican authorities sent an investigator to search for the killers only to be killed himself.  His head was sent to the local authorities as a warning to stay away.  This is a sad reality right now between our Mexican friends and the US. The peaceful city of Rocky Point has also recently had some issues and attacks by night which now is warning travellers to drive during the daytime hours.

Only 4 hours away from Tucson, this city lets you escape to the ocean where you can watch dolphins jump around the waters and allow you to lazily read a book off your beach porch.  This is why it is a tragedy for all because Mexico has lost a lot of tourism.  The drug war has been ongoing over the past several years with the violence slowly increasing all over the border.  I went to Mexico last year, but for the first time in the history of my travels to Mexico, I actually don't feel it's safe to go and visit the country this year. We were going to travel the Southern loop near Chiapas, but the border between Guatemala and Mexico is having the same issues that are happening here in Tucson.
People still go however and if you do, make sure you travel by day and always with a group of people.  Lock your doors and keep your belongings secure at all times.

Rocky Point and her sister village south, San Carlos, are extremely charming places to just relax....  Personally I am a huge San Carlos fan.

San Carlos, Mexico

As you can see by the pictures, this is a beautiful place to visit....so hopefully soon our friends in Sonora will have a decrease in violence down the road because it is an incredible place to visit.....furthermore, it is the southernmost part of the Sonoran desert which has a different group of plants that only grow in that region. We have one of the most incredible lush deserts of the world....it's definitely a must see.  Happy and safe journeys!

Central Mexico and the Awakening

If you could go back in time and change something, would you??  Sometimes, when I was younger, I wished I had never grown up in Wisconsin but instead in Mexico. What I am about to write is a bit personal and connects to the magic within my heart and my soul....if I had not gone on this trip as a senior in high school, I may have never met the people who would change my life forever and lead me to my life's work. This entry relates to the garden in that these images below have inspired me in my own work from these travels.  Nowhere....and I mean this....nowhere has any place touched me as has Mexico. It is a country of many wonders and mysteries.  Here is the beginning of my journey into Spanish, gardening, and the spirituality that surrounds me.  I became the person I am today because of my many experiences in Mexico.  These pictures begin from 1991 until  present......

My Mexican Host Mother of 20 years

This pic was taken in Mexico City nearly 20 years ago.  We were all little kids back then and I had very little travel experience.  I was the most naive person back in those days, but that would change over the course of many years from study and time in Mexico.  Later I would study in Guadalajara and discover the powers of monsoon and the beauty of the deserts.  This pic was taken before I met my host family.  All I knew at that time was that the food was amazing....Mexico City was incredible....the parks were out of this world....and coming from my little town of Two Rivers, WI..... I discovered the world was a BIG place full of wonders that I had only dreamt of.....and dreamt I had......

People believe in many things....a God, Gods, The Nothing(like from the NeverEnding Story:)...I believed that I was meant to come to Mexico....that something called me here.  It would be years later that I would only understand what it all meant.  As a child growing up, I knew at a very early age that Two Rivers would be a place I escaped.  I had always known that I would leave....always.  It wasn't TV.  It wasn't from reading.....it was something more.  I would have dreams of meeting vague people who called out to me. I would walk towards them only to wake up....and it would make me sad. It was like a calling....the dreams weren't often, but they happened enough for me to remember them.  I didn't understand what they meant, and I admit that I was lost and bored as a child....so bored that I would get in trouble quite a bit just to pass the time.  I was awkward...and confused about myself....keeping secrets from people....never really embracing the person inside until later on in life.  I did alright in high school...but I had no passions about anything....not even, surprisingly, the Spanish language.  In fact, I almost dropped the course 2nd year as I had a D-, but my Mom put a kabash on that........

And so I went my Senior year of high school to Mexico....paid by me.....stuck with Spanish just so that I could go to Mexico because it was a dream......

I stepped from my bus in the city of Tlaxcala and met my host family for the first time......and it was like I knew them somehow.....and they knew me.  I experienced some sort of awakening that never before had I felt....a joy that cannot be described...but a feeling of contentment....that things would be alright. This pic below is my first night here with my host sister Elsa.  It was an incredible feeling of happiness.  It was like a piece of the puzzle came together and I was meant to be with these people.

The volcano of Popocateptl

And so I grew up......came home to Wisconsin....depressed because I didn't want to come back.  I spent nights crying alone...no one understanding the feeling of my heart being ripped out of my chest having to say good-bye to the people I had come to know and love.  It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do.....saying good-bye to something that touched me spiritually.....breaking a connection that was newly established.....and it was a dark time for me in my life for the year that followed my first trip.  But I returned not once or twice......but many many times again....every time it changed....marriages, my nieces....friends coming....and friends going....and growing bigger, balder,  and older:)

It was on this particular trip below in '93 that a revelation was made to me....In my host family's house, there is a picture of 3 children playing on a beach.  I only knew of two siblings.....my host brother Sergio and my host sister Elsa.....the other boy was a mystery.  My Mexican mother saw me looking at the pic and pointed to that boy and said it was me and that I had come back to her.  He had passed away the year I was born. It was one of the most incredible things that anyone has ever said to me and yet, it made sense. Why did I have this pull to Mexico?  I can't tell you of any other time in my life when something so incredibly powerful took hold of me.....a moment of spiritual clarity.....and it gave me direction and a strength that made me come out of my cocoon. It wasn't that I was lost and looking for this to happen.....but I do know that as a child growing up, something called me.....and the dreams...the deja vus....lead me to this one singular moment.  I don't have those dreams anymore....I still have dreams of a different nature....not often, but enough times to remember speaking to my grandparents who passed and waking up with happy tears....making me wish I had spent more time with them when they were alive.  Time keeps ticking and we take too many things for granted. 

In the mountains of Puebla.....

Teotihuacan, Mexico CityDeath is a celebration! Marigolds represent death.A central park in San Pablo

So what happened? Well, you still have to continue living.  I no longer question my faith and I discovered an inner peace that I never had before. I also learned that you can't escape the demons even if you move to new places, and that you have to accept them...learn to live and resolve them inside. I have been blessed with two wonderful families....my biological and my Mexican:) What a gift to be given....that I can love so many people who have made a difference in my life.  Yes....there is a duality that sometimes separates me from ever feeling a part of one group, but I found Tucson is the best of both worlds for now until I figure out how I can live in Mexico one day...perhaps retire.  I have had to accept that and it wasn't an easy decision.  My garden reflects my travels...specifically Mexico...the plants....connect me to another place....a peaceful place that inspires and makes me dream. It is for that reason that gardening to me is more than just digging holes.....it really is a religion...a connection to that other world that awaits.

A plate of tasty grasshoppers

The volcano in the distance....

Cacaxtla, Tlaxcala

When I visit Mexico, I am truly in my happiest of spaces.  I laugh....I feel whole.....and it makes me complete.  Plus you can't go wrong with the food, the people, the parties....and the HOLIDAYS!!

Sometimes I wonder...if I had not taken that trip my senior year, would I be a lost soul today?  Where would I be now? But having gone, I created a longing to be a part of something that I couldn't have.

So the question is....If you could go back in time and change something, would you?