Mike in the Wild

Encountering another dozen new bird species was exactly what I wanted to do on my single day off the Royal Princess cruise ship in Puerto Vallarta.  Of course I only dreamed that was what the day had in store for me when I booked Alejandro as a birdwatching guide almost two months earlier.  While planning the visit, I had let him know that I was hoping to see some tropical birds in Mexico's interior like trogons, parrots, motmots, and hummingbirds - with only one exception, that's exactly what I accomplished. On the same cruise a year earlier, I had visited the Vallarta Botanical Gardens where I encountered at least sixteen different bird species, eleven of them new-to-me tropical varieties like yellow-winged caciques and San Blas jays.  Only a half-hour drive southwest of the busy port city, the garden showcased a variety of cultivated plants in a mountainous forest preserve bisected by the  rainy season rapids of the Rio Los Horcones.  I was excited to explore...

Besides the lush landscape, what initially struck me at the Vallarta Botanical Gardens were the butterflies.  It was early November, past the rainy season along the Mexican State of Jalisco's Pacific coast, and the fluttering insects were everywhere.  I wondered whether they were the most - both in variety and numbers - I'd ever seen gathered in one place. Of course I knew most people visited the Vallarta Botanical Gardens for the plants.  Several acres showcased both native and exotic species of flora growing along paths and tended in greenhouses and assorted settings.  The most renowned specimens were probably the wide variety of orchids.  But I was actually visiting the garden for the birds.  And fortunately for wildlife lovers, most of the gardens were protected as a vast forest preserve covering over seventy acres just a short drive from busy Puerto Vallarta. The first bird I encountered was a golden-cheeked woodpecker.  I wasn't fast enough to ph...

As my cruise ship moored, the forays of the flycatchers in the park beyond my stateroom balcony should have been a hint that I was in store for something completely different in Puerto Vallarta.  And the hooded oriole poking through a tree's pink blossoms as I walked to my tour's excursion boat on the next pier was yet another clue.  A short time later, the brown boobies diving in the motorized catamaran's wake confirmed that this visit to the Mexican Riviera's most popular vacation spot was going to be unlike any other before. I've been to Puerto Vallarta at least a dozen times, staying in guest houses, hotels, and stopping for day-long visits off of cruise ships.  The city is most famous for its Zona Romantica, a charming neighborhood of bridges, trees, and red tile-roofed adobe buildings that house art galleries, bars, and restaurants close to the shore.  Sprawling north is the long Malecón leading to mega resorts, while south lies vacation homes nestled in verda...