2013, Day 316 - Gusts

Given our long grueling day yesterday and our late night getting cleaned up we all slept in relatively late today.  I was the first up a eight o'clock and used that time to catch up on email and world news.  As I sat with my computer on my lap the sky opened up and it began dumping rain.  When we left almost three hours later to get something to eat it had eased up to a light sprinkle.

We ate a quick lunch, having skipped breakfast, and wandered around the grounds a bit taking pictures.  There are lizards all over the place and we found a couple nice spiders hiding in plain sight.  It was a nice low-key kind of morning.  We soon returned to our room to plan for the afternoon.

Unfortunately it started raining again so we decided that if it stopped we would head out to Puerto Morelos.  It is the biggest shipping port in the state but the population there is small as it is caught between the ocean and a mangrove swamp.  What the community is best known for is the reef about three hundred feet from the shore where there is abundant sea life and as such has been designated a marine park.

Sadly for us the weather was not conducive to being out in the ocean.  Still, the rain eventually let up and we went to check it out.  Along the beach the winds had picked up and the ocean was getting choppy.  There are a couple docks that serve the community, one public and one private.  The private dock has a gate to keep non-members out but when we saw all the birds lined up we wandered out.  When we approached the more skittish birds simply opened their wings and allow the wind to carry them gracefully into the air.  Most merely landed ten feet further away but it was pretty to watch.

We also some a couple cormorants, some frigates who look beautiful airborne but rather ungainly perched, a number of sandpipers, and come hunting pelicans.  The latter would fly along the shore and when they saw a potential meal would dive straight down into the water.  It was fascinating to watch but rather difficult to photograph as they were generally too far from the shore.

As the tide started to come in we decided to wander back into the town and explore a little more.  There wasn't much to see; a few shops and some restaurants.  By the time we completed the circuit we were getting hungry and decided to stop off for some dinner.  All the places serve fish and seafood so we shared a variety of fish tacos, a torta, and some pasta.  It was all delicious and once we cleaned our plates we went in search of a taxi.

Tomorrow we are going to visit more ruins and will be having an early start so it is time to get some sleep.  Below is one of the many shorts of birds in flight.  I keep marveling at their beautiful streamlined shape and their effortless flight.  Maybe tonight I will have one of the flying dreams....

Canon 1D X, Canon 70-200/f2.8L IS Mark II
200mm, f4.5, 1/400 sec @ 100 ISO