MEXICO

The SAN-BLAS ADVENTURE by Jerry Bridgeman
Shorebird on Beach at Matenchen

March 12- March 25, 1999

Brian & me (on left)

Destination San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico

       30- hour trip first stop Laredo to exchange money. Second stop Bustamante canyon for a stay over night, third stop San Blas.  There we will sharpen are knowledge of ecology and culture through hands on experiences.

Schedule:

San Blas, Real de Catorce, and Travel Activities

 Some recordings of my journey

    We met with the Emporia State college students at MSC and embarked on our long road trip towards the Mexican boarder. The trip is long and hard when Bruce said that the trip was strenuous he was not joking; tolerance, acceptance and patience is defenantly practiced. After driving all night we arrived at the border the next day. Where we exchanged our money and then spent 5 hours at the crossover station waiting for our visas. We all had plenty of time to get to know what everybody was hoping to get out of the trip. After we all got our visas and Bruce and Doctor Moore got the insurance verifications we headed for Bustamante.

 Bustamante Canyon

 We arrived at Bustamante canyon at 10:00 PM that night. It was a calm cool night I was hot and tired and couldn’t wait till I got my tent set up so I could go swimming. It was really cold out side but the water was warm and felt good. After bathing in the naturally warm pool I crashed out. I awoke the next morning and could see how beautiful the canyon really was. I also got a chance to talk with some very interesting people while I was there. They were interested in where we were from and where we were going. After a couple of hours passed by it was time to take down my tent load up and we were off to San Blas.

Forward To San Blas

 At this point Laura has driven most all the way and has done an excellent job. We have gone through some pretty sticky road situations and she has done well. The long drive started about 10:00 am and went on and on and on. We finally arrived at the chihuahuan desert and had a class discussion about it. We also got to check out some choya and scavenged around for a while to stretch out our legs. That evening we stopped at really nice place to eat along the way. We had been traveling for hours when Laura finally got tired and then Cary took over. After all night of driving we were just about there and all off a sudden the van hit a massive chug hole and we had a flat. From that point we were just minutes away from San Blas.

San Blas

Upon arrival at San Blas we all got out of the van. I remember all the Mexican students were just looking at us if we’d just pulled up in a Cadillac limo. A friend Ulises said ok their looking at us and were looking at them. That was kinda funny to me. Any way we all got unpacked and set up our tents. After that we got to meet and mingle with the students from Mexico and that was very interesting.

I had loads of fun talking with the students they all had great patience with me cause my Spanish was not to good so just a suggestion to all the students going next year get a good Spanish English translation book. After I talked a while with Briane I decided to go exploring. So I learned of a town just about a mile down the beach it is called Aticama. As I approached the town it was very calm the people there were very nice, and the culture there was very similar to that of our own. After that it was time for mammalogy.

Mammalogy:

That evening I worked with Dr. Moore and the rest of the group and set out about 200 Sherman traps and 2 bat nets. It was fun and very exciting after setting the traps and getting the bat nets set up we went back to camp and waited patiently. Later that evening we went back to check the bat nets, in the net we checked first there was a fruit bat, it was cool.

We couldn’t check the Sherman traps till the next morning because there were to many. The next morning when we finally got to check the traps; we found out that we had a huge success in using the traps they were filled with cotton rats and field mice, we even caught a nice sized possum.

 After we put away our catch we walked the road with the Mexican instructors and students and watched and learned how to take plaster and mold it into some prints into the sand then key out the prints to identify what species made them. I could not understand the instructors but there were some students that could speak English and explained to me what was being said. It was a wonderful experience.  

Ichthyology:

I had a wonderful time in Ichthyology. We got to seine the ocean and it was a blast it took about 13-14 students to operate the seine including Bruce he was the tow man. We would make 3 to 4 passes with the seine each time checking out what we caught. We caught flounders and crabs and a bunch of different fishes including catfish. We even keep what we had caught and got to eat them crabs and all, except the flounder it was to small. 

After running the seine we keyed some fish; eat some breakfast and went to a naturally hot spring off water. We watched Bruce check the oxygen level in the water. The water itself was about 110-degree’s warm. The cool thing about was that it was in the same stream bed where the water was really cold. After we snorkeled around in the cold stream and checked out some fishes; we were on our way to the crocodile farm.

We visited the crocodile farm and checked out the reptiles. They were really super cool. After we looked them over real good we went snorkeling in the crocodile infested waters it was awesome. We each had an underwater tablet that we could write on while hovered over the fish in there natural habitat. It was cool to see what they eat and how they swam in small schools. While I was there I got to take a lot of pictures, one of an iguana in its natural setting.

Herpetology:

I missed it so I could go with the Ichthyology class one more time it was so much fun. However, here’s a great pic with Shane and his spectacular catch in Herpetology.

The Rio Tovara boat ride:

The last day with the group in San Blas

The last day all the students and instructors loaded up in the bus that the students from Mexico came in and headed for the boat ride. As we all loaded into the boats we then pushed onward up the river seeing wonderful sights that included birds, iguanas, and crocodiles. It was just so relaxing and cool to see how nature interacts with the environment there in the San Blas region of Mexico.

After riding for a while we came to the end of the river where we could set or snorkel in the crystal clear water of the Tovarra. We even had some refreshments there it was really cool. Then we rode the boats back to the dock and returned to camp where we cleaned up and got ready for town.

In San Blas we got the opportunity to eat cheeseburgers, steak, or anything else we wanted we also got a chance to do some souvenir shopping. I got to see two shaman priest while I was there. We also got to check out some of their beadwork. It was just all too awesome. I know that I will never forget the trip and everything that I experienced.

Real de Catorce:

After we had left San Blas we had about a 16-hour drive to Real de Catorce. We arrived there at about 1:00 am the next morning. It was so late that we didn’t set up any tents so we just parked across from the graveyard and threw our sleeping bags on the ground for the night. Boy it sure was cold, so words from the wise take a warm bag to sleep in. the next morning we got up and started to go down to the center of town and we had another flat, oh boy not again hehe hehe.

For the next two days we toured through town experiencing culture similarities and differences. We got to do some really cool things such as horse back riding visiting the churches they were really significant. The food there was just fabulous. I really liked the two mile tunnel we came through to get to Real de Catorce it was cool they even had a small church in the middle of the tunnel.

After are stay in Catorce the third morning we awoke we all loaded up and headed back to Oklahoma. I had a wonderful time.  Strongly encourage the San Blas adventure to anyone who might be interested.