Post Guan Sighting Syndrome

Horned Guan - Torrey

The great looks at the Horned Guan the day before softened our disappointment when the fog returned in the afternoon. We took a little siesta and around four we got in the car and drove to a place lower in the canyon where it might be less foggy.

We drove along the narrow mountain road high above a valley. The road was bordered on both sides by fields of lettuce, spinach, various plants from the cabbage family, and lots of onions. But these fields weren’t what you might imagine. They were not flat like the fields in the Central Valley of California nor were they the iconic terraced gardens that you might see in Asia or Peru. These fields were plastered onto steep mountain sides, in some cases so steep that they seemed to hang in the balance and just one degree steeper and they might fall over and cover you in produce. I was amazed that anyone could harvest or plant on a slope so steep. I’d be doing my best just to stand.The men dressed in jeans and tee shirts moved about shifting hoses that broadcast water down the hill one hundred and eighty degrees side to side. The women and girls, all dressed in traditional Guatemalan clothing, moved about as if rappelling across a rock face. Some had baskets balanced on their heads as they walked between the rows and they seemed to move as if the baskets were not even there. Looking closely I noticed they had a small cup shaped hat on their head which accommodated the basket perfectly and made it easier to balance their loads of produce.

We parked next to one such field and on the opposite side was a rare patch of forest, albeit somewhat disturbed. Here we struck a gold vein of birds. The first was a couple of Mountain Trogons who cooperated by coming in close to investigate the mimicked calls made by Josué and Torrey. Later we had the same success with a Ruddy Foliage-gleaner . There were a few hummers like Mexican Violetear and White-eared that patrolled the roadside flowers. But the real prize was the Blue-throated Motmot who came in very close. Unfortunately the light was not so great, but that’s the way it goes in the tropics. The day was capped off nicely by seeing several beautiful and rather shy Black-throated Jays.

We were at this place for at least an hour and a half and as the time passed the women working on the hill came down to the road and waited for their ride back to the village. As they waited they spoke in Mayan and kept looking at us and talking amongst themselves. We went about phishing and whistling at birds and snapping photos with our cameras. Of course I couldn’t help but wonder what they might be saying. Maybe it was nothing. Then again they must have been puzzled. Especially since this didn’t take place at a nature reserve or national park or even someplace with some scenic value. Probably made some good stories around the dinner tables that night.

Back at the lodge cafe we decided to celebrate our Horned Guan experience with a Central American drink called “The Michelada”. I’ve enjoyed these drinks in Costa Rica so I was looking forward to having one before dinner. However the Guatemalan version of a Michilada is very different from what I had in Costa Rica. In Costa Rica it was pretty simple, just beer with ice and lime in a salt rimmed chilled glass. Yummy on a hot day. But this wasn’t a hot day, in fact with was cold and damp, so that didn’t sound as good to me as it did in CR but I thought “what the heck we gotta celebrate”. The Guatemalan version was built for cold weather. It was beer with tomato juice, lime, and chili powder. I took one sip and knew it was not for me. Torrey drank about half of his and came to the same conclusion and Josué made short work of his. After he finished it he asked if I liked it and I politely said as my mom used to say when she didn’t like something but didn’t want to offend anyone, “well, it’s different”, and it was. After a while when he saw that I was obviously not going to finish he asked if I was going to drink any more of it and I said “nah, I’m kind of worried that it will upset my stomach” which was the truth. He asked if he could finish it and I said “sure”. And he proceed to make short work on it. When we got back to the room Torrey and I built a fire and revised our top ten list. Then we hit the hay because we are scheduled for a long day tomorrow. The plan is to get up in the morning and try for a couple of birds that we missed here and then hit the road for a four hour drive to the mountains they call the Cuchamantones. These mountains are near the border with Chiapas Mexico and are inhabited almost exclusively by indigenous people. This area was heavily impacted during the Guatemalan civil war that lasted from 1962 to 1996 and is thought to have killed 300,000 people, the vast majority of them indigenous people of Mayan descent.

We are going to meet an indigenous local guide who knows of a good spot to try for the very hard to see Central American endemic Unspotted Saw-whet Owl. Another bird we are going to try for in the Cuchumatanes ( coo - chew - maw - tahn - nez ) is the Goldman’s Warbler, which is a subspecies of the Yellow-rumped Warbler. When our Audubon’s Yellow-rumped Warbler is sporting its finest duds, like in the late spring and early summer and is singing its “tuwee - tuwee - tuwee” song from a top a Western Hemlock in the early morning light, well sir/madam, my opinion is sort of Gomer Pyle like and I just want to say that it is just about the prettiest most beautiful wonderful and magnificent colorful amazingly handsome and most gorgeous super stunning warbler in the whole entire ding dong dog gone North America. And if I am lucky enough to get a good look at the Goldman’s I think that Gomer would have to throw in a few more superlatives. We’ll have to see about that. All photos that are not of birds are stock photos.