2-27-26 San Pancho

 We had a lovely dinner last night at Ikan.  Dave, Cathie and I had beet salad, mahi maki and shredded squash with edamame.  Russ had shrimp, spinach and peas and pineapple puree.  We walked down the street and checked out the Gelato shop.  It was very good and we were able to get a non-dairy for Dave.  We had a rousing game of cards last night.  The guys ended up winning by only 100 points.  Tonight's game will be the deciding one - we will either tie or the guys will win.  Cathie and I are putting on our big girl pants for this one!

We got up early this morning and went down to the estuary to catch the morning birds.  We saw Great Blue heron, great kiskadee, black vulture, Northern jacana, American coot, brown pelican, great egret, Heermann's gull, least grebe, Sinaloa crow, blue winged teal, sand piper, grackle, yellow crowned night heron, black necked stilts, and the magnificent frigate bird.  We then went to breakfast at Maria's Restaurant.  We got there a bit early so we took a walk down both sides of the street.  We took a pic on Tristan and Dee's house high on the hill looking of the downtown area where we were standing.  I also took a pic of Russ next to a jaguar mural. He would like to have seen one, but not up close.  Everything at Maria's was quite delicious!  Unfortunately, a car sped (unusual to see one going so fast) by on the street in front of us and ran over a baby chick that was part of a brood that a mother hen was shepherding across the street.  Poor little chick.  After breakfast, we went up to check out birds at the polo grounds.  We saw orange fronted parrots, blue gray gnat catchers. We passed several large stands of bamboo on our walk.  On the way out, we stopped to look at a dragon that someone had carved from a fallen tree - very cool!  We came back to the house and did some reading by the pool and took a few dips to cool off.  We did a last load of laundry and then packed our suitcases.  We will be picked up at 10:30 to go to the airport for our ride home.  

We have had a wonderful respite from winter during our stay here.  The weather has been a constant 85 degrees with sunshine every day.  The house is amazing: three floors, four bedrooms each with its own veranda, four baths, kitchen/living room with rocking chairs on the veranda and a top floor which is like being in a tree house on the top floor.  We have had an amazing and relaxing time here and love that Tristan and Dee shared their hone with us.  The town is small and safe and the people are friendly and kind.