Traveling with Friends to El Cielo

North America » Mexico » Tamaulipas » Gomez Farias » El Cielo
March 24th 2010

Published: March 23rd 2010

This travelblog covers a lot of distance and time. After leaving our son Nick and the Salton Sea in southern California we headed back to Tucson and the Sonoran Desert. After re-provisioning and some vehicle maintenance in Tucson, we headed south some 40 miles to Patagonia Lake State Park, one of our favorite Arizona State Parks. The plan was to meet Peter and Trudy Brussard and their two dogs, Mo... Read Full Entry

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Lynn & Jon Glase

Wondering Naturalists

Jon and Lynn are two sixty-something, retired, PhD ecologists seeking the wisdom from the natural world that can only come from first-hand experience with things and events. Our current arrangement is to keep a house as a home-base near Ithaca New York, where we have lived for the past 35+ years, spend summers in our trailer around New England (where Lynn's extended family resides), return to Ithaca for the fall and early winter, and depart for warmer climes after the Christmas-New Years holidays. We travel with Moxie, a Bichon Frise, in an 28 ft. Airstream trailer pulled by a Ford F-250 dies... full info

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Balcony of Jon and Lynn's room

The rooms had private baths and provided heaters (we used) and air conditioners (we did not use!).

Peter and Trudy dressed (warmly) for the field

Despite our location south of the Tropic of Cancer, warm clothing was still necessary because of cold winter experienced this year and our elevation in the mountains.

La Florida

The village park, La Florida, was one of the places we regularly visited because it had a variety of birds including several parrots, jays, woodpeckers, and kingfishers. We also had good looks at a White-bellied Wren here.

La Florida

La Florida is the location of the spring feeding the Rio Frio, a major stream that provides water for agriculture in the lowlands. Here we were treated to good views of a Green Kingfisher.

Boca Toma II

Boca Toma II is a town park with an excellent restaurant on the Rio Frio. A dam downstream backs up the water and boat rides on the river are available. Many tropical waterbirds can be found here, including Boat-billed herons, Sun Grebes, and all four species of kingfisher, including Belted, Ringer, Amazon, an Green.

Rio Frio

Copper minerals in the water made it appear very blue. Fish were abundant. After our boat ride we had a memorable lunch featuring local fish.

Boat Ride on the Rio Frio

In addition to we four, Lee Zieger is in the stern of the boat and our Mexican bird guide Ricardo Jimenez in the bow next to Jon.

Amazon Kingfisher

Intermediate in size between a Green Kingfisher and the Belted Kingfisher, the Amazon Kingfisher is restricted to tropical lowlands.

Boat-billed Heron

One of the more bizarre birds we saw, the Boat-billed Heron may not be closely related to other herons and is usually placed in its own family. Another interesting bird seen in the Boca Toma II area was the Northern Jacana. We were so excited watching it walk on top of floating pond-weeds that we forgot to take any pictures!

Approaching the Sierra Madre Oriental

The east slope of the mountains (facing the Gulf of Mexico) receives more rain than the west slope, creating a cloud forest there with many unique plants and animals.

Deciduous tropical forest

Unlike an evergreen tropical forest, many of the trees in a deciduous forest lose their leaves during the drier, cooler, winter months. This reveals the extensive growth of epiphytes on the trees. For scale, note Jon next to the tree.

Male Great Curassow

This Great Curassow was remarkably approachable! The black plumage indicated that the bird was a male.

Agriculture in the biosphere preserve

Numerous small fields had been cleared for agriculture along the roads within the biosphere. One of the favorite crops (shown in the picture) was a spineless variety of prickly pear cactus. The cactus pads or nopales are used to produce a dish called Nopalitos. The other common crop was agave used to produce the distilled beverage mezcal; tequila is a type of mezcal.

Road to Alta Cima

The road up the mountain to the remote village of Alta Cima is for high clearance, four-wheel drive vehicles only. Lee maneuvered his Chevy Suburban up the road with considerable expertise. He estimated that he has made the trip a total of about 45 times.

Waiting for the Ornate Hawk Eagle

Ricardo Jimenez, our Mexican bird guide, was the major reason our trip was so successful at finding interesting birds (over 160 species in four days). For example, Ricardo had us wait here for some time both while ascending and descending the Alta Cima mountain road. During our second stop, as if on cue, a male Ornate Hawk Eagle flew by at close quarters!

Village of Alta Cima

The small, subsistence farming village of Alta Cima is about half-way to the top of the local range of the Sierra Madre Oriental. It has a school and hotel and raises some revenue by charging a small amount to visitors wishing to continue on the road. The birds were abundant, but so were the ticks!

Golden-crowned Warbler

At one point we came upon an area just off the road buzzing with birds. A small mixed flock of warblers was feasting on a swarm of delicious ants and seemed to totally ignore us. The flock included two species of warblers mostly endemic to Mexico: the Golden-crowned Warbler (shown here) and the Golden-browed Warbler (next image).

Golden-browed Warbler

Endemic Mexican Warbler seen near Alta Cima.

El Ceilo Intertretive Center

At the base of the Alta Cima road is a new facility scheduled to open in several months that will serve as an interpretive center for the El Cielo Biosphere Preserve. This is part of an effort of the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico to develop ecotourism as a major economic resource.

Butterfly

Although we had planned for both birds and butterflies to be a major part of our El Cielo trip, the cold weather we encountered made finding butterflies futile. This picture shows a butterfly we found at Boca Toma II on our last day in Mexico. It was a Banded Peacock, Anartia fatima. At the same place and time Peter also saw a White Peacock, Anartia jatrophe, a Carolina Satyr, Hermeuptychia sosybius, and a Sleepy Orange, Eurema nicippe. Lynn and Jon had hoped to learn lots about butterflies from Peter and Trudy, but it was not to be (this trip!).

Bentsen-Palm RV Resort

After returning to Brownsville from El Cielo and our reunion with our dogs, we hitched up the trailers and headed up river to the Bentsen-Palms RV Resort in Mission, Texas. The chief attraction there was the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park.

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