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Today it was imperative that we catch the infamous C. beani.

Rock on, we were on the road before 5:30 this morning. As sun broke around 7 am, I was struck by how much this habitat looked like a cross between the east side of the Sierra Nevada and oaks grassland near the central valley.

Around 8:30 am we drove through Guadalajara. Around 9:30 am we stopped in the town of Tequila for breakfast. Lots of blue agave plantations around here.

"Tequila"

By 11 am we were in the town of Tepic, which is near a historical site for the C. beani. We picked up some ice and drove around. we checked a number of sites with no luck. Either too disturbed or too dry. At long last we found a wide stream that went under a bridge. It appeared to be a picnic area for locals. A couple people were there as we arrived. Tom and Darrin got to seining, and came up with a bunch of bluegill - introduced, of course. We were getting frustrated after a few similar seine halls, and were thinking about calling it quits. But Tom was sure he had seen a cichlid in the water, and they did one more seine. And there was a cichlid! We had found the C. beani!

At this point, the Mexicans had all left and Tom and Darrin got into a serious seining mode. I wandered around the bank to do a little freestyle herping. A number of small, brown Anolis (nebulosum, i think). were running around. Under rocks I also found three Phyllodactylus lanei, one Eleutherodactylus sp., one land crab, and a bunch of amblopygids. While herping around I also saw a Sceloporus sp. in a tree, but was unable to catch him.

Before we were done, two mexican families arrived and Darrin talked with them for a while about why he was catching the fish. At first they were suspicious, and then they approved, and gave us some oranges before we left. We had a well-deserved dinner in the town of Tepic, and then did a 3 hour drive back to Puerto Vallarta in the dark. That drive was the scariest part of the trip. Then we danced the night away.