day one day two day three day four day five day six

Mmmmmm, today was the first day i tried the wonderful drinkable yogurts they have down here. Why aren't these available in the US? They are great! We got them around 9 am when we stopped in Zihauntinejo to hit the ATM and grab breakfast. We had gotten up around 5:30 that morning. Darrin continued to be the driving machine, and wasn't even fazed by the large, bloated burro on the side of the road. In fact, that burro along with the many burning trash piles insipred us to title the trip "Un fiesta de fuego y basura".

Around 10:30 we saw several Cnemidophorus or Ameiva running accross the road. I also took some photos of tecapac, and around 11:30 am some photos of the town of Coyuca as we drove through. Note the wonderful burning trash as we left Coyuca.

We had a good lunch at a truck stop, and then got down into our first river. Tom and Darrin spotted cichlids almost immediately, so we got the gear and headed upstream away from the houses near a small bridge where we parked to do some seining. Yeeehaw! cichlids were everywhere. Darrin found a toad, which I stopped to key out using Smith and Taylor, while Tom and Darrin kept seining. It was small, about 2 cm SVL. I am pretty sure it was Bufo similis. While Darrin and Tom kept seining, I poked around for herps. I saw about seven basilisks, and many Cnemidophorus or Ameiva running around, two Urosaurus, and one Anolis.

	The Bufo by the river.
	An Anolis I saw near the river. Look at that copper-colored head!

Then as Tom and Darrin started to key out the cichlids, they learned that all of the cichlids we caught were introduced! none of the 30 or so that they caught were native! So it was onward to get some more fish at different sites.

	Tom and Darrin at work with the seine.
	Bucket o' introduced fish.

We hit three more sites, and had no luck finding the fish we were looking for. We did find more introduced cichlids as well as introduced swordtails. It was getting late in the day, so we headed to Acapulco, and found a little hotel far from any other gringos. A nice place, with a stunning painting on the wall, no toilet seat, or electrical plugs. I set my watch alarm to wake us up.

We grabbed dinner at an oriental tacos place, and then went into the one bar we could find in the area: "El Corral OK: Disco/country". Pictures of John Wayne on the wall, sawdust in the air, and country music blaring. Quite interesting. After a couple beers, home for bed.