This year I really wanted to challenge myself to run/walk the beach more. Round trip on the beach is about 6km - I used 3 miles and my GPS. Every day I would set a day goal of mileage. So almost every morning I would try to get up when it was just getting daylight and the sun was still down low and try to run a few miles towards my daily mileage goal. The rest of the day I would then walk the remaining mileage. On the whole trip of 13 days, I ended up doing three - 10 mile days and overall for the whole trip over 60 miles (not counting our walks to dinner which were at least 1 mile or so round trip.) I ended up running barefoot rather then in my running shoes and orthotics so I could run down closer to the water/in the water where the sand was somewhat more compact. I discovered that I am a dork; I kept stubbing my middle toes on the sand. I'd be running along, listening to my tunes, enjoying the sea breeze, the sun rising above the hills and bam, I'd stub my toes and almost fall. Of course this always happened in front of people and one morning it was in front of a group of young Mexican men getting their wave runners ready for the day. I am sure I gave them quite the laugh! Towards the end of the trip the last two days, I couldn't run and could barely walk due to some large blisters on the bottom of my foot and on my toes. I can honestly say there was no weight gain on this vacation.
See we got some weather. Though it was at the end of the day so time to go in anyway. :)
Our complex had many iguana's living in the palm trees and we saw a few everyday we were there. In fact one day we were able to count eight on one palm tree alone basking in the sun out on the palm branches.
Ever wonder why iguanas have such long tails? Well, such a question was something I wondered about almost every time I saw an iguana and it wasn't until I returned to FAI that I learned the following.........
excerpts from the website: www.thewildones.org
Green iguanas have good senses of hearing and smell, and superb vision. Their long tail is also quite sharp, and is snapped in the air as a defense mechanism. The tail can also break off if caught by a predator, but grows back without permanant damage. Green iguana skin is very water resistant, and tough to avoid cuts and scratches. The coloring of the skin helps camoulflage the green iguana, which means that they blend in easily to their surroundings to remain undetected by predators. If they are detected however, and need to escape quickly, these iguanas can dive from trees into water, and swim well. In fact their long tails help them swim. Green iguanas are quite sturdy-- they can fall 40-50 feet to the ground or water without getting hurt! Male green iguanas have a special flap of skin called the dewlap. Male iguanas can raise their dewlap to appear bigger than they really are, either to intimidate predators, or to impressive females.
Iguanas live in tropical rainforest areas, generally in lower altitudes in areas near water sources. They spend most of their time high in the forest canopy, about 40-50 feet above the ground. Iguanas are diurnal, meaning that they are awake during the day. They are also cold-blooded, which means they do not produce their own body heat.
Green iguanas tend to live alone, but may be seen in groups occasionally in good sunny basking spots. Iguanas lay many eggs at a time (about 50), in holes in the ground called burrows. They also dig pretend burrows to confuse any animals that may be looking for eggs to eat. After female iguanas lay the eggs, they leave them and do not return. When iguana babies hatch, they grow up without care from their parents. Green iguanas lay many eggs, but only 3-10 babies actually survive to be adults. It takes green iguana eggs about 8-10 weeks to hatch, then takes baby iguanas about 2 years to become mature adults.
One day while laying on my lounge chair doing some sudoku, I saw something green go by very quickly out of the corner of my eye. You should have seen me jump! I grabbed the camera and followed the iguana to the bushes. It's amazing how well they blend in to their surroundings especially when looking through the lens of the camera. It took me several times but I finally got the picture.
Here's the iguana's foot and tail tracks.........my proof.
On our walk back from dinner one night, Steve noticed a long line of ants each carrying a seed (we think.) It was a amazing how long the ant march line was....it went for 100's of feet before we gave up.
After seeing the ants, I recalled a song all of us kids used to sing about ants marching. It took me several attempts but I finally remembered the melody! The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah; the ants go marching one by one hurrah hurrah; the ants go marching one by one the little one stopped to suck his thumb and they all go marching down (where?) to the ground (why?) to get out of the rain...boom...boom...boom. The ants go marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah; the ants go marching two by two hurrah, hurrah; the ants go marching two by two, the little one stopped to tie his shoe and they all go marching...down...to the ground...to get out of the rain...boom boom boom. The ants go marching three by three, hurrah, hurrah.....well you get it. Boy did I drive Steve nuts singing the song the rest of our walk back to our condo.
Many times at night and during the day we would see this bird...or well, several different birds that looked like this........I have no idea what kind it is but thought it was a cool picture.
This is one of trees that the iguanas hung out in. The plant around the palm tree is the same as a house plant I have at work. In fact, quite a few folks at work have this plant. I was amazed at the size of the leaves as shown here.
The sun goes down our last night in Mexico.
Steve telling me that I now have to wait another year.
We left Ixtapa the next afternoon on January 22nd and made it through LAX with no issues and on up to SEA around 11:30pm. We were scheduled for an ANC flight at 6:00am so our plan was to sack out at the airport. So here are some thoughts I had and wrote in my Absolutely Nasty Sudoku book at 1:00am......now if I can only read my own handwriting........
It's 1 AM and have been laying on a row of seats at SEA at the gate for our ANC flight at 6am. We are not alone as the last flight to Alaska left already so there appears to be a lot of Alaskans or those caught between flights headed North. Have you wondered who the broadcast annoucements are for? Who is really listening other than those trying to get some sleep! One annoucement was for free WIFI at the airport....like anyone with a computer and wireless isn't go to try anyway to see. We all do if we are with computer and have wireless capability. How about the annoucement of how the aiport police and fire department are there for us, just dial 911...even kids know how to dial 911. And then there's the one telling us to not leave our bags unattended.....okay so who has never been asked by some stranger to watch their bags while they head to the bathroom or in turn has asked a stranger to watch their bags? Bathrooms are just not made to schlep bags into. And my favorite annoucement is that this airport is a smoke free airport, when was the last time any airport in the United States wasn't smoke free? The last annoucement was telling us that no liquids, gels, etc...can go through security. Well, no kidding, especially since we were already past security.
Of course all of these annoucements go off every 15 minutes or so. The joys of traveling and spending the night at the airport while trying to get some rest. I must have fallen asleep at some point, because at about 2:45am Steve woke me up by poking at me (and scared me to death!) to let me know our flight had been canceled. I didn't sleep the rest of the morning until we were able to confirm what our flight situation would be. We eventually made it home that Saturday evening around 5PM.
