After coming back from fishing it was time to eat breakfast before our next adventure. Kathy and her friend, Diane had ordered some pots and bowls from a potter, Marco. Today was the day scheduled to pick them up.
Marco is a famous potter who is known for his bowls and other pottery. Our destination was high in Sierra la Laguna mountain range. As we drove north along the highway my friends tell me about other visits to the mountain home of Marco's along with the times they have gotten lost. The mountains and peaks are beautiful against the desert sky standing about 7000-ft tall and stretching from the tip of Cabo north towards LaPaz.
We leave the highway, going onto a series of dirt roads that lead up the mountain. My friends tell me the road's much better than the last time they'd been up the mountain and feel that it has been graded recently. Nothing is marked and there is a heated discussion as to whether we take 3 rights and a left or 3 lefts and a right. Along the road we see cows and goats grazing in the scrub. We meet up with a caballero coming down the mountain and ask if we are going the right direction. He is unable to help us and we forge on. We past several memorials along the road. My friends tell me that these are where someone was killed and that the Mexican's honor their dead by building a memorial and bringing religious items, candles and flowers. I am concerned about the car making it over the roads and rocks. Finally, we arrive at a small church next to where another potter lives. Her yard is full of butterflies on the trees and hibiscus.
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| Mexican Yellow's with White Angled-Sulphur |
We stop and buy a few items there before going going the road a short distance to Marco's house. It's marked by a rock with his name on it.
Marco shows us the pots he has finished. He explains that he collects mud for the pots only at the time of the full moon. The mud is a special red clay and all of the pots are made by hand. The pots are fired in 2 kilns he's made at the back of the property. His pots have a thick bottom and can be used right on a gas range. I am also shown the kitchen his sister uses to cook their meals. It is outside the main living quarters. She cooks over an open fire. I am amazed at her abilities.
In their yard I again see several species of butterflies. In the back they have a fenced area that holds several small pigs. There are California Quail running along the hill and Turkey Vultures up in the sky. We see a lone Greater Roadrunner.
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| Mexican Yellow |
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| Ceraunus Blue |
In Mexico I was fortunate enough to add 14 species of birds to my life list including Hooded Oriole, Scott's Oriole, Pyrrhuloxia, Gila Woodpecker, Cactus Wren, Phainopepla, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Horned Lark, Crested Carcara, Brant's Cormorant, Western Kingbird, Gilded Flicker along with the 2 endemics Gray Thrasher and Xantus's Hummingbird. In total I saw 46 species of birds and many species of butterflies many of which I still need to ID. There were 4 iguanas seen each living in it's own Cactus.
