Floods Are Changing Animal Behavior Here

I went out walking between rain storms yesterday and feel like I finally have arrived back..  It just isn't the same without getting "tabano" bites...mangrove grown yellowish flies BITE and leave welts. No mosquitoes, though. Too much rain I guess. But I now have 4 "tabano: bites. Yes, I've "arrived."


Jim just left with two other men to go to the Rio Indio cut off with shovels, a McLeod tool, crow bar etc.  They plan to make culverts and drain some water on the road so cars can pass.  (It has rained inches since we've been here.) Pedro living down that road to the left as you turn right to Rio Indio has water up 15 " in his house, and many caimans were swimming around the house, got his cat and his 20 chickens drowned, too. He left temporarily for Mahahual.  The local government doesn't seem to have much money for road maintence out here.   Men along the road just get together and do some individual projects. A concept dating back to much earlier times in the U.S.

Caiman,  a Caiman crocodilus. Colloquially known as the spectacled caiman, after the bony ridges that encircle its eyes. Caimans belong to the same family as the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis); they're more distantly related to crocodiles, which belong to a separate family under the order Crocodylia.


The spectacled caiman is found throughout Central and South America, while the American alligator is confined to the southeastern portion of the United States. Crocodiles tend to have V-shaped noses, while those of caimans and alligators are more rounded and resemble U's. The other most noticeable difference is size, as male caimans rarely exceed 7 feet in length; alligators, by contrast, regularly grow to double that size.

 Snakes, , too are coming out of the mangroves which have the tannic acid water (brown) overflowing onto the road.  Even raccoons, usually nocturnal , are coming around the houses during the day for food. A park ranger next door saw a TAYRA.  I had never heard of it before. (check out the tail)




 A Rare white Tayra.
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Along the roads the garzas (white egrets) are FISHING in the road, and lots of people have seen caiman along the road.  Last week some Mexicans were also fishing in the road, but what I saw were just ones fishing in the gullies at the side of the road.

Well, remember this photo from the last post?

It was just a come-on to get you back to read another post.  We have rented for 6 years now from the same local, small rental car company just outside the airport at Cancun.  They know us pretty well so I ask for "deals."  We were able to rent a larger car for the same low negociated price and thought, why not.  At the very least, we should have less trouble with getting robbed, because they certainly won't think we are tourists. And yes, we did take lots of pictures of it before we left the rental office...:)