Oaxaca, Mexico: Birds, Nature, Culture and
Monte Alban Ruins
Mark Smith Nature Tours

Led by Mark Smith and Mark Pretti

January 6-16, 2009
December, 2009

• Itinerary

In south Mexico's large state of Oaxaca varied biogeographic regions converge fostering outstanding diversity and endemism in birds and other life. Within the Valley of Oaxaca, its bordering Sierra Madre del Sur, and along the attractive Pacific coast we'll search for birds and enjoy nature in cool evergreen and tropical deciduous forests, arid cactus scrub, and mangrove-lined lagoons and beaches. Spectacular species include Red Warblers, Dwarf and White-throated Magpie Jays, Bumblee and a dozen other hummers, Chestnut-sided Shrike-vireo, Slaty and Dwarf Vireos, Ocellated Thrasher, Gray-breasted Woodpecker, Citreoline and Mountain Trogons, Lesser Ground Cuckoo, Emerald Toucanet, Russet-crowned Motmot, ten Orioles, including Spot-breasted and Black-vented, and Orange-breasted Bunting, among many others.

This tour is relaxed with four and three nights at a delightful Oaxaca City hotel and in cabins overlooking the Pacific. One morning, with a historian we tour the Zapotec ruins of Yagul and famed Monte Alban, where from 500 BC to 750 AD corn, beans and squash sustained 40,000 people. Many Zapotecs today don vibrant tradtional dress. In colonial Oaxaca city and surrounding villages regional experts teach us about medicinal plants, weaving, pottery, carving, and a rich cuisine. Shopping possibilities abound and there will be ample Pacific swims. In addition to the natural and cultural wonders, a trip highlight will be our unique and superb lodgings, all with excellent food, warm hospitality, terrific views, and some with fine birds on the grounds.

LEADERSHIP

Mark Smith has led numerous private, Audubon and Nature Conservancy international tours. Mark has a broad knowledge of natural history, with special emphasis in animal behavior, ornithology and ecology. He is co-author of the book, Oregon Birds. Since his studies at Oregon State University he has worked as a researcher and educator for a variety of organizations including the National Marine Fisheries Service, The National Science Foundation, the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy and the Oregon Museum of Science & Industry. He has led more than 15 tours to Mexico, and over 50 to Latin America. His Spanish is functional.

For 15 years Mark Pretti has been organizing and leading nature tours in Arizona and Central and South America. An expert birdwatcher, Mark is also knowledgeable in the identification and ecology of plants, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and insects, with particular interest in ecological relationships and conservation. He worked as naturalist at The Nature Conservancy's Ramsey Canyon Preserve from 1997 to 2004, and is a board member and trip leader for the Huachuca Audubon Society. He runs environmental education programs for hundreds of students each year in southern Arizona and has been leading summer nature camps in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, since 1998. He speaks Spanish.

Local guides include: a historian, chefs, artisans.

LODGING, TRANSPORT AND DIFFICULTY

Comfortable hotels and lodges (most in beautiful locations) with attached bathrooms accommodate us throughout the tour. We will drive in two 15-passenger vans with air conditioning and plenty of room for luggage. Roads are generally good and most drives an hour or less with two half-day drives, with stops. Trails are generally level and good, with some short distances of moderate incline. The longest walks are 2-3 miles. See the General Trip Information section at the end of this brochure for more details.

PREPARATION

Reading, packing, and bird lists, articles, maps, medical and release forms, and travel information will be sent to participants in late August. Meanwhile, view our short list of the Birds of Oaxaca.

TRIP COST AND RESERVATIONS

$2765  Ground Fare (January 6-16, 2009)
$  475  Single Supplement (if space allows)

Group Limit: 13

Small Group Supplement
This will be charged if the group size is 8 or fewer, and will be adjusted according to the number of travelers.

Questions, deposit of $500, and final payment should be made out to Mark Smith and sent to:

Mark Smith
PO Box 3831
Portland, OR 97208-3831

phone: 360-566-0458
email, in care of: pamd@wittravel.com

will ensure you a place on this tour. Include your address and phone, and the name and dates of the trip. You will be sent a packet of information to help you prepare for the trip. The final payment is due 60 days before departure.

AIR TRAVEL

Various airlines reach Mexico City and connect with flights to Oaxaca City.

Pam Davis of Willamette International Travel is the tour air-ticket agent; Mark has worked with Pam for over 15 years. Participants are encouraged to make bookings through Pam, which helps to coordinate our flights and keep leaders informed.

Pam Davis of Willamette International Travel
1314 NW Irving St. #101
Portland, OR 97209-2721
Email: pamd@wittravel.com
Phone: 503-224-0180 or 1-800-821-0401

CANCELLATIONS AND REFUNDS

Any cancellations for which a suitable replacement is found and any cancellation made more than 60 days prior to departure receives refund in full less $100. Cancellations for which replacements are not found are subject to the following fees: $500 if cancellation is made between 60 and 30 days prior to departure date, and 65% of the tour cost if cancellation is made fewer than 30 days before departure date. We recommend that participants consider trip cancellation insurance, which can be bought through Willamette International Travel.

ITINERARY
Day 1	Tuesday, Jan. 6	Home to Oaxaca City, via Mexico City
Travelers generally depart various US gateways early this morning and via Mexico City arrive this evening at the Oaxaca City airport, where they take a taxi or arranged van to the Hotel Azucenas about 20 minutes away. This attractive hotel is perfectly situated in a fairly quiet neighborhood about 5 blocks (5-10 min. walk) from the bustling zocalo (central plaza) and restaurants and will serve as a comfortable base from which to explore the Oaxaca City region. See www.hotelazucenas.com for more information on the hotel. Keep in mind that the Azucenas is an intimate place and that during our early breakfasts (specially done for us), and after 10 pm, we must be quiet and not disturb other guests.
Day 2	Wednesday, Jan. 7	Teotitlan del Valle & Oaxaca City
After breakfast at 6:15 AM, we head east toward the weaving town of Teotitlan del Valle, 40 minutes away. Here the habitat is oddly reminiscent of the grasslands and desert scrub of southeast Arizona, with some of the same plants. The avifauna also shares similarities but with a few interesting twists. Instead of Gila woodpecker, we'll be looking for its cousin, the endemic gray-breasted woodpecker, and instead of canyon towhee, the local one here is white-throated towhee. Just above town is a small reservoir that, like other open bodies of water in arid areas, can be attractive to grebes, herons, ducks, shorebirds, and a variety of passerines. A grove of coral bean trees should be in peak flower, the crimson blooms hosting hummingbirds like dusky, berylline, ruby-throated, and green-fronted, as well as orioles including black-vented. The hills above town harbor several Oaxaca Valley specialties including ocellated thrasher, West-Mexican chachalaca, Boucard's wren, and bridled and Oaxaca sparrows. Also in the area are blue mockingbird, golden vireo, wintering sparrows and warblers, and various flycatchers. In the oaks and pines we look for Oaxaca sparrow, rufous-capped brushfinch, green violet-ear and red warbler. After morning in the foothills, we return to Teotitlan del Valle for lunch, then visit Isaac Vasquez Garcia, a master Zapotec weaver who will demonstrate how local artisans spin wool, use natural dyes, and create finely woven products. If you're interested in purchasing a carpet or other weaving, this is the place. En route to Oaxaca City, at Santa Maria del Tule we find "the biggest" tree on Earth, a Montezuma cypress (Taxodium distichum) with a circumference of about 50 meters and a footprint of about 2000 sq. ft. We'll have dinner in town.
Day 3	Thursday, Jan. 8	Cerro San Felipe and Oaxaca City
Breakfast at 6:15 AM, then depart for Cerro San Felipe in the Sierra Juarez (sometimes called the Sierra Aloapanec) about 45 minutes north of the city. We spend most of the day around 8000 ft. in the high "cloud" forests where firs, pines, and oaks are dotted with epiphytic bromeliads, lichens, ferns, and orchids. The area is lush and excellent for birds, with the forests protected by local communities. Mixed flocks, which may be more common when the weather is cool and foggy, are of two general types. One is led by noisy Steller's jays and gray-barred wrens amidst which may be inconspicuous dwarf jays (endemic to the mountain range). The other type includes smaller songbirds such as warblers (Townsend's, hermit, red, crescent-chested), white-breasted nuthatch, brown creeper, Hutton's vireo, chestnut-sided shrike-vireo and spot-crowned woodcreeper. The understory is punctuated with fine wildflower blooms. Hummers include green violet-ear, amethyst-throated (a cousin of the blue-throated), bumblebee, and white-eared, and cinnamon-bellied flowerpiercer occurs, too. Lunch at a mountaintop restaurant, and afternoon we explore another mountain road. We'll perhaps make a short stop at a foothill reservoir on our return to Oaxaca City, where we'll have time to relax at the hotel before dinner. Due to the altitude on Cerro San Felipe, temperatures will be colder than Oaxaca City. Layers are important.
Day 4	Friday, Jan. 9	Oaxaca City, Cultural Day
A day to sleep in. We depart at 9 AM to the nearby Mercado Abastos, where a guide will teach us about local flora, herbs, culture, and cuisine. Evocative colors, scents, tastes, and sounds, and vibrant activity abound at the market. We continue north to the town of Etla and the Seasons of My Heart Cooking School where we're treated to a lecture and lunch with well-known chef and author Susana Trilling. This will be our big meal for the day. We return to the city in late afternoon with time to relax or to walk around town. If you still have an appetite, you'll be on your own for dinner, or perhaps just ice cream. Dinner paid individually.
Day 5	Saturday, Jan. 10	Yagul and Oaxaca City
After an early breakfast we have options to return to Cerro San Felipe in search of species that may have eluded us, or to head east to Yagul where diverse native arid scrub surrounds a quiet and usually visitorless ruin site. Boucard's wren, dusky hummingbird, and the elusive ocellated thrasher are often found. We can also choose to visit both locations.
Day 6	Sunday, Jan. 11	Monte Alban, San Jose del Pacifico
After breakfast, we spend the morning at the nearby Monte Alban ruins. Prior to our guided tour of the site with outstanding local guide Benito Hernandez, we'll walk along the nearby trails and search for some of the same birds as in the Teotitlan del Valle area - ocellated thrasher, Boucard's wren, beautiful and dusky hummingbirds - as well as others including the rare pileated flycatcher and the hard-to-find dwarf vireo. Monte Alban (a name given by the Spanish to the site known to its native Zapotec inhabitants as Danni Dipaa) is a major site that dominated the region between Teotihuacan (in the Valley of Mexico to the north) and the great Mayan sites to the south for about 1200 years. During its peak, from 500 B.C. to 750 A.D., corn, beans, squash, chiles, and fruit cultivated in the surrounding hills and valleys sustained about 40,000 people. Fine architecture, carvings, pottery, and elaborate mythology reflect the extremely rich culture. After our pack lunch we continue south into the Sierra Miahuatlan, traveling about 3 hours to the ridgetop town of San Jose del Pacifico and the Hotel Puesta del Sol. In flower thickets on the hotel grounds we'll look for cinnamon-bellied flowerpiercer, hooded yellowthroat, and hummingbirds such as bumblebee, garnet-throated, beryline, rufous, and blue-throated. Madrean birds such as greater pewee, hepatic tanager, and maybe chestnut-sided shrike vereo are also possible. If the Pyrantha is in fruit, we may have great looks at gray-silky flycatchers, white-throated robin, russet nightingale-thrush, and brown-backed solitaire. We'll have dinner at the hotel restaurant. Due to the altitude at the Puesta del Sol, the temperature will be colder than in Oaxaca City. The rooms all have fireplaces, extra blankets, and a good supply of wood.
Day 7	Monday, Jan. 12	San Jose del Pacifico to Rancho Cerro Largo
We begin with an optional pre-breakfast walk around the hotel grounds at 7:00 AM. After breakfast, we embark on the gradual descent to the coast and Rancho Cerro Largo. We'll make several stops en route on quiet side roads to enjoy the forests which transition from mixed conifer to tropical evergreen (with shade grown coffee in the understory) to tropical deciduous on the coast. Birds and butterflies will be numerous, and likely will include the diminutive bumblebee hummingbird and the highly endemic blue-capped hummingbird. With luck we'll find standouts like Wagler's toucanet or perhaps mixed flocks with red-headed tanager, golden and slaty vireos, common bush tanager, gray-crowned woodpecker, and others. We'll travel about 75 miles, have a packed lunch along the way, and arrive at Cerro Largo in late afternoon with time for an optional swim in the warm Pacific. Cerro Largo has wonderful food.
Days 8 & 9	Tues. & Wed., Jan. 13 & 14	Rancho Cerro Largo
The Cerro Largo grounds have varied trails and some of the best habitat in the area, so we'll spend a fair amount of our three days right at the lodge. Lesser ground-cuckoo, russet-crowned motmot, orange-breasted, blue, and painted buntings, banded wren, white-throated magpie jay, yellow-winged cacique, West-Mexican chachalaca, citreoline trogon, and white-lored gnatcatcher are regularly seen on the grounds. This wonderful place casts a spell, and we won't want to leave. Before breakfast nearby trails can be extremely productive, with Altamira, streak-backed and spot-breasted orioles as well as olive sparrow, red-breasted chat, Colima pygmy owl, and happy wren. The bluff is an excellent spot to scan an offshore rock for magnificent frigatebird, red-billed tropicbird, and brown boobies. The weather will be much warmer on the coast, and after our busy week in the Oaxaca valley and mountains, we'll make ample time for relaxing and swimming. The Rancho has a small library, or you may want to bring a good book. All of the cabanas have grand Pacific views and comfortable hammocks. Our second day we make an early morning trip back up Highway 175 into the broadleaf evergreen forest about an hour away. In the lush shade-grown coffee plantations we'll look for golden-crowned emerald, Wagler's toucanet, masked tityra, Audubon's oriole, golden vireo, cinnamon hummingbird, fan-tailed warbler, rose-throated becard, ivory-billed woodcreeper, pale-billed and lineated woodpeckers, and many others. We'll have lunch and take a tour at Finca el Pacifico, the first certified-organic shade-grown coffee plantation in Oaxaca, before returning to Cerro Largo.
Day 10	Thursday, Jan. 15	Cerro Largo to Hotel Santa Fe
On our final morning at Cerro Largo we return to the nearby side roads before a late breakfast, then we head west to Puerto Escondido and the Hotel Santa Fe. Lunch at the hotel before a late afternoon visit to the Rio Colotepec and its rich river mouth where American crocodile, herons, shorebirds, terns, and gulls, and hopefully the collared plover, may be found. The nearby scrub can be good for white-collared and ruddy-breasted seedeaters. Dinner at the hotel.
Day 11	Friday, Jan. 16	Hotel Santa Fe to Pt. Escondido, Mexico City and Home
After 6:15 breakfast, 20 minutes west is Laguna Manialtepec, a beautiful estuary lined with tall red mangroves, which we tour by boat. Both water and forest birds are found in and around the lagoon. Possibilities include waders (like bare-throated tiger heron and boat-billed heron), perhaps some waterfowl, shorebirds (including collared plover), gulls and terns, and songbirds like mangrove vireo and ruddy-breasted seedeater. With luck, West-Mexican chachalaca may be found. We'll return to the hotel by 11 AM for a last swim and to pack, have lunch at noon, and head to the Puerto Escondido airport around 1 PM for our 3:50 PM flight to Mexico City, and on home late this evening.