A Wildly FUN Day in the Water!

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Me snapping some shots of the whales. Image by Jean Dubois

August 2, 2021 - Day one in the water, and DAMN, DAMN, DAMN! What a day. When you plan a trip to a place like Dominica for one of the most coveted whale species in our ocean, you want it to be a good trip, and you want your guests to have excellent experiences. You have high expectations, and you hope for quality encounters, but the reality is that you never know what nature will gift you with, so you keep your expectations low and hope for some good wildlife karma to come your way.

Well, today exceeded anything I dreamed we were going to experience out here. WOW-WOW-WOW! I was blown away by what we all had today. I knew we were going to find whales, I just did not know how quickly we would find them, that was a big surprise to me. Not 30 minutes after we left port, we found sperm whales. We found one pod, or clan, or group, of sperm whales. Our guides did not know this group very well, and the whales were reluctant to let us hang out with them for very long. Thankfully the guides here do not harass the whales and so we did not spend much time with them.

It turns out there are about 20 different families of sperm whales out here, and some of them are friendlier than others. The next group we found tolerated us for a little while but then pushed out for quieter waters.

We had perfect weather today. Plenty of sun and glassy calm seas. Of course it made it harder to find the whales, you need a bit of wind to carry their spray un in the air so they can be easier to find.

We had a good encounter with two sleepy whales. They hung out on the surface for about ten minutes before they dove down to hunt for giant squid. That is right, giant squid… Our guide told us that they had found a giant squid tentacle on the surface, back in November, that was twenty feet long. Crazy.

We left that second group and hit the jackpot! We found another family of whales and spent the rest of our time with them. These guys were awesome. They had a wee baby with them, and it was so friendly and curious, it repeatedly kept coming to check us out. The baby was so close at times we could have touched it. We didn't, of course, but it would come in really close. During one encounter, the baby swam straight for us and almost ran over Eldad, we captured the whole thing on video. What a hell of a moment.

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During our time out there, we encountered a superpod of Fraser's dolphins. This was my first time meeting this species; they have pink bellies, which are really cool looking. I tried for some porpoising shots. Unfortunately, I did not get the image that I had in my mind's eye, but I got a keeper.

During the day, the whales scatter, I am sure hunting in different areas, searching for the best hunting spots. Towards the end of the day, they started regrouping. We finished our session with five of them, the adults, rolling and playing around with the babies and juveniles. It was such a rush to be in the water with these whales, hearing and feeling those clicks as they swam slowly by us.

Overall this was one of the best days of whale swimming I have ever experienced. Thankfully this is day one. We still have five more days to go. Well, I have another six days with our next group, but who's counting? Lol

Thank you for reading.

First Day on Dominica.

August 1, 2021 - Today is our first full day in Dominica. Tomorrow we head out for day one searching for sperm whales. I am excited about kicking things off and getting things started. I am filled with excitement for whatever nature has in store for us.

Today, three of our guests (Terry, Lisa, and Eldad) and I went on a land tour to visit some rivers, waterfalls, and hot springs in Dominica. All I can say is I am blown away by how beautiful Dominica is. Just wow. This island is so green, and it has so many mountains and rivers. You feel almost claustrophobic with how many and how close they all are. Dominica boasts that they have 365 rivers on the island, one for every day of the year.

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Above are some beautiful sights on Dominica, including this wild shot… A hurricane caused this tree to fall in 1979 on top of this school bus, and it has been there ever since. FYI, no one was hurt when the tree fell.

Below is this Puerto Rican Crested Anole (new species for me). I saw this little beauty in the grass eating this earth worm. I was trying to find a good angle to photograph it, but the grass kept covering it up, I just could not find a good spot. I was creeping around slowly because I did not want to scare it off. Suddenly it jumped onto this rock in perfect sunlight and stayed there. It looked like it wanted a better view of this strange human crawling around in the grass, trying to figure out what I was doing, and if I was a threat. I couldn’t of asked for a better moment to capture of this anole. Felt lucky and privileged to have been able to snap this. A great start to a new adventure!

We had a lot of fun doing the tourist thing, the waterfalls were amazing, we enjoyed swimming in the rivers, getting mudded up at the hot springs. It is wicked because active volcanos naturally heat the water. It was just so damn cool.

While we were out sightseeing, I searched for wildlife, birds, replies, and mammals. There are quite a few endemic species on this island: some really beautiful lizards and birds. I am hoping to find as many as possible, especially the; Fantastic Least Gecko, Dominican Anole, Lesser Antillean Iguana, Imperial Amazon Parrot, Red-Necked Amazon Parrot, and some beautiful hummingbirds. I will be trying to find these species every chance I get.

Ok. it is late, but I needed to finish this report and I had to watch tonite’s Gold Cup Finals… The US vs. Mexico. The US wins. A fun way to finish up a nice day.

Tomorrow it begins!!!

Travel Day... We are Off to Dominica!

July 30, 2021 - Travel Day. I am Dominica Bound! Finally. This is our first time visiting this island, and I am so very excited (and nervous), about getting there. We are headed there to find sperm whales, a species I want to get to know better.

We are running two back-to-back trips this season, and as usual, before I head out on any trip, I am incredibly nervous but filled with hope. Hoping the weather is good, hoping the animals are there, hoping the trip runs smoothly. But, of course, our job is to get our guests out there and give them an at-bat at seeing the animals we all want to see. All we can do with nature is to get out there during the best time of the year for an opportunity to encounter them. Thankfully we have done an excellent job through the years to help our friends find the wildlife we are seeking out.

I wish I could say we had a perfect record, but sadly we can not. Nature is nature, and she will sometimes play cruel jokes on us. Sometimes it is the weather, and sometimes it is the animals. But we continue trying hard to help our friends have unique experiences with wildlife. And I love it; I love the thrill of the hunt—the hunt to see the animals, of course (photo trophies only). So much of the magic we have experienced out there is hard to put into words.

Baja Sperm Whale.

Train moving through.

Anyway… a new adventure begins, with a new place for us. I have seen sperm whales before in Baja and Norway. The water visibility in Baja was horrible, and those encounters were super intense because you did not see the whale until it was just a few feet away from you. At this point, your only instinct is to move out of the way before we were run over by the freight train moving through. Damn, that was fun!

In Norway, we could not catch up to them; the dry suits were too thick and slowed us down. Plus, the water visibility was not the greatest. So we never got close enough. But in Dominica, we will have amazing visibility and whales that are hopefully tolerant of us divers.

We will see. So much is unknown, when you are out there, which is exciting. The not-knowing is always difficult when it comes to wildlife expeditions, because you do not know if and when an animal will show up. But that is what I truly love about nature, there are never any guarantees. So when they do show up, it makes each encounter special.

That unknown is where you will find magic.

Norway Sperm Whale

More later. It is time to board the plane and off into the unknown.

Thank you for reading and your comments, I appreciate them all!

Crocodile Diving off Banco Chinchorro... Three day Report

July 20, 2021 - I am in Banco Chinchorro right now, and we just finished up our first day of crocodile diving, and what a freaking day it was. We had six crocodiles show up, including Gambit and Negro, a couple of the big stars of this amazing place. The water visibility was not the best. Sadly it was nothing like the water we experienced last season. But we had six crocodiles today and a bunch of thrilled, happy divers.

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Yesterday I picked up our guests from Cancun, and we headed to Xcalak, Mexico, which is about 5 1/2 hours away. It is a fun afternoon of driving. After we arrived, we said hello to the staff. I was excited, saying hi to my buddy Mathias who is our croc safety diver on the trip. It is always a good time when we get together. After we checked into our hotel and the dive shop, we filled out all the legal paperwork for the dive shop, which basically says we will not sue if a croc misbehaves. The typical stuff we have to do before we go diving with big toothy predators. 

We overnighted at the hotel, woke up at 7 AM for a quick breakfast, loaded up our gear on a panga, and made a very wet and bumpy crossing to Banco Chinchorro. Those wet rides are never fun, but it's the price of admission sometimes to find magic, and it has always been worth it.

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This is day one of a three-day adventure. When we arrived in Banco Chinchorro, we did a quick dive to try and find some lionfish to use as bait for the crocs. Lionfish are the only bait we are allowed to feed the crocs. Banco is a protected marine reserve, and they try to protect the wildlife here. Unfortunately, lionfish are an invasive species, and they are voracious eaters. They decimate local fish populations, so we do what we can to try and remove them when we see them. 

After the dive, we motored over to our cabana on the water. Casa Matraca (named after the old fisherman who owns this cabin) is where we will be staying for the next few days. It is rustic and old, but it is fantastic, and the view is impressive. 

After a quick lunch, the first croc showed up. Then a second one, then a third. By the end of the day, we had six different crocodiles visit us, including the star of Banco Chinchorro, Gambit. He is a big 3-meter croc and super tolerant of us divers, but very territorial towards other crocs. He is so mellow and a dream crocodile to encounter. He seems to love the attention and will chase off any other croc that comes into his area. He does not like to share. 

We spent the rest of the day swimming with them, all of us excited to be there. It makes me happy knowing that the guests we bring here enjoy being around these animals. These positive interactions do a lot towards helping change how people see and feel about these predators.

Ok, passing out, the ocean crossing, and a full day in the water kicked my ass. It is draining, but I am so damn happy. Tomorrow I will write more. 

July 21, 2021 - There is something so satisfying about waking up super early to climb on a boat and go diving. I love that so much. So we woke up, had a quick cup of coffee, and then motored over to a dive site to look for lionfish and see what was swimming around at this beautiful reef. While Mathias was hunting for lionfish, I looked around for turtles and whatever else was swimming around. We were greeted by a friendly nurse shark that loves to follow spearfishermen around, hoping to steal a free meal off of a speargun. 

While swimming around, I happened upon a big barracuda at a cleaning station. It was pretty neat seeing that. The cuda was all black, and when it left the cleaning station, it turned silver again. I wonder if that is something they do to show the cleaner fish it means them no harm? Not sure.

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After the dive, we returned to our hut and ate breakfast. We tried to chum in some crocs, but Mathias said it was too early for the crocs to show up. So we jumped on the boat and went to the Island to look at the local wildlife there. They have a healthy iguana population there; blacks and red iguanas are all over the Island. They are one of the staple meals for crocodiles on the Island. A healthy iguana population is why there are more than 500 crocodiles on Banco Chinchorro. Pretty wild. 

The big question is how the crocodiles got to Banco Chinchorro. One theory is they swam over from mainland Mexico many years ago. Another is researchers brought a pair to the island to help control the iguana population. The iguanas were eating all the bird eggs and to help the bird populations, they felt this could be a solution.

After the brief visit on the Island, we returned to our hut and began chumming for crocs. We did not have to wait long. Negro returned. He was with us all day yesterday. We spent all day with him, and he put on a hell of a show. We also had three other crocs come in. One came in for about a minute, did not like what it saw, and then went back to the Island. Cut tail came in for a little while. It is another local superstar. She has a crooked jaw; my guess is from a fight with a bigger croc. She is always great to have around, and she is a solid player. 

A new croc that showed up was this little croc, Mathias named Matraca because most of it’s teeth are missing. Like the owner of our hut. Lol. I have been calling her Baby M. Anyway, Baby M was a little shy, but still came in and stayed the rest of the day. It kept coming up to Negro, not sure why? Usually the little crocs want nothing to do with the big crocs, but this one was pretty brave. 

Baby M and Negro.

Overall it was a fantastic day with many opportunities for our guests to capture a lot of images. We still have one more day out here, and I am hoping that Gambit will return. Usually, when Gambit shows up on day one, she will not return the following day if she eats. Hoping she comes in tomorrow. We will see?

July 22, 2021 - We are back in Mainland Mexico. We left Chinchorro around 2 PM after a fun day with some crocodiles. It was not as exciting as the previous two days, but it was still good. Crocodiles are just amazing animals. They are so misunderstood, and we have so much to learn from them. I genuinely hope that dives like these are just the beginning of what is possible.

We woke this morning and went off for a morning dive to try and find lionfish. Thankfully it is getting more difficult to find them, which means we are doing some good. There are still many of these animals down deep, but here on the reefs that we can reach, there are very few. At least these reefs are safer for the local fish populations.

After the dive, we went back to our cabin, ate a quick breakfast, and then started chumming for the crocs. It took a couple of hours, but finally, a croc swam out of the mangroves and right towards us. It turned out to be Matraca, or Baby M as I called her, of course, she is still very shy, so we kept chumming, hoping for a bigger, more confident croc to arrive. About twenty minutes into the dive, a second one came. Then a third. We finished the day with four crocs around us. The dive was so much fun and a great way to finish up the trip. 

I want to thank our friends who joined us out there, I truly appreciate it, you guys mean the world to me. Tomorrow we finish up our trip here in Xcalak for a quick look around to see if we can find manatees.

We will see?

Thank you all for reading.

Night Dive with Phantom Divers!

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July 18, 2021 - We are in Playa Del Carmen now. Damn, this trip is going fast. We dropped off the guests at the airport in Cancun, said goodbye to my brothers and some of our buddies who joined us for some fun, and then high-tailed it to Playa del Carmen to see my son David, who lives, and works for Phantom Divers, as one of their instructors and Shark Feeders. We had not seen him since January when we were there to dive with the bull sharks, so it was going to be nice visiting with him. It has been too long.

We arrived in Playa, checked in at our hotel, then met up with him. After some catching up and a good lunch, we headed back to our room to get ready for a night dive. David would have rather just sat down with us for a few beers and some much-needed catching up, but nope. Mari, Sophia, and I were itching to go diving, and a night dive in Playa is always a good time. Plus I just picked up a set of video lights, and I wanted to try them out. So we jumped on one of Phantom’s boats and headed out to a nearby reef. Once we anchored up, the search for wildlife began… specifically for loggerhead sea turtles and octopuses. At least, that is what I was after.

Blue tang resting and seeking protection next to this sea fan. Love the colors.

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Carina and Sophia. They are growing up too fast.

Ramon’s daughter Carina joined us for the fun. It was great having her out, Sophia and Carina got certified together when they were around ten years old. So it is so great seeing them still enjoying diving five years later.

The cool thing was it was just us on the dive, no one else on the boat, and no other boats out there on the reef. Which means no one was out there to scare off the nocturnal animals. At least until we showed up with our torches and video lights, it feels so invasive when you use lights to find wildlife. I try not to overdo it because then it just feels like harassment. But when you are trying to find animals or capture images at night, lights are essential.

We swam along the reef exploring; I was hunting for octopuses, they are such incredible animals, and I always love seeing them and trying to capture images of them. Of course, I am shooting with a wide-angle lens, so I will not get anything extraordinary from them. Not without a macro lens. - This was just for fun. Finally, after about 20 minutes, we encountered our first one. They are such beautiful animals. Unfortunately, this guy did not like my lights, so it did not stay exposed for very long. I snapped a few images and then left it alone.

We continued our swim, and David excitedly showed me what I have been hoping to find and photograph… A loggerhead! It was sleeping on the reef, and our lights woke her. I immediately felt terrible, so I snapped a quick few images of her and then left her alone. She was disturbed with our lights and swam off into the night.

I was thrilled to see her but also felt guilty for waking her up. I did not pursue her. I just watched her disappear, hoping she would find a quiet and safe place to fall back to sleep. She was an older turtle, massive with half of her right front flipper missing—no doubt from a tiger or a bull shark. I wasn’t with her long enough to get anything good, so I was hoping for at least one decent proof of life image in there.

We continued on and found another octopus; this one was hunting and caught a fish in front of us, which was cool to see. Octopus are wow animals. I watched in awe as it swam around the reef, changing colors, trying to blend in and hide from me. They change colors so fast, it is wild. At one point, it swam by a blue tang, and it turned a shade of blue. That, to me, is so amazing.

We stayed down there for about an hour; we would have stayed longer, but sadly we were low on air and had to call it a day. However, it was such a fun dive, I am already looking forward to my return to Playa after our croc trip for some more dives with the SDM crew and hopefully some daytime images of a loggerhead.

Until then… thanks for reading.

Day 4 Was a Bust... It Happens, Just Sucks When it Does.

July 17, 2021 - We have returned from our final day at sea, and sadly it was a bust. Storms rolled in last night, and with it, rolling swells made it difficult to get to the animals. We spent the morning out there, trying to find mantas and whale sharks but finally admitted defeat and called it a day.

On the way home, we stopped by a popular snorkeling spot near Contoy Island to play around a bit - that was our only water time today. Overall it was a really good trip. Not the craziness I expected here, with 100 plus whale sharks, but amazing surprises still. Isla's ocean life is fantastic.

This year marks our 17th season for whale sharks. So wild knowing, I have been visiting the sharks here for the past 17 years. And I still love it. We will make some changes for next season and limit the number of people per boat so that we can increase our water time even more, which will be fun—looking forward to setting it up and planning it out.

Of course the day was not a total bust, the clouds were amazing and we took advantage of nature’s beauty to try and capture as much of that sky as possible.

Thanks again to our wonderful friends who joined us out here. You guys are awesome. Now, all that is left is to celebrate tonite and pack our gear for tomorrow's travel day.

Next stop for us… Banco Chinchorro's crocodiles! Yeah.

Day 3 - The Mantas Are EVERYWHERE!

July 16, 2021 - Day three was freaking amazing! We didn't spend much time with the whale sharks. In fact, we only saw about three or four of them, but it did not matter because there were manta rays everywhere.

It was a slow start, and once we got out to the area, the radio chatter was that there were not many whale sharks. When we got to the area, we saw ten plus boats all taking turns with one shark. I am not a fan of that, and we will go off to try to find another shark when we see that happening.

While we were motoring around looking for sharks, we heard reports of manta rays coming in over the radio. We listened for a while and motored over to an area where our captain's buddy told him to look. Sure enough, the mantas were there; at first, we thought it would be one or two, but NOPE! We hit the jackpot; I am guesstimating at least 100 mantas were in the area because they were everywhere; it was magic.

The excitement on the boat was electric. Everyone hurried their gear on, all of us wanting to be in the water. These are the moments you live for - those wild, unpredictable, memorable moments that nature gifts you with sometimes. They are rare and oh-so-special. We took advantage of all our time in the water, hoping to capture something special in our cameras. With as many mantas that we encountered, I have no doubt our friends all left with something fun and unique.

We swam with them all morning, none of us even thinking about trying to find whale sharks. The water was murky and thick with food, and the mantas were feeding up a storm. It was so good. After about two hours of swimming with the mantas, we look over and saw one whale shark swimming towards… of course; behind that shark were at least 12 boats, filled with tourists, all hoping for a chance to swim with it.

That blows my mind. I know that whale sharks are unique, and swimming with them is amazing, but in the water, less than 50 yards away were 20 plus manta rays, and none of the boats were trying to put their guests in with them. I guess I do get it; after all, it is a shark, and sharks are special. But damn, mantas are genuinely magical beings, and it seems a shame that they were not willing to show them what else is unique about the waters surrounding Isla Mujeres. Instead, they all just crowded this poor shark.

We watched the shark passed our boat. After it swam by, I asked our captain to move us, to get us away from all the boats following it. We took off to find quieter waters with more mantas to swim with, which was not hard because they were everywhere. I guess it is good that the other boats did not want to swim with them; it meant more mantas for my buddies and me. HELL YEAH! Tomorrow is our final day in the water, but the forecast shows a lot of rain. We will make the most of it; we are planning to get wet anyway.

Thank you for reading.

Day Two... A Fun Day at Sea!

July 15, 2021 - Day two with the whale sharks was WOW! We had a really good day at sea, and it was much calmer than the previous day. We still haven’t seen the hundred-plus sharks, but it was fun. I am guessing around 15-ish sharks today... The numbers are building. Yesterday the visibility was amazing, with beautiful clear blue water, but we don’t want that. To find the large gathering of sharks, you need murky blue water filled with fish eggs and plankton. That is where the magic happens. 

By the end of the day, we found that water, which was awesome. The water was thick with eggs. That means the sharks will be making a b-line for the area. Tomorrow should be good with a lot of sharks feeding. My prediction is that by Saturday, the whale shark action is going to be EPIC!!! We will see - hopefully, we will have some fun stories to share. 

As I mentioned, we had about 15 different sharks; they were all feeding and slowly swimming around, gulping up gallons and gallons of egg-rich water. I recognized the shark we had on our first day. It was coke bottle feeding, staying in one spot, and was again very tolerant. It is so much fun finding the same sharks out there each day. It means a lot to me, knowing these sharks return to these waters day after day and year after year. It means that the area is still healthy enough for the animals to return, and that is a very good thing.

Ahh, so back to the feeding shark. I love those coke bottling sharks; they are the ones you dream of encountering. They stay in one spot, suck feeding near the surface. They will often spin in a slow circle as they feed. I stopped swimming and just waited patiently nearby for the shark to spin in my direction. If you get too aggressive and swim at them, they will swim off and find another spot where they can continue feeding without feeling threatened. I was rewarded when it turned in my direction and opened its big mouth, allowing me to snap away. My settings were 1/320, f9 ISO 800. Those seemed to work alright for me today. 

Overall it was fun, and I am happy we have two days left. It gets me fired up for whatever tomorrow brings us...

As always, thank you for reading my friends. And for those of you that comment, I do appreciate them, thank you so much for that.

Day One... Whale Shark Adventure Has Begun!

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July 14, 2021 - Shit wifi has not allowed me to share as much as I had hoped, and I also have not had much to share. Holbox was a bust for wildlife. I managed to snap a few songbirds and a flying nightjar, but it was crap for flamingos. They were not there yet; only a few were around, not enough for a real shot at photographing them. I saw them, and I got a few photos of them flying by and some proof of life images of them, but that is it. I was disappointed; the spot was nothing like we experienced three years ago. There were so many around, and they were close. But that just means I need to go back and try again.

My perfectly imperfect crew. Love these guys.

Holbox was nice, though, hanging out with some of my best friends, catching up on old times. Sadly I was not 100%, I recently got my vaccination for covid, and I developed a sore throat the following days after and lost my voice. So for two days, I was not able to talk, which was frustrating. Then I got Montezuma's from eating something bad or the water, and I was out for the count for a night. But thankfully, it is all done, and I am rocking now.

I am sure that is more info than you guys wanted, but that is part of the travel life, and sharing is caring. lol

On the 13th, we left Holbox and traveled to Isla Mujeres. We picked up the guests who will join us for the trip, along with a big circus of friendly faces. More friends and family are coming to hang out with us on Isla. Right now, it is around 20 friends and family members that came to Isla to hang out with us that have nothing to do with our whale shark trip. They just wanted to get out of Texas and California and get away - so they are all here, hanging out while we work. I love these crazy peeps.

So back to the whale sharks. Today was day one of four days of our whale sharks and manta rays diving trip. THE conditions were tough! We had rough seas, and the ride was extremely wet. A few of our guests ended up getting sick, sadly, but that happens.

On top of that, we only had one whale shark, which is extremely rare; usually, we see more than 100 plus sharks on our first day. But ok, I am not spoiled, at least the sharks are here. One of the things that didn’t help - last night we had a big storm move through, and the rain pushed a lot of the food down, so the sharks were down low and hard to find.

It was fun though, we made the most of it and spent as much time as possible with one amazingly tolerant shark. We really are just spoiled; after 16 years of running this trip here, seeing only one shark does not happen. We are used to seeing hundreds of sharks every day. But it was a great reminder to me to appreciate what nature offers you… which means, if you see one shark, you have had a great day.

It felt so damn good to be back in the water with them again. After 16 years of running this trip, I still love it. And reports are that the weather is getting better, and the water is supposed to be calming down, so hopefully, we will have more sharks show up for us. After a day like today, it gets me fired up to see what surprises nature has in store for us, because every day is different.

The adventure has begun!

Thank you for reading.

And We are OFF... Mexico Bound!

My ladies not happy travelers that I am popping surprise images.

And we are off! We walked out the door this morning at 6 AM, bleary-eyed and disgustingly tired. Our uber waiting for us to take us to the airport and catch our plane ride to Cancun. We had to fly to Mexico City first, and now we are sitting at the airport in Mexico City, waiting for our connection to Cancun. Travel days are always exhausting, especially when its a long trip. We were up until 2 AM, getting everything ready. A lot of last-minute packing going on; Clothes and dive gear, and all the camera gear we bring. It is a lot… All part of our circus world.

Gabriel taking advantage of the layover.

Long trips are always tough on me emotionally. Thankfully this one is also a mix of family time - the SDM crew is joining me out there for our time in Mexico. Mari, Sophia, and Gabriel are joining me for three weeks, so it will make my time out there nice. But, of course, there will be some added headaches having them with me as well. “Sometimes family is just too much family”, as my son David once said. But still, it will be nice having home with me. Tonite we will be staying at a hotel close to the airport in Cancun to wait for a couple of old friends who will join us for a few days of beachside relaxation and debauchery. They are coming out before our first group arrives for our whale shark expedition off Isla Mujeres, Mexico to have a bit of fun and catch up on good times.

Of course, while we are hanging out and reminiscing I will find windows to take advantage of my time in paradise and go looking for wildlife. I mean, what is the point of coming to a beach paradise in the Yucatan if it isn’t to find exotic animals? Drinking and lying around a beach just does not do it for me, I need to get off the beaten path and see what is crawling or flying around. I do look forward to my before sunrise wake-ups to see what animals are up to. That is what I live for.

I can’t wait!

Of course, we just got the news that our flight is delayed three hours. So… the waiting continues. Until tomorrow night, guys, hopefully, it will be with some new animal pics for you.

Officially our flight is now a three hour delay and the circus animals are making the most of it.

As always, thanks for reading!