Llano Grande March 4th 2008
We (the Ruges) took a hike in Llano Grande with some friends of ours-Courtney, Jake, and Jake’s mom and dad, Jan and Marty. It was a 14 km hike (8-9 miles) with a guide from Llano Grande named Jose. It was a great hike! We started off in pine forest at around 10,000 feet and ended up at about 10,500 feet in mixed pine forest.
There was pretty good birding along the hike. We saw about 13 species including Bushtits, Mexican Chickadees, Warbler, Slate-throated Redstart, Red, Cresent-chested and Hermit Warblers, Turkey Vulture, Red-tailed Hawks, Steller’s Jays, Yellow-eyed Juncos, and Common Raven. And best of all I lured in a Mountain Trogon with my iPod and Jake and Courtney’s speaker! Jose heard the trogon calling and told it to all of us. I whipped out my iPod and played the call of the Mountain Trogon. A male came almost instantly. First, it flew right next to the trail and then flew over us to another tree on the other side of the trail. We all got great looks at it as it showed off to us and donned its black and white outer tail feathers. That trogon was the first trogon I had ever seen-it was all very exciting!!!
We hiked to a peak and looked for raptors but there wasn’t many. On the way down we saw more warblers and heard the mountain trogon. We were all very tired when we got back to our little cabanas (cabins) and we all took a long siesta. The cabins were pretty small but comfy and we all liked our little haven a lot. Jake, Courtney, and Jake’s mom and dad were staying right across from us (Ruges) in a 2 room cabin. I was pretty sore from the 6 hour hike (I threw out my back) and Jan (Jake’s mom) gave me some arnica and an aspirin-like liquid. We ate dinner at a restaurant with trout. It was delicious! We even got to watch the owners of the place catch the trout! There was a little concrete pool filled with about 15 trout that they got the trout from. They also had great quesadillas filled with Oaxacan string cheese. Tasty! It was the best meal I had had in a long time.
The next day we all packed up and headed back to Oaxaca to our posadas in separate cars.
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