Day 3: Cancun (Day 1)

January 1, 2026

Dodie woke up just before midnight last night, and graciously woke me up as well. I checked my phone and watched it right then giving the time as 00:00 00:01 etc. Being awake was reinforced by the local people with their fireworks. They are not big on displays of light here, but rather have what must be dynamite sized things that give a really big BOOM!

Dodie really woke me up not for the New Year but because she had asked AI about that hawk with the large 7U on his wing. AI knew all about it, and said this:

"A hawk with the 7U wing tag in Richmond, BC, is a Red-tailed Hawk part of a long-running airport safety and raptor conservation program.

Program Background

Purpose: These hawks are trapped at Vancouver International Airport (YVR) to prevent strikes with aircraft.
Translocation: Once captured, they are tagged and released in distant areas like Chilliwack to encourage them to establish territories away from the airfield.
Tagging System: The wing tags (patagial tags) allow researchers and the public to identify individual birds from a distance without needing to recapture them.

How to Report the Sighting

If you have seen hawk 7U, biologists encourage reporting the date, location (coordinates are helpful), and any photos to help track the bird's movements and survival.

Primary Contact: Report sightings to Bud Anderson at [email protected].
Secondary Contact: You can also contact Gary Searing at [email protected], who manages aspects of the Airport Wildlife Management program.

In return for your report, these researchers often provide detailed "life histories" of the bird, including when it was originally tagged and where it has been seen since its release. "

So we'll make that report and see what comes of it!

The first glimmers of daylight came here about 5 a.m. I know this because while the fireworks may have stopped about 2 a.m., loud talkers carried on all night. We had planned to get up at 6:30 to look for birds, but in practice this stretched to 8 o'clock. Even so, we found Chachalacas on the grass, and a Golden Fronted Woodpecker in a tree by the pool.

Chachalaca is a quite large chicken like bird.

The "mansion" part of Mansion Giahn applies more to the main house, where the owners live. We are in more of a garden annex, and it is firmly in the category of Mexican tumble down. Mexican tumble down is rather what we expect on our trips here. Only places designated "haciendas" extend toward luxury, or at least are not falling apart. For this trip we only have one breakfast, not even an overnight, booked at such a place.

Here are some clues that tell us we are not in a mansion:

Sugar ants leaving home to look for my baked goods.

Of course, we are not exactly aristocrats. Here you can see that we quite fit in with the dodgy surroundings:

But kind of like with the streets of the town, there are the messy bits and the great bits. Look how nice our pool is:

With Tulip Trees:

And this is the door to our room:

The balcony offered shade for assembling bikes.

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After spending most of the day assembling the second bike and organizing the gear into stuff coming on this ride, stuff getting stored for any possible hops to Costa Rica next year, stuff getting stored to come back to Canada in 40 days (about), and stuff just generally getting stored (like the bike cases). We then trudged off again on our circuit to the storage, dragging the two cases.

Lots of birds were on the wires as we walked, but with only the small camera we just shot one. It was in hopes of it being a Social Flycatcher or such, but it turned out to be another Tropical Kingbird:

We had not walked very far at all when a man pulled his car up alongside and asked where were going. On learning that we were headed over to and down the 307, he offered us a lift down there. In the car he mentioned that he had often walked this road, and it hurt him to see us struggling along it with the cases. It was one more example of the kindness that the local people here have shown us over the years.

The man figured a way to squeeze in the cases.

At the storage, things continued to work out well. The system here is that you push a buzzer and a guard comes to usher you to your locker. Some not easy to operate elevators are involved, but the guard handles it all. The whole procedure is made pleasant by the unrelenting good humor of the staff, and their efficiency too. The guard had our name on a list, and was expecting us.

Once we dropped the cases, we carried on into our "favpourite" neighbourhood. I made a photo of some of the "tuk tuk's", since we were thinking of giving one a try.

Most things were closed on this holiday, but one of the two chicken BBQs was open. What we got was to me better flavoured than the French BBQ chicken that we so often look for. And the potatoes were way better, subtly seasoned with some kind of magic Mexican mixture.

Typical "tuk tuks" are in fact called tuk tuks here, just as in Thailand.

This "collectivo" is not derelict (exactly). We hope to catch one for a ride into and out of downtown Cancun soon.

At the chicken BBQ. We got a cut up 1/2 chicken, rice, and potatoes for Mex 149 ($US 8.59).

Feeling a lot stronger than yesterday, there was no need to follow up on a tuk tuk. We walked on, though it was now dark. Our level of fear, walking through the ragged dark streets was exactly zero with respect to people, zero for dogs, a need to just take a little care about broken pavement or too high sidewalks, and reliance on the high viz vest to be seen by drivers. In short - no problem!

Tomorrow we will jump on the bikes for a shakedown run. We'll head for malecon Tajamar, part of the inner lagoon at the north end of the hotel zone peninsula. We are attracted there by the possibility of some birds, and by an apparent, if short, ciclovia. We'll bypass 307 as much as possible, but it does not figure to be a cake walk. Time now to clear the gear off the bed, and rest up for it!

Today's ride: 6 km (4 miles)
Total: 22 km (14 miles)

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Bill Shaneyfelt2 Jan sounds like a shaky start!
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