OAXACA & MEXICO CITY 2002
December 15 - January 5
A cousin of my wife was going to be wed in the Church of Santo Domingo in the city of Oaxaca and had invited my wife and I to be the Godparents of the wedding. We had birded Oaxaca in 2002 and again in 2003 and intended to do a few days birding nearby Oaxaca City. We were looking forward to visiting the area again, not only for the birds but the wonderful food, spectacular ruins and the company of a number of relatives from my wife's side of the family. Also, our daughters, 7 and 9 years of age, were looking forward to the trip also, and in particular spending some time with their grandmother.

Itinerary & Flights:
My wife was going to fly down with the kids on December 15, spend some time in Mexico City, then head down to Oaxaca City via a bus and come back to Mexico City with me on December 30 in a rented car. I was getting to Mexico City on December 23, picking up a rented car at the airport and meeting a cousin there as well, and driving to Oaxaca City to meet my wife and kids. We all left Mexico and headed back to Boston on January 5, 2013.

We kept an eye out very early for airplane tickets and were surprised at the prices: a good deal higher than we anticipated. We made the purchase on October 15, 2012, eight weeks in advance. We all flew on United (this is after their acquisition of Continental). My wife and kids flew flight 815 to Houston and 1092 to Mexico City while I flew flight 72 to Houston and flight 1090 to Mexico City. We came back on flight 1064 to Newark and then flight 1131 to Boston. The airport in Newark was a mess, largely due to the baggage operations and the security operations. At the latter, a shouting match took place between a flight attendant and the TSA security persons. Although we gave United all of our luggage at the same time at Newark, two pieces came home on a later flight and were delivered to our home.

The total for the tickets of my wife and kids was $1996.77 while my ticket came out to $905.59. We purchased our tickets via cheaptickets.com, which was offering the lowest prices at the time.

Lodging:
Stayed at my mother in law's home while in Mexico City, on Rio Churubusco in the Iztapalapa neighborhood. We spent 7 nights in Oaxaca, spending 4 nights at one hotel and 3 at another.

Dec 23 to Dec 27 at Hotel La Casona De Llano (http://www.hotelcasonadellano.com/). We know this hotel from an earlier stay and I particularly like it. You can walk to the center from it, yet it is far enough that it is quite quiet. It has a nice little garden with a fountain that birds like to bathe in and a large park across the street to relax/stroll in. The rate is very reasonable with the four of us paying around $90 per night. We booked directly with the hotel.

Dec 27 to Dec 30 at Hotel Victoria (http://www.hotelvictoriaoax.com.mx/). This is a well known hotel in Oaxaca and was likely a contender for the best hotel in Oaxaca some time ago. Given what I know, it tops my list as the best hotel in Oaxaca City which is not in the city proper: it resides on a hill which has excellent views over the city. which was likely very nice some years ago but is a little aged now. We booked with Expedia as they had a discount rate of $545 for three nights. While we made use of the pool, we didn't find the time to use the tennis court.

Car Rental & Driving:
Car Rental & Driving: We were very surprised that there were no cars available from any agency we could find that had an office in Oaxaca City. This was two weeks before our trip. Previously, we've found cars less than a week prior to our departure. This motivated my renting a car at the Mexico City airport and driving out to Oaxaca on the 23rd of December. We've rented with Alamo and Thrifty in the past in Mexico. Thrifty screwed us a bit on Cozumel when they actually looked under the car when we returned in and said we must have hit a speed bump and caused some scratches. But they never looked under the car when we picked it up. Given this I was reluctant to use thrifty, but that was Cozumel and in Mexico City they were offering an excellent rate. I knew that I'd pay more than the rate said on the internet, but was I in for a surprise. The rate was a little over $200. When we arrived to pick up the car, it was over $450. I had indicated that my credit card has excellent coverage and I would pass on the CDW coverage. They pointed out that in the fine print from the reservation it said we would have to take liability if we pass up CDW. It turned out that while CDW was $24.99 a day, liability was $20 a day. So we would have saved very little by skipping the liability. Since the rental places at the airport are next to each other, we next tried Alamo and they were a smidgeon cheaper. We then tried National and they came in at $377 for a Jetta after taxes and everything. Like the others we dealt with, they were professional but also friendly and said that while we are taking the car at 7pm, we can drop it back at 9pm and have a couple extra hours. We actually returned the car at 9:20pm and there was no issues. Plus, their shuttle bus driver drove us from the rental station to the nearest metro station at no charge.

Driving to Oaxaca from Mexico City was about 6 - 6 1/2 hours and was tiring but with the company of my wife's cousin it was a pleasant trip. On the way back we made it in 6 hours, if not a little less and traffic, on December 30, was very light. Driving in Oaxaca was ok but the need by a large number of drivers to try to cut in front of others and gain 10 feet (and later lose 20 feet) is ridiculous. As an example, while creeping along a busy street I let a car on a side street turn in front of me, making sure I get right behind them as the car behind this driver will likely try to extend my courtesy to themselves. While I did get right behind the car I let in, the car behind them starting cutting between the car I let in and myself, with their bumper just inches from mine and when I gave the horn some toots, they would not look my way and kept edging in. I honked some more and they turned, after they were pretty much guaranteed to have cut me off, and held a finger to their lips in a shhhhh gesture. Driving in Mexico City, done by my wife in her mother's car, is a joke. I've been in the Boston area for over 8 years and a considerable percentage of the drivers here are absolute morons. Coasting through a stop sign while on a cell phone in an oversized car is not an uncommon sight. Well, though I have previously driven in Mexico City, I was surprised at how bad the driving is: they make Boston drivers look semi-intelligent. It appears that the drivers have absolutely zero consideration for other drivers on the road. It did not help that many new roads had been constructed and the direction of a number of roads had been reversed. One time we went to the upper level of the Periferico, a monster of a construction still in progress, and could not get over to the correct lane in time and had to get back off. On our second attempt we made it, only to find after a short distance that a card was needed to go further. So we got off once again. These two deviations took a full hour.

Literature & Reports:
Used 'A Bird-Finding Guide to Mexico' by Steven Howell to get an idea of what birds we could see in the Oaxaca valley and some of the higher elevation sites nearby. Also brought the wonderful 'A Guide to Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America' by Howell and Webb and 'Field Guide to the Birds of North America' by National Geographic. Also read through some trip reports on the web, including: the VENT announcement for the trip 'Mexico: Oaxaca Christmas Birds, Food and Culture', December 20-29, 2012; 'Oaxaca, Mexico - February 4th - 10th, 2006' by Stephen Bahr; 'Oaxaca Birding May 2011 - Teotitlan del Valle', by Mary Gustafson, 'Mexico: Oaxaca, 13-22 March 2010' by Catherine McFadden, as well as 'Oaxaca: Teotitlan Del Valle, Benito Juarez, Monte Alban, Lower Route 175, Cerro San Felipe, La Cumbre, Yaul & Lists Mexico' from birdingsiteguide.com

Personal Comments on Oaxaca & Mexico City:
I have some experience with Oaxaca, having visited for a number of weeks and having family there. I was married in the Basilica de la Soledad in Oaxaca City. As some of the citizen's affirmed, Oaxaca City's population is growing. As a result, inside the city the density of persons appears to have increased compared to earlier visits, and the traffic can be quite bad. Furthermore, there appears to be more garbage laying around that previously. The city aside, getting out to the countryside is simply wonderful. The people are completely different in their behavior and the things to see and do are numerous. My wife made sure the kids were in Oaxaca on December 23 to see the display of the Noche de Rabanas. This takes place in the zocalo and consists of a number of displays, some very intricate and works of art, of carved radishes! There are also some works made of corn husks. A very unique event. They showed up before lunch and got to see most of the displays and later saw very long lines for the evening attendees. On the 24th we went again to the zocalo to see the celebration of Las Calendulas. This event consists of bands and floats put together by churches in the city that come to the zocalo and do a circle around the circumference of the zocalo. I'm not sure if other cities in Mexico do this, but Oaxaca does it very nicely.

My first experience with Mexico City goes back to 1994, when I started visiting it while working in the city of Guanajuato in the state of Guanajuato for almost 2 years. One of the largest cities in the world, you can always find something to do here. We visited some great restaurants, visited some fantastic museums, relaxed at the movies, and made heavy use of the metro system, including a new line just recently completed. My main observation is that the city seems to be a little less noisy, but there appears to be more garbage strewn about.

Detailed Report:
December 18: My wife went to Xochimilco in Mexico City. This is the place which has water canals and you can take boats in which the 'driver' uses a pole to push the boats around the canals. She saw: snowy egret, great egret, belted kingfisher, great-tailed grackle, american white pelican, pied-billed grebe, coot, cinnamon teal

December 23: This is the day I arrived to Mexico City, rented a car and drove to Oaxaca. We chose to stay the first 4 of 7 nights at the Hotel La Casona del Llano and I arrived very late. During our stay at this hotel we observed a number of birds around the grounds, including bathing in the small fountain. These were: inca dove, nashville warbler, wilson's warbler, rufous-backed thrush, house sparrow, lesser goldfinch, yellow-rumped warbler.

December 24: My brother in law was staying at the Mision de Los Angeles hotel, a short distance away from our hotel. A very nice place. While hanging around the hotel on December 24th, we saw: turkey vulture, vermillion flycatcher, yellow-rumped warber, white-winged dove.

December 25: We headed up to Monte Alban. We had done a test drive the evening before to the gate at Monte Alban and it appeared to talk about 30 minutes. Sure enough, we left bright and early at 6:13am and got to the gate at 6:33am. The gate is actually further away from the ruins than I recall. We slowly started walking up the road as the sun was rising, a very nice experience. We arrived to the parking area of the ruins and headed to the right at Howell indicates in his book. There is a little area here with some small ruins but the trails he indicates are not accessible. We could not find any indication of a trail through the greenery and there was a good deal of fence to keep persons from venturing out of the area we were in. We spent some time here and then noticed that across the road to the parking lot are some small ruins and there is a trail that leads from here down the hill, paralleling the road down to the gate. We walked this road down to where our car was, reaching our car at about 9am. The only birds we saw and could safely identify were: white-winged dove, house finch, lesser goldfinch, vermillion flycatcher, ash-throated flycatcher, rock wren, turkey vulture, hermit thrush and rufous-capped warbler. A hummingbird remained unid'd. The rock wren was actually seen at the ruins after we drove up to the lot and toured the ruins. I have been to these ruins before and find them simply spectacular. We later had a late breakfast/early lunch at the cafe at the ruins. It was a wonderful morning but I was a bit dismayed at the small number of species we saw. In the early evening we went to the home of one of my wife's cousins.

December 26: My wife and children started getting sick the previous night, essentially stomach problems. In the morning we went to an Ahorra pharmacy a couple buildings over from the hotel and fortunately the doctor was in the office next to the pharmacy. She made a diagnosis for free and gave us prescriptions for medicine. She said it looked like amoeba and bacteria were causing the problem and we bought the medicine and headed back to the hotel. I was not sick in any way and decided to take a trip back up the hill to the area we had parked at near the gate of Monte Alban and walk the trail. I was there from 1:20pm to 3:50pm. Upon arriving I saw a hawk perched at a distance which I was unable to Id. I did see a few birds walking the trail but most I saw upon returning to the area where I had parked the car. I saw: grey-breasted woodpecker, northern harrier, cassin's kingbird, tropical kingbird, turkey vulture, white-throated towhee, blue gray gnatcatcher, berylline hummingbird, dusky hummingbird, rufous-capped warbler, virginia's warbler, warbling vireo, northern mockingbird, northern house wren. Got good looks at an empidomax flycatcher and heard him making 'whip' calls, concluding it must be a pine flycatcher. Also saw what was likely a streak-backed oriole and another warbler, the species of which I was unable to Id. Particularly pleasing was the virginia's warbler, a lifer which afforded excellent views.

December 27: My wife and children seemed to be getting better but the illness took a good deal of energy out of them and rest was required. While they stayed in the hotel for most of the day I headed out to do some birding. Leaving at 6:30am, with no traffic, I arrived at Teotitlan del Valle at 6:55am. While my early departure contributed greatly to the short commute so did the fact that a new highway connector allows you to go directly from Oaxaca to Teotitlan without passing through other villages. It was chilly at the Valle, at 5 degrees Celsius. There were clearly more houses and buildings present in the Valle than my last visit and also less vegetation. I spent most of my time at the dam and later, on the way out of the Valle, near the entrance of the flow into the reservoir. There were plenty of ducks: ruddy duck, blue-winged teal, green-winged teal, gadwall, cinnamon teal, northern shoveler and ring-necked duck. On the water were also least grebe, eared grebe and coot. Above the water were violet-green swallow and northern rough-winged swallow. Plenty of black vultures in the area, on the ground warming up, and some turkey vultures. Along the shore were black phoebe, snowy egret, great egret, spotted sandpiper, killdeer and least sandpiper. There was a lot of bird activity in the shrub and cactus, with the rising of the sun. Looking around I found white-winged dove, dusky hummingbird, grey-breasted woodpecker, western kingbird, cassin's kingbird, northern mockingbird, loggerhead shrike, bewick's wren, say's phoebe, vermillion flycatcher, lesser goldfinch, house finch, great tailed grackle. Warblers included rufous-capped warbler, black-throated grey warbler, yellow-rumped warbler, nashville warbler and wilson's warbler. Near the inflow was an obliging pipit and a flushed bird had the appearance of a snipe. According to Howell's range maps, the ring-necked duck is a bit out of range but it was definitely identifiable as a ring-necked duck.

I hadn't spent very long near the reservoir and intended to make it up the dirt road to the village of Benito Juarez. It's a great drive, with a well-maintained dirt road with fantastic views, with some scrub jays making an appearance just as I headed up the road. I had been to Teotitlan before and never knew where the road went. Having learned of Benito Juarez, which is at a fairly high elevation, I decided to pay a visit. As you continue up the dirt road there are several sharp turns and some of these have a sing post by them. I stopped near the Rio Verde sign, seeing some bird activity, and was rewarded with: townsend's warbler, dusky hummingbird, boucard's wren, rufous-capped warbler, tufted flycatcher and steller's jay. These last two really looked great in the bright sun. Made it up to Benito Juarez and pulled into a little area which had a number of flowering plants spilling out from neighbor's yards. After stopping I immediately got great looks at a cinnamon-bellied flowerpiercer. A wonderful surprise, a lifer and a bird I was not anticipating seeing! I stayed here a little while, drove around briefly, stopping at an information building at which you can learn about some neat eco-activities available, stopped a couple more times just as I was exiting the village and then headed back down. In the village area I saw: stellar's jay, black-headed grosbeak, boucard's wren, townsend's warbler, macgillivray's warbler, red-tailed hawk, red warbler, white-eared hummingbird and green violetear hummingbird. What a great little visit.

My departure time from Benito Juarez was 11am. I had birded for 4 hours since arriving at Teotitlan and saw a lot of wonderful birds in this area. Very pleased!

December 28: Wedding day! My wife and I were the wedding godparents for a cousin. Our girls were two of the three flower girls. The wedding was held at Church of Santo Domingo, a fabulous church. We arrived at about 11:30am and left the party at about 9:30pm. Great day. We also changed hotel's last night, changing to the Hotel Victoria. Some birds did come by the windows and were around the grounds, two obvious ones being greak kiskadees and a warbling vireo. Also fairly sure we saw a blue grosbeak, but we didn't have our binos and it was a ways off.

December 29: We got up early and headed out to Yagul and other destinations. We left early again and arrived at the gates to Yagul just after 7am. The 'ranger' came and opened the facilities at roughly 8:45am. The road that goes from the highway to the gate is excellent for birding and we enjoyed the quiet time with the birds. Most of the birds we saw were before entering, though we saw some nice ones once inside. We saw: black vulture, turkey vulture, kestrel, merlin, caracara, red-tailed hawk, cattle egret, grey-breasted woodpecker, rock dove, white-winged dove, mourning dove, dusky hummingbird, beautiful hummingbird, rock wren, blue-grey gnatcatcher, bewick's wren, boucard's wren, vermillion flycatcher, kiskadee, say's phoebe, violet green swallow, ocelated thrasher, mockingbird, yellow-rumped warbler, cassin's kingbird, western kingbird, lark sparrow, white-throated towhee, house finch, lesser goldfinch. There were numerous lark sparrows about. The ocellated thrasher was a great surprise, popping up briefly but sufficiently long for a clear identification.

We headed out to the ruins of Mitla afterwards and then made our way to Hierve El Agua for a dip in the natural pools in the afternoon. There is a new highway that heads out a good ways to Hierve El Agua, not clear where they are planning to end it. There were some wind gusts in the area of Hierve El Agua that produced some significant dust clouds, with one of them engulfing our car.

December 30: Drove back to Mexico City today from Oaxaca. Very little traffic to Mexico City and very little in the city itself. There was some leaving Oaxaca in order to get through three light signals, taking 1/2 hour. But once we were out we made it to the center of Mexico City in a little under 6 hours.

January 2: Took a walk for about an hour close to where my mother in law lives in Mexico City. Saw and hear a brown-backed solitaire thrush in a cage in someone's home; had also heard one in Oaxaca City which must have been in a cage. On my walk I saw: say's phoebe, house finch, bewick's wren, house sparrow, inca dove, rufous-backed thrush, wilson's warbler, nashville warbler, yellow-rumped warbler, great tailed grackle, ruby-crowned kinglet, canyon towhee, song sparrow. Also could not id a hummer I saw.

To January 5: We left on January 5, but before leaving we spent some time going around Mexico City, making good use of the metro system. Things we did/saw included: Rincon de la Lechuza restaurant, Hosteria de Santo Domingo restaurant, El Moro for hot chocolate and churros, Museo de Antropologia.

We also ventured outside of the city to see the ruins at Tula. Due to terrible signage we took quite a while getting out of Mexico City so that the trip to Tula took almost three hours, but the return trip took about half of the time. At Tula we did see some birds, including say's phoebe, loggerhead shrike, cattle egret and great tailed grackles.


The list: 82 species, 12 endemics, 7 lifers, 16 new birds for Mexico, 2 new birds for Mexico City and a pleasant 30 new birds for Oaxaca.

(1)	Mexico City
(2)	Oaxaca City Hotels
(3)	Monte Alban
(4)	Teotitlan del Valle
(5)	Benito Juarez
(6)	Yagul

least grebe	4
pied-billed grebe	1
eared grebe	4
american white pelican	1
great egret	1, 4
snowy egret	1, 4
cattle egret	1, 6
green-winged teal	4
blue-winged teal	4
cinnamon teal	1, 4
northern shoveler	4
gadwall	4
ring-necked duck	4
ruddy duck	4
black vulture	4, 6
turkey vulture	2, 3, 4, 6
northern harrier	3
red-tailed hawk	5, 6
crested caracara	6
american kestrel	6
merlin	6
american coot	1,4
killdeer	4
spotted sandpiper	4
least sandpiper	4
rock dove	1, 6
white-winged dove	2, 3, 4, 6
mourning dove	6
inca dove 1, 2
green violetear	5
dusky hummingbird	3, 4, 5, 6
white-eared hummingbird	5
berylline hummingbird	3
beautiful hummingbird	6
belted kingfisher	1
grey-breasted woodpecker	3, 4, 6
tufted flycatcher	5
pine flycatcher	3
black phoebe	4
say's phoebe	1, 4, 6
vermillion flycatcher	2, 3, 4, 6
ash-throated flycatcher	3
great kiskadee	2, 6
cassin's kingbird	3, 4, 6
western kingbird	4, 6
tropical kingbird	3
violet-green swallow	4, 6
northern rough-winged swallow	4
western scrub jay	5
steller's jay	5
boucard's wren	5, 6
rock wren	3, 6
bewick's wren	1, 4, 6
northern house wren	3
ruby-crowned kinglet	1
blue-gray gnatcatcher	3, 6
rufous-backed thrush	1, 2
hermit thrush	3
northern mockingbird	3, 4, 6
ocellated thrasher	6
american pipit	4
loggerhead shrike	1, 4
warbling vireo	2, 3
nashville warbler	1, 2, 4
virginia's warbler	3
yellow-rumped warbler	1, 2, 4, 6
black-throated grey warbler	4
townsend's warbler	5
macgillivray's warbler	5
wilson's warbler	1, 2, 4
red warbler	5
rufous-capped warbler	3, 4, 5
black-headed grosbeak	5
canyon towhee	1
white-throated towhee	3, 6
cinnamon-bellied flowerpiercer	5
lark sparrow	6
song sparrow	1
great-tailed grackle	1, 4
house finch	1, 3, 4, 6
lesser goldfinch	2, 3, 4, 6
house sparrow	1, 2