I'll try anything twice

I took that same picture in front of the same bird blind about 2 1/2 miles up from us on Cerritos back in 2002, our second year in Mazatlan. I had my first digital camera and I set the timer the same way in the same place and snapped a not so good pic of me and the same woman. All of that is good. Whats strange though is how much it's all changed in 16 short years. Once isolated this fresh water lagoon is still linked to the ocean but development surrounds.....progress ya know. I hadn't really thought of doing a deju vue trip but as I rode my bike out to Cerritos point to get a chocolate chip monster cookie I glanced through the jungle and walla.....pink Flamingos, and many of them. So I rode home and told the resident bird watcher we gotta go. Well, by the time we went the Flamingos were gone and it's a good thing because MPeasy was trying to convince that the were really Spoon Bills which are pink as well. But I seen em and she didn't so we'll stick with the less common Flamingos.

It was a nice cool morning and we were walking through the natural foliage holding hands and saying things like "  man if I was one of those Conquistadors I'd have a little trouble with all those sharp objects"....and of course...." wonder if you can eat that " when we came across the highlight of the trip....the viewing tower. All welded metal sitting on concrete pilasters and an easy 50 feet high with 4 levels of semi platform where you and a skinny person could view all the .....well, you'll see.

The tower is on a levy kinda deal that separates the salt water lagoon from the fresh water lagoon. As you can see it looks just  a little top heavy, ya know not enough base for it's height....but you know me I gotta get right up and although Mpeasy was a little hesitant I got her half way up and then did what any idiot married man would do....I rocked the tower back and forth a bit with my weight and oh baby that thing had some deflection as we used to say as construction hounds. We didn't panic, really but it did seem to move more than it should so we climbed down and noticed what we should have noticed to begin with....after all, it's Mexico.

Yup, totally rusted out. A three legged 50 footer...and the other three didn't really look all that that good. But...the views were worth it in the Jeff King book of life. Here's the view towards the ocean with Mazatlan's biggest building and then inland to where all of us will be living someday. All around this oasis is building. A water Park, hotels, Emerald bay the most exclusive resort and then this......beauty.

And of course from the tower you could see birds everywhere just no Pink ones to keep our Spoon Bill / Flamingo argu....ahh...discussion alive.

The day was mostly a ' hand holder' but birds were of course the vehicle to get us there so....here's my best bird pic of the day. I took it with no filter , camera set on ' intelligent automatic ' ( I love that )...all I really did was point shoot and make sure the battery was charged....amazing huh ?

So that brings me to Pro Guide Tip # 003 ,,,, To do a good job ya gotta be happy. Happiness tips : dishes, hand holders, don't forget the steak sauce , shut up ( only when you should )....easy peasy.