9-7-15

Trip Details

Location: Near San Jose Del Cabo and Miraflores then north to La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico

Herpers: Shawn Vought, Jason Nelson, Joe Ehrenberger, Matt Cage, Mike Pingleton, Jim Scharosch

Account by: Jim Scharosch

Photos by: Jim Scharosch

Today we were leaving San Jose Del Cabo so during breakfast Matt went to Hotwire to shop for a hotel in our next destination, La Pas. When he got the room arranged he texted us a screen shot of the reservation screen so we would all have the address of the hotel. I looked at the screen shot and something caught my eye.

Knowing the answer, I asked if there was a La Pas in Bolivia. It took a while on the phone for Matt to get that sorted out with Hotwire.

It became a running joke for the rest of the trip.

This morning Shaun and Jason went on a fishing trip. Matt and Joe decided to take another shot at the lizards on the beach in Cabo San Lucas. Mike and I opted for a return trip to the river at Miraflores. I wanted another shot at finding an adult garter snake, and there were patchnose snakes there as well.

We stopped along the way for a few scenery shots.

And we happened to stop at a spot where a very cooperative Peninsular Spinytail Iguana (Ctenosaura hemilopha) was hanging out in a cactus.

We grabbed some photos then headed to Miraflores and down the trail to the river.

We went downriver this time and grabbed a few more photos of lizards on the rocks.

This is a Hunsaker's Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus hunsakeri)

These are San Lucan Banded Rock Lizards (Petrosaurus thalassinus)

We found another juvenile garter snake but didn’t take the time to shoot any photos. I climbed up a large bolder pile near the largest pool and when I looked over to the other side I saw a large adult garter snake swimming in the pool toward the boulder I was on. It popped it’s head out of the water a long ways from me and almost seemed like it saw me. It grabbed a breath and dived back under water, swimming a long distance around the boulder I was on to the other side of the pool.

It went under a large underwater rock, and Mike was able to pinpoint which one. I set my camera bag down and rock hopped out to a boulder next to that rock and waited for it to come up and get a breath of air. A couple minutes later it did, but I missed it and it went back under the rock. I knew now that this was the only spot it could come out so Mike waded out to make the catch the next time it came up. I looked around and could see a small crack between the rocks right by my feet, and I could see the snakes head under water. He was looking up between the rocks at me. I poked him with my finger and he went under again. I dug a few of the small rocks away and poked my finger around in the hole. Soon he came swimming out right where Mike was waiting for him. The extra trip here was worth it because we had our adult Cape Garter Snake (Thamnophis validus).

Like I said in the post from yesterday, these all black snakes are difficult to photograph. As we worked at getting photos, the sky clouded up and it was obvious we were going to get drenched. We worked at getting whatever photos we could, and though I wasn’t thrilled with my shots, we released the snake just as massive rain drops began to fall. We tried to wait out the rain, but we ended up hiking back up to the car in the downpour.

We all finished up our separate morning excursions and headed towards La Pas. Our main target there was the Mexican Mole Lizard a crazy looking little animal locally known as Ajolotes. We arrived at the spot for them and though we saw a few of their trails in the sand, we were unable to find any.

We grabbed dinner at a seafood restaurant on the beach. The food was really good.

Then headed to a hotel that members of the group had stay at before called Auto Hotel Los Delphines.

Auto Hotels have one reason for existence, and it’s not to get a good night’s sleep. You drive up to a small booth and pay for your room. You then drive into a garage and close the garage door. You walk up the steps to your room. The rooms in Los Delphines were clean and comfortable, though the beds were very firm, probably for good reason. I won’t go into a lot of detail, but you will get the idea from the photos.

This was on the nightstand, and was included for free with your accommodations.

It remained there when we left. The only real downside to the hotel was that the water didn’t work in any of the rooms.

Anyway, Mike and I chose not to cruise the roads that night. Mike was tired from a long day of driving and I opted to take the night off as well. I’m not sure what the guys found that night cruising and all photos were taken on the road.