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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ovenbird43" data-source="post: 3514706" data-attributes="member: 64478">Jan 5Tom and I got up early with the intention of biking out to a spot near the ruins on the cross-island highway to see Yucatan Nightjar, which Larry had seen the evening we met him.  We were a little slow getting ready, which turned out to be just as well, because it started pouring rain while we were setting up our bikes.  We waited for a bit, then at 6:30 we decided to make a dash to the coffee shop just down the street.  It wasn't open yet, so we stood underneath the awning, watching people drive by in the rain on motorcycles and scooters.  The rain began to let up, but at this point dawn was swiftly approaching, so we wouldn't make it to the nightjar spot in time even if we left immediately- not to mention the edges of the roads were flooded and our bikes didn't have fenders, promising a wet ride if we tried.  Soon the owners of the coffee shop arrived and set everything up, so we decided to just get coffee and hang out for a bit.  The coffee there was delicious and the owners were very nice - Ciri's Coffee Bar, evidently on Friday and Saturday nights they also serve crepes with homemade chocolate sauce.After about 8 am the weather had cleared and the flooding in the streets had diminished, so we set out to explore the road to the San Gervasio ruins. On the way, the bike trail that parallels Calle 1 Sur was very birdy as it passed through some shrubby areas, with Yellow, Palm, and Magnolia Warblers, Indigo Buntings, flyover Amazona parrots, and Ruddy Ground-Doves among others.  Once on the road to the ruins, we stopped at various places along the road wherever we could get our bikes off the pavement - there were numerous overgrown tracks leading off into the scrub.  Most stops were productive despite the relatively late hour, with noisy Yucatan Woodpeckers, Tropical Mockingbirds, and Black Catbirds, warbler flocks with Yellow, Black-throated Green, and Magnolia Warblers, American Redstart, and White-eyed Vireos.  I spotted my first Rose-throated Tanager of the trip here.  Best of all was a cooperative pair of Cozumel Vireos, which Tom spotted for me and which offered much better views than the day before, as they quietly worked their way along the outer edge of the shrubs right by the road.  Soon though we had to turn back in order to be present for our bicycle return.Back at the Airbnb, we grabbed a quick brunch of sopes at a little home-run stand around the corner, returning to find that Rent a Bike Cozumel had again arrived early.  We returned our bikes, hailed a cab to the pier, and took a ferry to Playa del Carmen.  Once there, we gave the rental car company 15 minutes before we decided that nobody was going to show up to pick us up and took a cab to their office.  We picked up our car without incident and were soon on our way toward Tulum.Driving in the Yucatan is quite straightforward and easy as far as driving in Mexico goes.  We stocked up on cash and a few groceries in Tulum before heading to Quintana Roo National Park, which is down a dirt road leading west from the small village of Francisco Uh May, roughly halfway between Tulum and Coba.  The road is unnamed and unsigned, but we figured out which turn to take with the help of a Google Earth image I had printed out beforehand.  The dirt road was quite rough, especially for the first three kilometers out of town, with large pools of water that initially had me skirting too close to the brush, putting a good long scratch on the entire length of the passenger side of the car, before realizing that the pools weren't too deep and the bottoms were hard-packed gravel and could be driven straight through.  The driving got gradually easier farther down the road, but it still took about 45-60 minutes to drive the 12 kilometers to the campsite.  The roadside was very birdy, many small unidentified passerines passing over the road or visiting the puddles, with noisy Brown Jays heard in many places as well as Lineated Woodpecker.  A nice treat too was a Gray Fox that ran across the road not far from us - we would end up seeing another 3 of these during our time in the park.We arrived at the campground in the early evening, and after settling in there was little daylight left for birding.  We went for a quick walk down the road - most of the birds seemed to have settled in for the night, other than a Collared Aracari perched prominently above the low canopy.  At night, we could hear several Mottled Owls from camp, sometimes right at the edge of the camp clearing.  I was excited and looking forward to dawn birding in the area.</blockquote>

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