Day 17 Life is a beach

La Paz is a big town with lots to do. It also has lots of people, traffic, and noise. We opted to find an out of the way place to spend a relaxing day. The water was so warm that we had to join the dogs in frolicking in the ocean. No pictures though because Salt water and phones don't mix. Plus, we forgot pur bathing suits. Apparently no problem for Kasey.

The dogs had a blast in the warm water and Lincoln even ran around which was surprising since he has been limping a little lately.

The sand was so hot, I had to get the shoes we used for snorkeling and put them on Lincoln so he could walk back to the car, which was about a hundred meters. Tad is so fast, he barely touches the sand anyway and was at the car in the shade in no time. I had given the keys to the car to Kasey since he was walking ahead of me and Lincoln. Once Lincoln and I started walking back to the car, I spotted the car keys half buried in the sand and scooped them up without stopping. Sorry, no picture. Kasey was sure glad to see the keys in my hand. Before returning to camp, we scouted the Elf Owl location that I determined from iNaturalist. I haven't seen or heard an Elf Owl so I wanted to try since we are in their prime habitat. This owl is tiny, about the size of a sparrow. It is the world's smallest owl.

Roads here quickly go from pavement to dirt. Some of it really soft and if you don't have 4 wheel drive, you could end up in a soft section of road.

Our afternoon beverage was an IPA, which we are really having trouble locating in this part of the world. This particular one is a Session IPA and pretty good.

We got showers and changed into owling gear. Long pants and boots. We also brought along all kinds of technology. Phones with owl calls and ability to record, a bini boom box and night binoculars. We had found a more direct route than the one that Google supplied, which is why an initial scouting of the area can pay off.

 After and hour or so, the lesser poor wills came out, the local nesting Great Horned Owl perched on a high cactus, and the sun was barely visible.

We know the Great Horned was nesting because the German couple that lived in the house nearby came driving up on their way hone and stopped to chat about what we were doing. Noticing the binoculars, he happily shared photos of the juvenile owls in the Great Horned nest behind their house.

He wished us luck and headed home. I started to wonder if the newer "road" affected the Elf Owl and we decided to walk further away from this newer road on a side road. It was getting dark and I was thinking that it was becoming unlikely that we would find one when we heard the response.

We tried to see the little bugger but he just would not come close so we settled for the audio.

I call that a success.