By Viacheslav Shalisko, biologist, PhD
The condo is located at the coast of the Bahía de Banderas (Spanish for Bay of Flags), a perfect place for bird watching, marine wildlife observation and botanical explorations. You can practice wildlife sighting even directly from the apartment balcony!
If you are familiar with nature exploration and have a good physical condition, you can manage to hike through the tropical vegetation on the mountain slopes immediately behind the apartment buildings. Do this at your own risk, always wearing a good amount of drinking water! The hike is of moderate difficulty and you can find several hiking routes, available at local ecological tourism providers. There are plenty of things to see in the mountains, with perfect view of the bay.
The tree species commonly found in the nearby low altitude selva include:
- cohune palm Attalea cohune (Arecaceae),
- turpentine tree Bursera aff. simaruba (Burseraceae),
- copal Bursera excelsa (Burseraceae),
- Cascabela ovata (Apocynaceae),
- snakewood tree Cecropia obtusifolia (Urticaceae),
- Cnidoscolus tepiquensis (Euphorbiaceae),
- courbaril Hymenaea courbaril (Fabaceae),
- plumeria Plumeria rubra (Apocynaceae).
- many Fabaceae from Mimosoideae and Caesalpinioideae
Higher in the mountains (starting at 300 m above the sea level) you can find tropical oaks, like Quercus elliptica, Q. aristata (Fagaceae).
Some other tree species can be observed directly close to the beach, among them:
- mangeneel toxic apple tree Hippomane mancinella (Euphorbiaceae)
- Jatropha standleyi (Euphorbiaceae)
- button mangrove Conocarpus erecta (Combretaceae)
Find photos of some plant species in my observations list (external link).