Magdalena Bay
Birds, birds, birds! White ibis, green heron, yellow-crowned night heron, reddish egret, snowy egret, marbled godwit, long-billed curlew, brant, bald eagle, three species of cormorant, three species of gull – you get the picture. From the time we got up this morning until dark it was a non-stop parade of birds as we cruised into La Entrada (as the entrance to Magdalena Bay is appropriately called) and sailed northward into the heart of the bay’s tranquil waters. Magdalena Bay is protected from the open Pacific by Isla Magdalena, a 60-mile-long barrier island with miles of dunes of the finest sand along its narrow midsection. After all those birds, how could we resist taking a break ashore to kick off our sandals, squiggle our toes in the marvelously fine sand, and cross to the Pacific side and Sand Dollar Beach, where the sand dollars are the biggest any of us have ever seen? For the botanists among us, it was a treat to see the beautiful purple flower clusters of the sand verbena, the yellow-flowered evening primrose, and the island’s endemic subspecies of Magdalena loco-weed. Those more historically inclined saw that this part of the island is also an enormous archaeological site consisting of countless billions of shells that the Guaycura Indians and their prehistoric predecessors gathered from the intertidal zone and left as a legacy of their clambakes. Today, the shifting dunes play hide-and-seek with these remains, alternately exposing and burying the shells and stone tools. And most of us, being kids at heart, couldn’t resist setting off sand avalanches on the steep leeward dune faces (some of them 15 feet high), watching as the sand flowed like a strange slow liquid, and knowing that the swirling sea breezes will have erased all traces of our “experiments” with fluid dynamics by sunrise tomorrow.
Back on board by lunchtime, we found that the galley staff had prepared a delicious barbeque on the sundeck, complete with build-your-own sundaes made with home-made ice cream from our favorite La Paz ice cream shop -- dessert to die for!
After lunch Alejandro, our pilot from the town of San Carlos, came on board to guide our ship up the twisting channel of the Hull Canal, known locally as Canal de Soledad. Soon we weighed anchor and slipped into the channel, headed for the far northern reaches of Magdalena Bay. As we worked our way northward the mangrove-lined banks of the bay seemed to close in around us, and we began to pass by a maze of side channels, estuaries, and mud flats exposed by the low tide – strangely reminiscent of the Humphrey Bogart classic film “The African Queen”. But it was a bonanza for those with binoculars who sighted even more birds. By the time darkness fell, the count was at least 35 different species, plus six coyotes for good measure. A great day, and tomorrow we will be “Among the Great Whales”!
Birds, birds, birds! White ibis, green heron, yellow-crowned night heron, reddish egret, snowy egret, marbled godwit, long-billed curlew, brant, bald eagle, three species of cormorant, three species of gull – you get the picture. From the time we got up this morning until dark it was a non-stop parade of birds as we cruised into La Entrada (as the entrance to Magdalena Bay is appropriately called) and sailed northward into the heart of the bay’s tranquil waters. Magdalena Bay is protected from the open Pacific by Isla Magdalena, a 60-mile-long barrier island with miles of dunes of the finest sand along its narrow midsection. After all those birds, how could we resist taking a break ashore to kick off our sandals, squiggle our toes in the marvelously fine sand, and cross to the Pacific side and Sand Dollar Beach, where the sand dollars are the biggest any of us have ever seen? For the botanists among us, it was a treat to see the beautiful purple flower clusters of the sand verbena, the yellow-flowered evening primrose, and the island’s endemic subspecies of Magdalena loco-weed. Those more historically inclined saw that this part of the island is also an enormous archaeological site consisting of countless billions of shells that the Guaycura Indians and their prehistoric predecessors gathered from the intertidal zone and left as a legacy of their clambakes. Today, the shifting dunes play hide-and-seek with these remains, alternately exposing and burying the shells and stone tools. And most of us, being kids at heart, couldn’t resist setting off sand avalanches on the steep leeward dune faces (some of them 15 feet high), watching as the sand flowed like a strange slow liquid, and knowing that the swirling sea breezes will have erased all traces of our “experiments” with fluid dynamics by sunrise tomorrow.
Back on board by lunchtime, we found that the galley staff had prepared a delicious barbeque on the sundeck, complete with build-your-own sundaes made with home-made ice cream from our favorite La Paz ice cream shop -- dessert to die for!
After lunch Alejandro, our pilot from the town of San Carlos, came on board to guide our ship up the twisting channel of the Hull Canal, known locally as Canal de Soledad. Soon we weighed anchor and slipped into the channel, headed for the far northern reaches of Magdalena Bay. As we worked our way northward the mangrove-lined banks of the bay seemed to close in around us, and we began to pass by a maze of side channels, estuaries, and mud flats exposed by the low tide – strangely reminiscent of the Humphrey Bogart classic film “The African Queen”. But it was a bonanza for those with binoculars who sighted even more birds. By the time darkness fell, the count was at least 35 different species, plus six coyotes for good measure. A great day, and tomorrow we will be “Among the Great Whales”!
