Isla del Carmen & Isla Santa Catalina
What tickles your sense of wonder, invigorates your inner child and leaves you helpless in a puddle of awe? If it is the unexpected, combined with a whiff of breathtaking and mixed up with a touch of fantastic then we reached a zenith of wonderment today. With hopeful thoughts, freshly scrubbed karma and devote incantations to the deities in charge of the great cetaceans, we searched for whales on this, our first morning in the Gulf of California. Prodigious is the best word to summarize the numbers resulting from our morning marine mammal search.
Like an illuminated exclamation point on the horizon, the gigantic blow of a blue whale was sighted and then another, and more, then additional, in total we estimated 15 animals in the vicinity south of Isla del Carmen. We spent the better part of the morning, before and then after breakfast, connecting the whale dots, going from one blue whale to another, our favorites being the two that thrust their massive flukes out of the water and into the air before slipping away on their sounding dive.
Well-satiated with breakfast and blue whales, we moved on, to the pilot whales! You can’t help but smile at the mention of a whale that is also known as a “pot head.” This nickname is in reference to their bulbous-shaped melon of a head. As we scanned the surrounding waters, we could easily pick out smaller groups of animals all around us. Estimates for this sighting hovered around 30 to 40 animals in the immediate neighborhood. They took us on a convoluted path, as we followed them north, while intending to head south for Isla Santa Catalina. After awhile spent with these animals the decision was made to move on, and a divine inspiration that turned out to be, as it took us into the killer whales.
The first animals sighted were not quickly identified by those that know better, more information was needed, and with a little patience it came: in the shape of a five-foot triangle: the dorsal fin of a male killer whale broke through the calm waters and sealed this identification. In the immediate area there were also several females, possibly some immature males, and definitely the mature male with the largest dorsal fin of the group. As the animals swam parallel to the National Geographic Sea Bird we could clearly see their white eye spots against their sparkling black bodies. While scanning for more animals, we sighted a line of dolphins in the distance, apparently heading away from this group at a rapid, splashing speed. A smart move on their part.
Isla Santa Catalina filled and finished off our day of explorations. Towering cardon cactus stood as stately sentinels, arms reaching skyward, while the giant barrel cactus stood tall but un-armed in this forest of giants. Meandering around these botanical behemoths we searched for the endemic rattle-less rattlesnake. We found two, one alive, and one poor young snake that apparently was not as good a hunter as it needed to be to sustain its own life.
We hopped, skipped and jumped today from wonder to inspiration, pausing in amazement, and found ourselves landing knee-deep in awe of the riches of the Gulf of California.
What tickles your sense of wonder, invigorates your inner child and leaves you helpless in a puddle of awe? If it is the unexpected, combined with a whiff of breathtaking and mixed up with a touch of fantastic then we reached a zenith of wonderment today. With hopeful thoughts, freshly scrubbed karma and devote incantations to the deities in charge of the great cetaceans, we searched for whales on this, our first morning in the Gulf of California. Prodigious is the best word to summarize the numbers resulting from our morning marine mammal search.
Like an illuminated exclamation point on the horizon, the gigantic blow of a blue whale was sighted and then another, and more, then additional, in total we estimated 15 animals in the vicinity south of Isla del Carmen. We spent the better part of the morning, before and then after breakfast, connecting the whale dots, going from one blue whale to another, our favorites being the two that thrust their massive flukes out of the water and into the air before slipping away on their sounding dive.
Well-satiated with breakfast and blue whales, we moved on, to the pilot whales! You can’t help but smile at the mention of a whale that is also known as a “pot head.” This nickname is in reference to their bulbous-shaped melon of a head. As we scanned the surrounding waters, we could easily pick out smaller groups of animals all around us. Estimates for this sighting hovered around 30 to 40 animals in the immediate neighborhood. They took us on a convoluted path, as we followed them north, while intending to head south for Isla Santa Catalina. After awhile spent with these animals the decision was made to move on, and a divine inspiration that turned out to be, as it took us into the killer whales.
The first animals sighted were not quickly identified by those that know better, more information was needed, and with a little patience it came: in the shape of a five-foot triangle: the dorsal fin of a male killer whale broke through the calm waters and sealed this identification. In the immediate area there were also several females, possibly some immature males, and definitely the mature male with the largest dorsal fin of the group. As the animals swam parallel to the National Geographic Sea Bird we could clearly see their white eye spots against their sparkling black bodies. While scanning for more animals, we sighted a line of dolphins in the distance, apparently heading away from this group at a rapid, splashing speed. A smart move on their part.
Isla Santa Catalina filled and finished off our day of explorations. Towering cardon cactus stood as stately sentinels, arms reaching skyward, while the giant barrel cactus stood tall but un-armed in this forest of giants. Meandering around these botanical behemoths we searched for the endemic rattle-less rattlesnake. We found two, one alive, and one poor young snake that apparently was not as good a hunter as it needed to be to sustain its own life.
We hopped, skipped and jumped today from wonder to inspiration, pausing in amazement, and found ourselves landing knee-deep in awe of the riches of the Gulf of California.
