Los Islotes & Espiritu Santo
An indigo flash before sunrise marked the beginning of a wonderful day. Soon after sunrise, a line of splashes on the horizon became more and more visible as we moved closer. It started to look like pop corn in the distance, and soon we found the cause of such splashing: a group of long beaked common dolphins! The National Geographic Sea Bird slowed speed as the dolphins did, and we entered a rhythmic traveling along together. Some of them caught our wake gliding seemingly effortless through it, while the rest of the group swam and leaped out of the water. We could see them all along the starboard side for yards off the ship, some together with their young ones as they surfaced to breath. There were hundreds of them! As the National Geographic Sea Bird re-routed herself towards our morning destination and picked up speed, we saw them speed up too, but in the opposite direction, probably towards a large feeding ground.
After anchorage at Los Islotes, we embarked in our Zodiacs for a cruise around the islets and the southernmost breeding rockery for the California sea lion. We had the opportunity to observe adult males resting on the rocks, juveniles and females alert to our movements, and several groups of pups, born last summer, that playfully followed our Zodiacs. We also could observe and take photographs of the several seabirds that roost in these islets. Groups of brown and blue-footed bobbies, brown pelicans, Brant cormorants, a blue heron and, soaring above our heads, a magnificent frigatebird!
We went back to our ship to get our wetsuits on and then back to the Zodiacs we went. The snorkeling boat was anchored in the midst of playful young sea lions. We plunged in to find a deep floor of sardines below us that blocked our view to the bottom, but not to the playful sea lions that came to us nevertheless. What a joyful time we had! After a delicious lunch of pozole, we prepared for kayaking along the white sandy beach of Bahia Bonanza at the southeast tip of Espiritu Santo Island. Some of us preferred to hike in the desert and others took a leisurely stroll on the beautiful beach. We all gathered together afterwards for a beach BBQ amazingly assembled by the kitchen crew.
During the bonfire, Adrian told us a story of how the Aztec moon and sun were created To top off his talk and a wonderful day, a full moon climbed over the hills of the bay, as if telling us it’s time to go to rest for more adventures tomorrow. Goodnight moon!
An indigo flash before sunrise marked the beginning of a wonderful day. Soon after sunrise, a line of splashes on the horizon became more and more visible as we moved closer. It started to look like pop corn in the distance, and soon we found the cause of such splashing: a group of long beaked common dolphins! The National Geographic Sea Bird slowed speed as the dolphins did, and we entered a rhythmic traveling along together. Some of them caught our wake gliding seemingly effortless through it, while the rest of the group swam and leaped out of the water. We could see them all along the starboard side for yards off the ship, some together with their young ones as they surfaced to breath. There were hundreds of them! As the National Geographic Sea Bird re-routed herself towards our morning destination and picked up speed, we saw them speed up too, but in the opposite direction, probably towards a large feeding ground.
After anchorage at Los Islotes, we embarked in our Zodiacs for a cruise around the islets and the southernmost breeding rockery for the California sea lion. We had the opportunity to observe adult males resting on the rocks, juveniles and females alert to our movements, and several groups of pups, born last summer, that playfully followed our Zodiacs. We also could observe and take photographs of the several seabirds that roost in these islets. Groups of brown and blue-footed bobbies, brown pelicans, Brant cormorants, a blue heron and, soaring above our heads, a magnificent frigatebird!
We went back to our ship to get our wetsuits on and then back to the Zodiacs we went. The snorkeling boat was anchored in the midst of playful young sea lions. We plunged in to find a deep floor of sardines below us that blocked our view to the bottom, but not to the playful sea lions that came to us nevertheless. What a joyful time we had! After a delicious lunch of pozole, we prepared for kayaking along the white sandy beach of Bahia Bonanza at the southeast tip of Espiritu Santo Island. Some of us preferred to hike in the desert and others took a leisurely stroll on the beautiful beach. We all gathered together afterwards for a beach BBQ amazingly assembled by the kitchen crew.
During the bonfire, Adrian told us a story of how the Aztec moon and sun were created To top off his talk and a wonderful day, a full moon climbed over the hills of the bay, as if telling us it’s time to go to rest for more adventures tomorrow. Goodnight moon!
