Los Islotes & Isla San Francisco
The peculiar volcanic rock formations at Los Islotes began glowing with the warm tones of the early sunrise light and made for the perfect background as we slowly cruised around with our Zodiacs. Long before breakfast many memory cards were already being filled with great photos of the California sea lions that call this place home.
Located at the extreme north of the Espiritu Santo-complex Biosphere Reserve, Los Islotes is one of the southernmost California sea lion rookeries in the Gulf of California and a wonderful place to visit. About 200-300 sea lions can be found here year-round and they love human company, especially if the humans are wearing fins, masks and snorkels, as we all noticed a little while later. Snorkeling is the best way to fully admire the beauty, agility and grace of sea lions, as they swim all around us, capable of out-maneuvering any fish and even playing chicken with some!
Snorkeling also gave us the chance to watch many more of the inhabitants of this great place, including large schools of yellowtail surgeonfish, Pacific creole fish and yellow snappers. After a wonderful morning spent with the sea lions, the National Geographic Sea Bird sailed north but didn’t get very far before encountering a large group of very acrobatic bottlenose dolphins; many more memory cards later, we continued our journey and arrived at the very scenic San Francisco Island, were we divided into several groups to explore by foot or kayak.
Those adventurous photographers who made it to the top of the island were rewarded with spectacular views of the aptly-named Half Moon Bay; a delicious barbecue dinner ashore made the perfect end for another great day in Mexico’s Baja California.
