Isla Santa Catalina
This morning, in route to Santa Catalina Island, we awoke to partially cloudy skies with a high comfortable temperature, wonderful weather to frame our navigation through the Gulf of California. Santa Catalina is regarded as one of the most beautiful and interesting islands in the gulf, not only because of its geology, remoteness and isolation, but also because of the particularities of some of its inhabitants. For example, the cardon and the barrel cacti reach gigantic proportions there. Also, the only species of rattlesnake present on the island, which is endemic, has the particularity of having lost its rattle, possibly as a consequence of a genetic bottleneck. As an ecological bonus, the vegetation is almost always lush and green.
Under these fascinating geologic and biotic circumstances, we started our morning activities. They included hikes on the arroyos, snorkeling and diving on the rocky shore areas. While hiking we were fortunate to encountered four “rattle-less” rattlesnakes, one chuckwalla, several spiny and side-blotched lizards and many desert iguanas, all endemic species to the island. Of the land birds, our guests and Naturalists observed white-winged doves, loggerhead shrikes, Gila woodpeckers, ash-throated flycatchers, black-throated sparrows and northern cardinals, among others. The diving and snorkeling was also delightful as a wide variety of marine creatures were seen, especially garden eels.
After a late lunch, we repositioned to explore the waters of the Loreto National Marine Park. The profile of the La Giganta mountain range was spectacular. To finish our day a slide show about island formation and classification was shown, and an overview of the biotic diversity of the islands in the Gulf of California and their importance was presented by one of our Naturalists.
This morning, in route to Santa Catalina Island, we awoke to partially cloudy skies with a high comfortable temperature, wonderful weather to frame our navigation through the Gulf of California. Santa Catalina is regarded as one of the most beautiful and interesting islands in the gulf, not only because of its geology, remoteness and isolation, but also because of the particularities of some of its inhabitants. For example, the cardon and the barrel cacti reach gigantic proportions there. Also, the only species of rattlesnake present on the island, which is endemic, has the particularity of having lost its rattle, possibly as a consequence of a genetic bottleneck. As an ecological bonus, the vegetation is almost always lush and green.
Under these fascinating geologic and biotic circumstances, we started our morning activities. They included hikes on the arroyos, snorkeling and diving on the rocky shore areas. While hiking we were fortunate to encountered four “rattle-less” rattlesnakes, one chuckwalla, several spiny and side-blotched lizards and many desert iguanas, all endemic species to the island. Of the land birds, our guests and Naturalists observed white-winged doves, loggerhead shrikes, Gila woodpeckers, ash-throated flycatchers, black-throated sparrows and northern cardinals, among others. The diving and snorkeling was also delightful as a wide variety of marine creatures were seen, especially garden eels.
After a late lunch, we repositioned to explore the waters of the Loreto National Marine Park. The profile of the La Giganta mountain range was spectacular. To finish our day a slide show about island formation and classification was shown, and an overview of the biotic diversity of the islands in the Gulf of California and their importance was presented by one of our Naturalists.
