Isla Angel de la Guarda, Baja California
Last night we departed the small mining town of Santa Rosalia into one of the most spectacular lightning storms one could imagine, our view undisturbed by the lights of civilization. Vertical spears of light mixed with horizontal sheets of electrical discharge that lit the sky in a most wonderful natural light show over the Gulf of California. Such infrequent events bring the vital fresh water that gives life to the desert.
During the night we pushed north toward the Midriff Islands in the Central Gulf of California. Our morning marine mammal moment was an unexpected encounter with two humpbacked whales, not commonly seen this far into the Gulf. We continued up Sal Si Puedes Channel (“Get Out if you Can”; the name tells us something of the minds of the Spanish explorers).
The treat of the afternoon was a Zodiac cruise around Puerto Refugio, a natural harbor at the north end of Isla Angel de la Guarda (“Guardian Angel”). Here, on small, offshore Isla la Granita, we found California sea lions sharing the rocks in peaceful coexistence with brown pelicans and Heerman’s gulls. These dark, handsome gulls, the bills of the adults a deep lipstick-red, are endemic to (they breed only on…) a few islands of the Gulf of California, so the health of the Gulf is critical to the success of the species.
Last night we departed the small mining town of Santa Rosalia into one of the most spectacular lightning storms one could imagine, our view undisturbed by the lights of civilization. Vertical spears of light mixed with horizontal sheets of electrical discharge that lit the sky in a most wonderful natural light show over the Gulf of California. Such infrequent events bring the vital fresh water that gives life to the desert.
During the night we pushed north toward the Midriff Islands in the Central Gulf of California. Our morning marine mammal moment was an unexpected encounter with two humpbacked whales, not commonly seen this far into the Gulf. We continued up Sal Si Puedes Channel (“Get Out if you Can”; the name tells us something of the minds of the Spanish explorers).
The treat of the afternoon was a Zodiac cruise around Puerto Refugio, a natural harbor at the north end of Isla Angel de la Guarda (“Guardian Angel”). Here, on small, offshore Isla la Granita, we found California sea lions sharing the rocks in peaceful coexistence with brown pelicans and Heerman’s gulls. These dark, handsome gulls, the bills of the adults a deep lipstick-red, are endemic to (they breed only on…) a few islands of the Gulf of California, so the health of the Gulf is critical to the success of the species.
