The Sea of Cortez
There was a pleasant breeze this morning as we sailed south towards Isla Espiritu Santo through the San Jose Channel. The wind was behind our ship and the clouds had finally cleared the sky letting us witness the sunrise before breakfast. We turned a little into the choppy seas to enter our destination for the morning, a bay with turquoise waters and contrasting red walls of volcanic ash with formidable shapes: Ensenada Grande bay in the West side of Partida Island, demarcating the Bay of La Paz. This island is one of the largest in the group of islands in the southern part of the Gulf of California. It is home of a great diversity of plants and with this year’s relatively high rainfall, the landscape looks unusually green. We hiked amongst the cardon, the chollas, prickly pears and other spiny relatives like this hedgehog cactus. Thorns and spines take the place of leaves in these desert plants to avoid evaporation of the precious and scarce water resource. Their stems are green and succulent to accumulate as much water as they can during the short rainy season. Other plants have other mechanisms to adapt to water scarcity. The Palo Adan only puts on leaves following rainfall, and many other plants have reduced leaf size.
After an hour or so we reached the top of the hill, some 1500ft above sea level. From there we could see the Gulf of California on the East side of the island. Awesome view!
In the afternoon we sailed against the wind to reach Los Islotes, the southernmost rookery for the California Sea Lion, where we had a close look from our ship and enjoyed watching them stretching, swimming and playing. These rocks are also home to brown boobies, blue-footed boobies, and magnificent frigate birds.
We concluded our last day on the Sea of Cortez with a walk on the beach at Puerto Ballenas on Isla Espiritu Santo and a wonderful dinner hosted by our Captain. The Sea Bird docked in La Paz to allow people a chance to walk around town, after which we went to rest thinking of adventures that await us tomorrow on our way to the Copper Canyon.
There was a pleasant breeze this morning as we sailed south towards Isla Espiritu Santo through the San Jose Channel. The wind was behind our ship and the clouds had finally cleared the sky letting us witness the sunrise before breakfast. We turned a little into the choppy seas to enter our destination for the morning, a bay with turquoise waters and contrasting red walls of volcanic ash with formidable shapes: Ensenada Grande bay in the West side of Partida Island, demarcating the Bay of La Paz. This island is one of the largest in the group of islands in the southern part of the Gulf of California. It is home of a great diversity of plants and with this year’s relatively high rainfall, the landscape looks unusually green. We hiked amongst the cardon, the chollas, prickly pears and other spiny relatives like this hedgehog cactus. Thorns and spines take the place of leaves in these desert plants to avoid evaporation of the precious and scarce water resource. Their stems are green and succulent to accumulate as much water as they can during the short rainy season. Other plants have other mechanisms to adapt to water scarcity. The Palo Adan only puts on leaves following rainfall, and many other plants have reduced leaf size.
After an hour or so we reached the top of the hill, some 1500ft above sea level. From there we could see the Gulf of California on the East side of the island. Awesome view!
In the afternoon we sailed against the wind to reach Los Islotes, the southernmost rookery for the California Sea Lion, where we had a close look from our ship and enjoyed watching them stretching, swimming and playing. These rocks are also home to brown boobies, blue-footed boobies, and magnificent frigate birds.
We concluded our last day on the Sea of Cortez with a walk on the beach at Puerto Ballenas on Isla Espiritu Santo and a wonderful dinner hosted by our Captain. The Sea Bird docked in La Paz to allow people a chance to walk around town, after which we went to rest thinking of adventures that await us tomorrow on our way to the Copper Canyon.
