Los Islotes and Isla Espiritu Santo, Baja California Sur
A glorious sunrise painted the sky and shimmered on the calm, swirling water north of Isla Partida. If that weren’t enough for a spectacular dawn, a humpback whale breached just off the bow, not just once, but twice in succession! We watched this individual surface and fluke several times before the ship motored on towards its nearby anchorage at Los Islotes, a rocky outcrop where California sea lions, blue-footed boobies, and Sally Lightfoot crabs are found. Sea lions are so flexible they seem to almost have no backbones. Limp bodies draped along the shoreline intermingled with others that jostled and quarreled over the best sunbathing spots as our Zodiacs cruised by.
The afternoon offered exploration of a different kind. Hikers wandered up an arroyo at Bonanza Bay in pursuit of the endemic black jackrabbit, found only on Isla Espiritu Santo and the adjacent Isla Partida. Some were rewarded for their efforts and saw two of these fleet-footed creatures. The desert was alive with lush greenery and flowers that had grown quickly in response to recent rains. Back on the sandy beach, kayakers slid into the aquamarine bay to see the landscape from another perspective.
While we were off on our adventures, the crew had set up a barbecue dinner ashore. A feast of ribs and salmon filled our tummies as the sun sank and dusk settled in. Venus and Jupiter appeared then were followed by Sirius and other stars that caught our attention during a talk by the naturalists after dark.
The sunrise had brightened our morning, and the sparkling bioluminescence of the sea illuminated our evening during our shuttle back to the Sea Bird. As John Steinbeck said in The Log from the Sea of Cortez, “The first rule of life is living,” and in today’s activities from dawn until dark, we had done just that.
A glorious sunrise painted the sky and shimmered on the calm, swirling water north of Isla Partida. If that weren’t enough for a spectacular dawn, a humpback whale breached just off the bow, not just once, but twice in succession! We watched this individual surface and fluke several times before the ship motored on towards its nearby anchorage at Los Islotes, a rocky outcrop where California sea lions, blue-footed boobies, and Sally Lightfoot crabs are found. Sea lions are so flexible they seem to almost have no backbones. Limp bodies draped along the shoreline intermingled with others that jostled and quarreled over the best sunbathing spots as our Zodiacs cruised by.
The afternoon offered exploration of a different kind. Hikers wandered up an arroyo at Bonanza Bay in pursuit of the endemic black jackrabbit, found only on Isla Espiritu Santo and the adjacent Isla Partida. Some were rewarded for their efforts and saw two of these fleet-footed creatures. The desert was alive with lush greenery and flowers that had grown quickly in response to recent rains. Back on the sandy beach, kayakers slid into the aquamarine bay to see the landscape from another perspective.
While we were off on our adventures, the crew had set up a barbecue dinner ashore. A feast of ribs and salmon filled our tummies as the sun sank and dusk settled in. Venus and Jupiter appeared then were followed by Sirius and other stars that caught our attention during a talk by the naturalists after dark.
The sunrise had brightened our morning, and the sparkling bioluminescence of the sea illuminated our evening during our shuttle back to the Sea Bird. As John Steinbeck said in The Log from the Sea of Cortez, “The first rule of life is living,” and in today’s activities from dawn until dark, we had done just that.
