Isla San Esteban and Whales in the Golden Light
Splayed out across the rocky landscape of Isla San Esteban the seekers of dawns golden light contorted themselves in an amazing array of postures as they approached cacti, stunted trees, silhouetted gulls and each other to capture the essence of the desert in pixels or on film. The perfect image may be in front of you, possibly behind you or beside your left foot. For a full three hours before breakfast, the “uncivilized” among us did our best to capture these shapes, shadows and textures for our own private cache of posterity. In the image we share with you today, framed between cardon cacti and tripods, is one of the intrepid “uncivilized” photographers.
After breakfast, the civilized joined us as well and we meandered through the spine and thorn tipped botany looking for elusive chuckwalla’s and hopefully, blossom hungry iguanas. The chuckwalla’s earned their adjective of “elusive” but the spiny-tailed iguana’s appetites overcame their shyness and we were rewarded with blossom-munching diners silhouetted atop the cardon cacti.
Our afternoon navigation to San Pedro Martir was festooned with a feathered swirling confetti of red-billed tropic birds, boobies, pelicans and gulls. We were drawn away ultimately from the odorous islet by the sighting of blows on the near horizon. These turned out to be sperm whales, by the dozens! We drew an oceanic connect the dots picture in a broken arc south of San Pedro Martir. As one group of whales would sound, we would simply move on to the others, three more on our portside, five more to starboard, a pair just ahead, should we bother with “just a single whale?”
These were just a few of our highlights for the day, and as you may have read through the week’s reports, there have been many, many, more. The following are some inspired reflections from one of our younger travelers who shared in our explorations, adventures and discoveries this week. The magic of Baja California has captured yet another heart.
Whale
Huge, Graceful
Swimming, Fluking, Diving
Tail, Blowhole, Fin, Water
Breeching, Splashing, Falling
Massive, Magical
Mammal
-Olivia McGiff, age 12
Gallant birds fending off predators from their nests
Rays of sun shining on the water
Acrobatic dolphins flipping in the air
Catching whales fluking
Eating up the brilliance of the landscape
Fin whales blowing in the sun
Using binoculars to discover
Landing on a cobblestone beach
-Olivia McGiff, age 12
Splayed out across the rocky landscape of Isla San Esteban the seekers of dawns golden light contorted themselves in an amazing array of postures as they approached cacti, stunted trees, silhouetted gulls and each other to capture the essence of the desert in pixels or on film. The perfect image may be in front of you, possibly behind you or beside your left foot. For a full three hours before breakfast, the “uncivilized” among us did our best to capture these shapes, shadows and textures for our own private cache of posterity. In the image we share with you today, framed between cardon cacti and tripods, is one of the intrepid “uncivilized” photographers.
After breakfast, the civilized joined us as well and we meandered through the spine and thorn tipped botany looking for elusive chuckwalla’s and hopefully, blossom hungry iguanas. The chuckwalla’s earned their adjective of “elusive” but the spiny-tailed iguana’s appetites overcame their shyness and we were rewarded with blossom-munching diners silhouetted atop the cardon cacti.
Our afternoon navigation to San Pedro Martir was festooned with a feathered swirling confetti of red-billed tropic birds, boobies, pelicans and gulls. We were drawn away ultimately from the odorous islet by the sighting of blows on the near horizon. These turned out to be sperm whales, by the dozens! We drew an oceanic connect the dots picture in a broken arc south of San Pedro Martir. As one group of whales would sound, we would simply move on to the others, three more on our portside, five more to starboard, a pair just ahead, should we bother with “just a single whale?”
These were just a few of our highlights for the day, and as you may have read through the week’s reports, there have been many, many, more. The following are some inspired reflections from one of our younger travelers who shared in our explorations, adventures and discoveries this week. The magic of Baja California has captured yet another heart.
Whale
Huge, Graceful
Swimming, Fluking, Diving
Tail, Blowhole, Fin, Water
Breeching, Splashing, Falling
Massive, Magical
Mammal
-Olivia McGiff, age 12
Gallant birds fending off predators from their nests
Rays of sun shining on the water
Acrobatic dolphins flipping in the air
Catching whales fluking
Eating up the brilliance of the landscape
Fin whales blowing in the sun
Using binoculars to discover
Landing on a cobblestone beach
-Olivia McGiff, age 12
