What a wonderful way to begin a voyage in the Gulf of California. Sunrise light with bottlenose dolphins leaping and sperm whales fluking. Our day begins as we cruise just south of the island of San Pedro Martir. The decks are lined with early risers enjoying the beauty of this setting and the excitement of seeing these wonderful marine mammals.
Surrounded by sperm whales and dolphins, Ralph’s talk, “Travel Photography in the Digital World: Camera Basics,” is delayed more than once, until we finally break away and head towards San Pedro Martir. On our way to this guano incrusted island, we are again sidetracked by a rare sighting of a Guadalupe fur seal. The Guadalupe fur seal was hunted almost to extinction, and was in fact thought to be extinct, before they were rediscovered in the 1940’s on Guadalupe Island in the Pacific Ocean, 200 miles off the Baja California peninsula. Today’s sighting was only the fourth known sighting ever in the Gulf of California. Our Undersea Specialist, Carlos Navarro, conducted the last population survey on Guadalupe Island in 2000, reflecting the population’s recovery to 9,827 individual animals.
Just before lunch, we passed closely to the coastline of San Pedro Martir where blue-footed and brown boobies, along with tropicbirds and pelicans, dotted the sky. We set sail for Isla San Esteban until we were sidetracked by 2or 3 (less than cooperative) fin whales.
We continued on our way to San Esteban, with safety drills and a bit of open sea ahead of us. To prepare us for our first landing, Linda Burback gave us a great introduction to strategies for survival with her talk, “Desert Plant Adaptations.”
Arriving by Zodiac at San Esteban, we walked a careful path along the shoreline to avoid disturbing the nesting yellow-footed gulls. We walked inland in search of the endemic reptiles. We quickly found the San Esteban Island chuckwalla lizard posing beneath a cholla cactus. The long hikers were rewarded with a somewhat unusual view of a chuckwalla and the San Esteban spiny-tailed iguana side-by-side. The last of the hikers returned to the ship at 7 pm. What a terrific day.
Surrounded by sperm whales and dolphins, Ralph’s talk, “Travel Photography in the Digital World: Camera Basics,” is delayed more than once, until we finally break away and head towards San Pedro Martir. On our way to this guano incrusted island, we are again sidetracked by a rare sighting of a Guadalupe fur seal. The Guadalupe fur seal was hunted almost to extinction, and was in fact thought to be extinct, before they were rediscovered in the 1940’s on Guadalupe Island in the Pacific Ocean, 200 miles off the Baja California peninsula. Today’s sighting was only the fourth known sighting ever in the Gulf of California. Our Undersea Specialist, Carlos Navarro, conducted the last population survey on Guadalupe Island in 2000, reflecting the population’s recovery to 9,827 individual animals.
Just before lunch, we passed closely to the coastline of San Pedro Martir where blue-footed and brown boobies, along with tropicbirds and pelicans, dotted the sky. We set sail for Isla San Esteban until we were sidetracked by 2or 3 (less than cooperative) fin whales.
We continued on our way to San Esteban, with safety drills and a bit of open sea ahead of us. To prepare us for our first landing, Linda Burback gave us a great introduction to strategies for survival with her talk, “Desert Plant Adaptations.”
Arriving by Zodiac at San Esteban, we walked a careful path along the shoreline to avoid disturbing the nesting yellow-footed gulls. We walked inland in search of the endemic reptiles. We quickly found the San Esteban Island chuckwalla lizard posing beneath a cholla cactus. The long hikers were rewarded with a somewhat unusual view of a chuckwalla and the San Esteban spiny-tailed iguana side-by-side. The last of the hikers returned to the ship at 7 pm. What a terrific day.
