Carmen and Santa Catalina Islands
There is an old Mexican saying that says that God helps the one who wakes up early, and it seemed to be particularly appropriate today. Those among us who watched the moon setting behind the magnificent Sierra de la Giganta before sunrise won’t forget it soon. They were still admiring the low, warm tones of the early morning light when a group of bottlenose dolphins decided to join us and acted as a reception committee to the waters off Carmen Island. After a while the Sea Bird continued cruising towards the island, but her course was altered after some disturbance was detected on the calm waters; we approached and identified the source of the strange squirting: Humboldt’s squid! Large shoals of squid feeding on small schooling fish in plain daylight. We kept going and arrived at Salinas Bay, where the abandoned salt works and town provided us with plenty of opportunities to practice photo composition. The beautiful sandy beach was the perfect place to launch the kayaks, swim or just enjoy being close to the water.
We reluctantly left Carmen Island and sailed straight towards Santa Catalina Island; well, straight in a sense, as we were deviated from our course by a large group of long-beaked common dolphins. Several hundred dolphins swimming leisurely around the ship in calm waters is every photographer’s dream, and we surely took advantage of the occasion! The sound of splashing dolphins was deafened by the clicking of our cameras, and I am sure that everyone on board got good pictures. After a while, we returned to our original course and continued sailing the open waters. We were able to see numerous creatures, like several tail-walking crocodile needlefishes, flying fish, and Mobula rays. We finally arrived to Santa Catalina Island where the warm tones of the late afternoon light and sunset set the perfect ambiance to get great photographs. As the sun slowly disappeared behind Elephant Rock, coloring the sky with red, I couldn’t help but remember another Mexican saying: life is better at sea!
There is an old Mexican saying that says that God helps the one who wakes up early, and it seemed to be particularly appropriate today. Those among us who watched the moon setting behind the magnificent Sierra de la Giganta before sunrise won’t forget it soon. They were still admiring the low, warm tones of the early morning light when a group of bottlenose dolphins decided to join us and acted as a reception committee to the waters off Carmen Island. After a while the Sea Bird continued cruising towards the island, but her course was altered after some disturbance was detected on the calm waters; we approached and identified the source of the strange squirting: Humboldt’s squid! Large shoals of squid feeding on small schooling fish in plain daylight. We kept going and arrived at Salinas Bay, where the abandoned salt works and town provided us with plenty of opportunities to practice photo composition. The beautiful sandy beach was the perfect place to launch the kayaks, swim or just enjoy being close to the water.
We reluctantly left Carmen Island and sailed straight towards Santa Catalina Island; well, straight in a sense, as we were deviated from our course by a large group of long-beaked common dolphins. Several hundred dolphins swimming leisurely around the ship in calm waters is every photographer’s dream, and we surely took advantage of the occasion! The sound of splashing dolphins was deafened by the clicking of our cameras, and I am sure that everyone on board got good pictures. After a while, we returned to our original course and continued sailing the open waters. We were able to see numerous creatures, like several tail-walking crocodile needlefishes, flying fish, and Mobula rays. We finally arrived to Santa Catalina Island where the warm tones of the late afternoon light and sunset set the perfect ambiance to get great photographs. As the sun slowly disappeared behind Elephant Rock, coloring the sky with red, I couldn’t help but remember another Mexican saying: life is better at sea!
