Bonanza Bay & Los Islotes

A southwest wind picked up in the evening and rocked us gently as we made our way south. The islands of Espiritu Santo developed a golden hue as morning light lit their cliff faces. A group of small rays jumped a few feet out of the water as we passed on to Bonanza Bay for our morning activities. Finding the endemic black jackrabbit was in the back of everyone’s minds. People in almost every hiking group saw one, but the great speed they quickly attain didn’t offer time to contemplate the nuances of the black color. A few people walked the light tan beach that forms a beautiful mile-long crescent; others made their way across the flat vegetated playa and up a ridge for views or explored a pretty arroyo. Birds were plentiful, including many ash-throated flycatchers, black-throated sparrows, mockingbirds and blue-gray gnatcatchers. There were more shells on the playa than on the beach, because an older sea floor rose slowly upwards and became the playa the jackrabbits sat upon.

A desert iguana also used the playa to race quickly across. This beautiful 16-inch specimen in today’s photograph is so well adapted to the heat, that on a 110-degree day these reptiles can be found sunning themselves on black rocks. They crawl into burrows at night and seal themselves in for protection from predators.

After lunch our ship anchored just off the reddish rocks of Los Islotes. This is the site of a California sea lion breeding colony. During the winter the sea lions use the island for resting between foraging trips. Sea lions lie about like driftwood on a beach. Thigmotaxis is a term for seeking out body contact with others. They seem to revel in the concept. Bodies were draped upon bodies; flippers stuck out, lay upon and dangled from the heaps. Snorkelers were lucky enough to find a few juveniles in the water. They seemed to delight in showing how fast they could turn and roll and how swiftly they could accelerate.

We wish that this Baja experience could go on and on. There are so many islands yet to be explored, and so many more species of whales and dolphins yet to see. Perhaps we will return on another day and start where we left off.