Punta Colorada
Today was a day of dawn and dusk.
By that I mean, it began with great fanfare, seemed to siesta in the middle, and then awoke as if from a dream just before dark.
Five forty five was our wakeup call. Glowing gray skies and oily black seas surrounded us as we got into the Zodiacs. Behind us, the Sea Lion’s starry portholes twinkled. Before us, Punta Colorada’s enormous sandstone cliffs yawned and stretched. These cliffs - the ancient floor of the Sea of Cortez, laden with fossilized whalebones dating over four million years - were mute and discolored in the near dark.
Insects danced on our eyelashes as we landed on the beach. Heavy with cameras, we separated around the tiny bay. Sleep-drugged and surprisingly slow the sun rose, dragging dark shadows off the landscape as if a thin blanket. Color flooded the cliffs like blood to pale skin, leaving the sandstone aglow in hues of orange and rose striped by human shadows.
We stayed at our anchorage throughout the heat of the day. Some hiked. Some kayaked. Others snoozed. Mid afternoon the ship moved along the Sierra de la Giganta, the evening cool bringing us all out on deck. The day was dying but the real show was just beginning.
Like white flags disintegrating in the wind, huge whale blows drew us closer to the folded hills. Binoculars gleamed and mouths dropped open. What were they? And how many? The answer lay in the tiniest of dorsal fins. We were in the presence of the world’s largest creature, the blue whale.
I again wished the water was transparent…and the naturalists’ commentary made it so.
Although we saw little more than a knobbed back, that tiny fin, or perhaps a fluke if lucky, their words guided me underwater. There, it’s bulk, beautifully buoyant despite being almost two hundred tons. There, its heart, is the pounding equivalent of a Volkswagen beetle. There, its dive, down to over four hundred feet. There, its tongue, as weighty as an elephant. And there, it’s feeding; fifty tons of water an easy mouthful.
Being in their presence made us whisper for no reason, and call out in unison. Caused us to run from railing to railing, and clap spontaneously when the day was finally done.
