Isla Carmen Con Increibles Delfines
As I would say in Spanish…. SANTA CACHUCHA! What a wonderful day!
Our day started cruising around one of the larger islands in the Gulf of California; Isla Carmen.Ralph Hopkins, our Expedition Leader woke us up before 7am announcing that bottlenose dolphins were bow riding the ship, which is always a nice thing to see.
For our morning activities we went ashore to one of the most dramatic and beautiful ‘arroyos” or washes in the region: “Arroyo Rojo,” named for the red volcanic rocks composed of explosively created layers that date to a time before the Baja California Peninsula split from mainland Mexico. Incredibly lush, there we found “pega-pega” with its stunning orange flowers that attracted us all, tall and healthy palo blancos, palo verdes and ironwood trees acted as nurse trees for baby cardons and young old men cactus. Many of us stopped to get close up photos of the pretty blossoms of the prickly pear cactus or “nopal” as shown in the photo above.
After a rejuvenating siesta, we were visited by a super-pod of common dolphins; I have to say that this is definitely one of my own favorite highlights of being in Baja California. These are animals that make everyone’s spirits and hearts smile; they transmit happiness and a sense of freedom that is not compared to anything else. The second photo shows a very cute baby dolphin swimming right next to its mom. We were all surprised and delighted to find among these hundreds of dolphins many newborns. It is incredible to believe that we spent over two hours watching them, at some moments we could tell that their main interest was feeding, they were herding schooling fish forcing them to make a tight bait ball, from there the dolphins would take turns swimming through the ball to catch individual fish. It was a bad place to be a fish, with the dolphins feeding from below and brown boobies, blue-footed boobies, pelicans, gulls, frigates and terns feeding from above, as we call it in Mexico truly a “Bochinche” or “Feeding Frenzy”.
When we thought the excitement was over, we were lucky to find a new species for us; a couple of Bryde’s whales, which are known to be quite elusive and like the book says they were elusive, but at least we got a few good looks at them.
And if that hadn’t been enough, right after dinner a few of us had a quick glimpse of bioluminescent dolphins at the bow. Everyone however had the opportunity to experience the beautiful neon-green “fire works” made by fish swimming away from us, and the constant glow surrounding the ship.
For sure a day to remember….
