Morning found us at anchor in the lee of Isla Carmen. We had attempted to get north during the night but turned back as a strong northwesterly swept up the seas. Miraculously, the landing at Arroyo Rojo was smooth enough for us to go ashore and after breakfast we embarked the Zodiacs.
Carved by the power of flash floods, Arroyo Rojo winds through sculpted red rock walls. It is lush with classic Sonoran desert vegetation, including numerous cacti and healthy stands of ironwood. Cardinals, verdins, and black-throated sparrows accompanied us with their songs and many of the cacti were in bloom. We stopped to photograph buttery-yellow beavertail blossoms, a garland of blooms crowning a mammilaria (upper photo) and even an organ pipe cactus getting a head start on forming this year’s delectable pitaya dulce fruit.
We returned to the ship in time for lunch and shortly afterward, a pod of long-beaked common dolphins was spotted (lower photo). We cruised toward them and suddenly they turned toward us. We stood at the bow as they came in to ride the bow wave and sometimes jumped up into the air right beneath us. There were several hundred animals in the water and often, long lines of them leaped into the air as they breathed. They jumped and swam and slapped their tails with a contagious exuberance. This is Baja at its best.
Finally after a good look at the dolphins, we turned the ship toward Puerto Escondido and our afternoon’s destination of the town of Loreto. We rode a half hour to this small seaside town where we visited Baja’s oldest mission and its adjacent history museum. The entire town was a garden of bright bougainvillea and fragrant citrus blossoms. Trees trimmed into arches overhung the pedestrian walkway and framed our compositions of street scenes. The town was peaceful and pleasantly relaxed and we enjoyed peeking into the shops and stopping at the cantinas for refreshments. It was a leisurely way to complete our day of exploration of the many different faces of Baja.
