Our day was spent on Isla Santa Catalina, home of the rattleless Catalina rattlesnake and the giant barrel cactus. We saw plenty of the latter but (fortunately perhaps) none of the former. Our morning hike took us up an arroyo with a marvelous display of Baja California flora and fauna-coyote melons with long scrambling vines, finely leafed copal trees decorated with red mistletoe, huge cardon cactus with arms upraised stabbing at the cloudless blue sky, adult male northern cardinals in brilliant display, and black-throated sparrows in musical florescence. As we reached the arroyo's end we hiked across a level plateau and enjoyed a spectacular vista.
Pictured above is a giant barrel cactus on the island's eastern escarpment, with the white-capped waters of the gulf beyond. Soon we were back on our way down the arroyo, heading to our floating home-away-from-home, that happy little ship, the Sea Lion.
