Isla San Pedro Martir
The first day of an adventure vacation could not have been more perfect nor more action-packed than the day we had today. Before the scheduled wake-up call, sperm whales were sighted from the bow. As the ship approached the sperm whales, bottlenose dolphins came in to ride on the bow's pressure wave. This species is one of the largest of all the dolphins, averaging approximately 450 pounds in the Sea of Cortez but achieving upwards of 1400 pounds in Britain. Suddenly, the sperm whales came into view. Their large, brown wrinkled bodies with ludicrously blunt heads and a distinctive blow that departs the cranium at a 45-degree angle were easy to see as the large carnivores lolled at the surface between feeding bouts. Groups of up to seven individuals relaxed and breathed deeply at the surface. The hydrophone, an underwater microphone, allowed us to listen to the communications of the animals hidden beneath the green sea. The pinging of the sperm whales provided the samba-like background beat for the buzzing clicks of the bottlenose dolphins. After the whales submerged, we busily trained our binoculars on a wide variety of avian fauna as phalaropes, Bonaparte's and Heerman's gulls winged past. Suddenly a shout rang out; not another whale, but something even more rarely seen in the Sea of Cortez: an albatross was sighted! Even most of the naturalists on board have never before seen this bird in this area, but its great wingspan and gliding posture were unmistakable as it flew by the ship twice. The bottlenose dolphins kept vying for our attention, repeatedly coming close to the ship. At times they leapt acrobatically out of the water, achieving a ten-foot levitation into thin air. The soundtrack from the bow could have accompanied that of a Fourth of July fireworks show as "ooohs" and "aahhhs" followed each leap. Then the large male sperm whale resurfaced after a bottom-time of 69 minutes and the birds and dolphins were forgotten. We had wonderful views of this gargantuan creature before it dove with a lovely display of its fluke not 100 yards from the bow. The sperm whales and dolphins disappeared temporarily, so we took the opportunity to have our snorkel briefing and abandon ship drills. Just as the lounge was set up for a riveting lecture on birds, the call came: sperm whales off the bow and closer than ever. The talk was summarily postponed as we raced to the bow again in time to see bottlenose dolphins playing around three sperm whales. The viewing episode this time ended with two gorgeous tandem flukes.
While we ate lunch and marveled at all that had happened so far in the busy morning, the ship anchored at Isla San Pedro Martir. This island appears, at first glance, a perfect home for the Abominable Snowman due to its white cliffs. However, on closer examination, we realized that the white was not glacier ice nor rock, but guano. This fact was confirmed by the prolific numbers of bobitos, tiny insects that crawl all over your skin but (happily for us) do not bite. Hundreds of years of thousands of birds using this island as a nesting site has resulted in this startling nitrogen-rich covering. Approximately 35,000 pairs of birds use this island as a safe haven for their nests of offspring. We toured around the entire island in our Zodiacs, exploring caves and peering into the watery depths. Some of us were lucky enough to view three Bryde's whales from the Zodiacs. Above our heads brown and blue footed boobies soared while red billed tropicbirds screamed and chattered, their long white tails streaming majestically behind them. Among the rocks posed numerous brown pelicans, which looked like bomber squadrons when they flew overhead in formation. Also reclining among the rocks, albeit more noisily than the pelicans, were numerous California sea lions. These marine mammals made their presence clear with barks, belching sounds, and growls. They porpoised next to the Zodiacs for close views of us and we were not quite sure who was watching whom. This feeling intensified when we put on our masks and snorkels to explore the depths. The sea lions whirled around us. Every time we turned around there was another one right behind us, critically examining our swimming style. Their big brown eyes laughed at our lack of aquatic grace and a number of them spurted bubbles in our direction. In addition to the antics of the sea lions, we gazed at numerous species of algae, gorgonian coral (including sea fans), beautiful Mexican dancers (sea slugs), darting king angelfish, Gulf opaleyes, greybar grunts and leopard groupers. A special treat were the numerous species of rays that lay motionless among the cobble on the bottom, including the bullseye electric ray (pictured above). At dinner, we were flabbergasted that only a day had gone by. Perusing the gift shop, our eyelids began to droop and we turned in to our beds eagerly anticipating another fun-filled day.
The first day of an adventure vacation could not have been more perfect nor more action-packed than the day we had today. Before the scheduled wake-up call, sperm whales were sighted from the bow. As the ship approached the sperm whales, bottlenose dolphins came in to ride on the bow's pressure wave. This species is one of the largest of all the dolphins, averaging approximately 450 pounds in the Sea of Cortez but achieving upwards of 1400 pounds in Britain. Suddenly, the sperm whales came into view. Their large, brown wrinkled bodies with ludicrously blunt heads and a distinctive blow that departs the cranium at a 45-degree angle were easy to see as the large carnivores lolled at the surface between feeding bouts. Groups of up to seven individuals relaxed and breathed deeply at the surface. The hydrophone, an underwater microphone, allowed us to listen to the communications of the animals hidden beneath the green sea. The pinging of the sperm whales provided the samba-like background beat for the buzzing clicks of the bottlenose dolphins. After the whales submerged, we busily trained our binoculars on a wide variety of avian fauna as phalaropes, Bonaparte's and Heerman's gulls winged past. Suddenly a shout rang out; not another whale, but something even more rarely seen in the Sea of Cortez: an albatross was sighted! Even most of the naturalists on board have never before seen this bird in this area, but its great wingspan and gliding posture were unmistakable as it flew by the ship twice. The bottlenose dolphins kept vying for our attention, repeatedly coming close to the ship. At times they leapt acrobatically out of the water, achieving a ten-foot levitation into thin air. The soundtrack from the bow could have accompanied that of a Fourth of July fireworks show as "ooohs" and "aahhhs" followed each leap. Then the large male sperm whale resurfaced after a bottom-time of 69 minutes and the birds and dolphins were forgotten. We had wonderful views of this gargantuan creature before it dove with a lovely display of its fluke not 100 yards from the bow. The sperm whales and dolphins disappeared temporarily, so we took the opportunity to have our snorkel briefing and abandon ship drills. Just as the lounge was set up for a riveting lecture on birds, the call came: sperm whales off the bow and closer than ever. The talk was summarily postponed as we raced to the bow again in time to see bottlenose dolphins playing around three sperm whales. The viewing episode this time ended with two gorgeous tandem flukes.
While we ate lunch and marveled at all that had happened so far in the busy morning, the ship anchored at Isla San Pedro Martir. This island appears, at first glance, a perfect home for the Abominable Snowman due to its white cliffs. However, on closer examination, we realized that the white was not glacier ice nor rock, but guano. This fact was confirmed by the prolific numbers of bobitos, tiny insects that crawl all over your skin but (happily for us) do not bite. Hundreds of years of thousands of birds using this island as a nesting site has resulted in this startling nitrogen-rich covering. Approximately 35,000 pairs of birds use this island as a safe haven for their nests of offspring. We toured around the entire island in our Zodiacs, exploring caves and peering into the watery depths. Some of us were lucky enough to view three Bryde's whales from the Zodiacs. Above our heads brown and blue footed boobies soared while red billed tropicbirds screamed and chattered, their long white tails streaming majestically behind them. Among the rocks posed numerous brown pelicans, which looked like bomber squadrons when they flew overhead in formation. Also reclining among the rocks, albeit more noisily than the pelicans, were numerous California sea lions. These marine mammals made their presence clear with barks, belching sounds, and growls. They porpoised next to the Zodiacs for close views of us and we were not quite sure who was watching whom. This feeling intensified when we put on our masks and snorkels to explore the depths. The sea lions whirled around us. Every time we turned around there was another one right behind us, critically examining our swimming style. Their big brown eyes laughed at our lack of aquatic grace and a number of them spurted bubbles in our direction. In addition to the antics of the sea lions, we gazed at numerous species of algae, gorgonian coral (including sea fans), beautiful Mexican dancers (sea slugs), darting king angelfish, Gulf opaleyes, greybar grunts and leopard groupers. A special treat were the numerous species of rays that lay motionless among the cobble on the bottom, including the bullseye electric ray (pictured above). At dinner, we were flabbergasted that only a day had gone by. Perusing the gift shop, our eyelids began to droop and we turned in to our beds eagerly anticipating another fun-filled day.
