Isla Del Carmen, Baja California Sur, Mexico
We started our busy day at Puerto Ballandra, off the northwest corner of this marvelous island, Isla del Carmen. A large group of hikers started their walk across this tip of the island to the old saltworks, where the rest of us would be waiting and making another shorter hike to the salt pan that made this island famous since the 1700’s. A very tall cardon was seen, which attracted a great amount of attention. There is a salt lake connected to the ocean where the finest salt of the world was collected. It floats on the surface of the small lake and was extremely easy and cheap to collect. The Jesuit missionaries began selling this salt on the Mexican mainland, and with the proceeds purchased mortar to make the first mission in the Californias: The Mission of Loreto. During the last years of its functioning, the salt works produced 45,000 tons of the best salt a year. But the island is now a reserve for bighorn sheep, very scarce on the adjacent mainland.
But the most valuable time of the day was that used observing a series of marine mammals to be found only in the books, or in Baja California! A big group of common dolphins, a small pod of bottlenose dolphins, a huge fin whale and her calf allowed us to follow them for a while. Then a Bryde’s whale, which didn’t! In the same general area we eventually found a huge blue whale, and to top everything off, a big pod of pilot whales, also called potheads. These moved in a single general direction slowly, giving us the opportunity of following them and obtaining good photos. The sunset was just fabulous, as almost all Baja California sunsets!
We started our busy day at Puerto Ballandra, off the northwest corner of this marvelous island, Isla del Carmen. A large group of hikers started their walk across this tip of the island to the old saltworks, where the rest of us would be waiting and making another shorter hike to the salt pan that made this island famous since the 1700’s. A very tall cardon was seen, which attracted a great amount of attention. There is a salt lake connected to the ocean where the finest salt of the world was collected. It floats on the surface of the small lake and was extremely easy and cheap to collect. The Jesuit missionaries began selling this salt on the Mexican mainland, and with the proceeds purchased mortar to make the first mission in the Californias: The Mission of Loreto. During the last years of its functioning, the salt works produced 45,000 tons of the best salt a year. But the island is now a reserve for bighorn sheep, very scarce on the adjacent mainland.
But the most valuable time of the day was that used observing a series of marine mammals to be found only in the books, or in Baja California! A big group of common dolphins, a small pod of bottlenose dolphins, a huge fin whale and her calf allowed us to follow them for a while. Then a Bryde’s whale, which didn’t! In the same general area we eventually found a huge blue whale, and to top everything off, a big pod of pilot whales, also called potheads. These moved in a single general direction slowly, giving us the opportunity of following them and obtaining good photos. The sunset was just fabulous, as almost all Baja California sunsets!
