Sand Dollar Beach, Magdalena Island & Hull Canal, Magdalena Bay
The wind writes its name in many ways. On sea, it makes whitecaps, as it pushes the water into crests and troughs, rocking us into deep dreams on soft pillows. In the sky, it makes clouds. No shortage of those this morning, as we landed by Zodiacs on Magdalena Island, a short distance from where we had embarked the night before in San Carlos. And of course on land, the wind is most eloquent when it writes with sand, those fine remains of granitic rock that segregate themselves under the spinning Earth to build ripples and dunes; waves on land, crests and troughs of a different dialect.
Off came our tennis shoes and Tevas. On went our daypacks. West we faced to hike across a narrow neck of the island to San Dollar Beach; to admire flowering sand verbena and sea purslane, to skirt shell middens of scallops and moon snails, and as a final reward to climb tall dunes and see a vast crescent beach and rolling breakers from the open Pacific Ocean, all beneath clearing skies.
Here and there we found the bleached remains of sand dollars, pelicans, and common dolphins cradled in the sand, as if alive somehow; study subjects in a Georgia O’Keefe painting. Our naturalists told stories and offered explanations. Like ghost crabs, we came together and drifted apart, leaving tracks as our own writing, until the wind wrote over them. En route back to our landing, we ran and jumped off the dunes and reached for the clouds.
Afternoon found us on the Sea Lion headed north through narrow Hull Canal, with a local pilot guiding the way. Herons, egrets, cormorants, ibises, pelicans, terns and gulls were among the many birds that came into sharp focus. Some perched in nearby mangroves. Others flew right off our bow. By late afternoon, as we passed the little town of Lopez Mateos, gray whales came into view, their heart-shaped spouts catching warm low-angle light. The water grew calm. The night enfolded us. And the wind held its breath, letting us each write our own ending to a memorable first day off the Baja California Peninsula.
The wind writes its name in many ways. On sea, it makes whitecaps, as it pushes the water into crests and troughs, rocking us into deep dreams on soft pillows. In the sky, it makes clouds. No shortage of those this morning, as we landed by Zodiacs on Magdalena Island, a short distance from where we had embarked the night before in San Carlos. And of course on land, the wind is most eloquent when it writes with sand, those fine remains of granitic rock that segregate themselves under the spinning Earth to build ripples and dunes; waves on land, crests and troughs of a different dialect.
Off came our tennis shoes and Tevas. On went our daypacks. West we faced to hike across a narrow neck of the island to San Dollar Beach; to admire flowering sand verbena and sea purslane, to skirt shell middens of scallops and moon snails, and as a final reward to climb tall dunes and see a vast crescent beach and rolling breakers from the open Pacific Ocean, all beneath clearing skies.
Here and there we found the bleached remains of sand dollars, pelicans, and common dolphins cradled in the sand, as if alive somehow; study subjects in a Georgia O’Keefe painting. Our naturalists told stories and offered explanations. Like ghost crabs, we came together and drifted apart, leaving tracks as our own writing, until the wind wrote over them. En route back to our landing, we ran and jumped off the dunes and reached for the clouds.
Afternoon found us on the Sea Lion headed north through narrow Hull Canal, with a local pilot guiding the way. Herons, egrets, cormorants, ibises, pelicans, terns and gulls were among the many birds that came into sharp focus. Some perched in nearby mangroves. Others flew right off our bow. By late afternoon, as we passed the little town of Lopez Mateos, gray whales came into view, their heart-shaped spouts catching warm low-angle light. The water grew calm. The night enfolded us. And the wind held its breath, letting us each write our own ending to a memorable first day off the Baja California Peninsula.
