Isla Angel de la Guarda and Bahia Alcatraz
Purple to red, red to orange and orange to yellow—the sun rose graciously over the eastern expanse of the Sea of Cortez as the Sea Voyager made her way northward along the east coast of Isla Angel de la Guarda. Shortly after breakfast, she was anchored in the protected bay called, appropriately, Puerto Refugio and we were whisked away in the Zodiacs to the nearby shore. Hundreds of just-fledged brown pelicans, blissfully ignorant of the fate of many of their dead cousins baking on the beach, lined the nearshore waters and formed a greeting party of sorts. It was already quite hot for our morning walk, but we intrepidly explored the beach and an inland wash in search for the desert’s secrets. On one of the brittle bushes, a female chuckwalla was basking in the morning sun when we “borrowed” her for a bit of show and tell. She is endemic to Isla de la Guarda and a few of the nearby islands and was mostly agreeable to our handling her. Chuckwalla’s on this island are completely vegetarian, store water in the fatty tissues in their large tails, grow up to 25 inches in length and may use as many as 35 different plant species in their diet. They have large flaps of skin on their body so that they can inflate themselves with air while in a rock crevice and then are very difficult to remove. Males of this species can become very territorial during the breeding season and females produce an average of 6 eggs with hatchlings emerging in late September. The younger members of our group were particularly interested in the soft texture of the belly of this gentle lizard as well as the spiny scales of its back and legs. The rest of the morning was taken up with water sports—swimming, kayaking and scuba diving—as well as wandering the beaches in search of treasures.
As the Sea Voyager entered the Canal de Ballenas in route to our afternoon stop at Bahia Alcatraz, the wind began to pick up and our spotting conditions for ballenas (whales) were highly restricted. By mid-afternoon the wind was blowing 18 knots from the south and our ship took to the shelter of the protected anchorage at Bahia Alcatraz where we spent the afternoon snorkeling, scuba diving, swimming, walking the beautiful white sand beach and just relaxing in this remote and idealic bay. Later, our hard-working Sea Voyager crew brought dinner ashore and we had a marvelous BBQ on the beach followed by stories and singing around the bonfire under a sky packed with brightly sparkling stars. And so ended another day in paradise!
Purple to red, red to orange and orange to yellow—the sun rose graciously over the eastern expanse of the Sea of Cortez as the Sea Voyager made her way northward along the east coast of Isla Angel de la Guarda. Shortly after breakfast, she was anchored in the protected bay called, appropriately, Puerto Refugio and we were whisked away in the Zodiacs to the nearby shore. Hundreds of just-fledged brown pelicans, blissfully ignorant of the fate of many of their dead cousins baking on the beach, lined the nearshore waters and formed a greeting party of sorts. It was already quite hot for our morning walk, but we intrepidly explored the beach and an inland wash in search for the desert’s secrets. On one of the brittle bushes, a female chuckwalla was basking in the morning sun when we “borrowed” her for a bit of show and tell. She is endemic to Isla de la Guarda and a few of the nearby islands and was mostly agreeable to our handling her. Chuckwalla’s on this island are completely vegetarian, store water in the fatty tissues in their large tails, grow up to 25 inches in length and may use as many as 35 different plant species in their diet. They have large flaps of skin on their body so that they can inflate themselves with air while in a rock crevice and then are very difficult to remove. Males of this species can become very territorial during the breeding season and females produce an average of 6 eggs with hatchlings emerging in late September. The younger members of our group were particularly interested in the soft texture of the belly of this gentle lizard as well as the spiny scales of its back and legs. The rest of the morning was taken up with water sports—swimming, kayaking and scuba diving—as well as wandering the beaches in search of treasures.
As the Sea Voyager entered the Canal de Ballenas in route to our afternoon stop at Bahia Alcatraz, the wind began to pick up and our spotting conditions for ballenas (whales) were highly restricted. By mid-afternoon the wind was blowing 18 knots from the south and our ship took to the shelter of the protected anchorage at Bahia Alcatraz where we spent the afternoon snorkeling, scuba diving, swimming, walking the beautiful white sand beach and just relaxing in this remote and idealic bay. Later, our hard-working Sea Voyager crew brought dinner ashore and we had a marvelous BBQ on the beach followed by stories and singing around the bonfire under a sky packed with brightly sparkling stars. And so ended another day in paradise!
