Santa Catalina & Monserrat Islands
A long time ago (perhaps several hundreds of thousands of years ago) a huge piece of granite (the backbone of the Baja peninsula) rose from the bottom of the sea. It did it very rapidly in terms of geological time, since it was tilted and deformed by the tremendous forces caused by plate rotations and sea floor spreading that occurred (and still occurs) in the Gulf of California. This piece of granite is now called Santa Catalina Island, which has been “adorned” with layers of volcanic ash and marine sediments along the eons. Because of the great distance that separates it from other islands or larger landmasses, Santa Catalina has always been in severe isolation. For this reason, animals and plants have colonized it very gradually and randomly. Among the successful colonizers are the cardon cacti, the chuckwallas and the rattlesnakes. All of them have evolved in unique ways that made them different from their counterparts in other islands or on the peninsula. This morning, while hiking, we observed these island jewels, especially the so called rattleless rattlesnake.
Furthermore, the name Catalina derived from the Greek kataros that means “pure”, the state in which we want to maintain the island. Santa Catalina was a young and beautiful woman punished and tortured by the Romans, whose miracle was to sprout milk from her neck when she was decapitated. With all this in mind, we hiked on the nice arroyo and snorkeled on the beautiful spot known as Elephant rock, where many interesting fish species and other marine creatures, like a very large spiny lobster and a baby green turtle, were seen as well.
Later, as we moved from Santa Catalina to Monserrat Island (our afternoon’s destination) the Sea Voyager cruised among a traveling group of long-beaked common dolphins, from which multiple pictures were taken by our dedicated photographers. Once on Monserrat, we hiked and snorkeled again and kayaked along the interesting shoreline of dramatic profile. This very dry and small island was the final exploration spot of the Sonoran Desert during our remarkable journey into the Gulf of California.
A long time ago (perhaps several hundreds of thousands of years ago) a huge piece of granite (the backbone of the Baja peninsula) rose from the bottom of the sea. It did it very rapidly in terms of geological time, since it was tilted and deformed by the tremendous forces caused by plate rotations and sea floor spreading that occurred (and still occurs) in the Gulf of California. This piece of granite is now called Santa Catalina Island, which has been “adorned” with layers of volcanic ash and marine sediments along the eons. Because of the great distance that separates it from other islands or larger landmasses, Santa Catalina has always been in severe isolation. For this reason, animals and plants have colonized it very gradually and randomly. Among the successful colonizers are the cardon cacti, the chuckwallas and the rattlesnakes. All of them have evolved in unique ways that made them different from their counterparts in other islands or on the peninsula. This morning, while hiking, we observed these island jewels, especially the so called rattleless rattlesnake.
Furthermore, the name Catalina derived from the Greek kataros that means “pure”, the state in which we want to maintain the island. Santa Catalina was a young and beautiful woman punished and tortured by the Romans, whose miracle was to sprout milk from her neck when she was decapitated. With all this in mind, we hiked on the nice arroyo and snorkeled on the beautiful spot known as Elephant rock, where many interesting fish species and other marine creatures, like a very large spiny lobster and a baby green turtle, were seen as well.
Later, as we moved from Santa Catalina to Monserrat Island (our afternoon’s destination) the Sea Voyager cruised among a traveling group of long-beaked common dolphins, from which multiple pictures were taken by our dedicated photographers. Once on Monserrat, we hiked and snorkeled again and kayaked along the interesting shoreline of dramatic profile. This very dry and small island was the final exploration spot of the Sonoran Desert during our remarkable journey into the Gulf of California.
