This morning found us sailing at almost full speed south, toward the Espiritu Santo Island Complex, ending at Los islotes, or “islets,” where we were to pass the morning. The weather favored us well, and we were soon at this interesting place, part of the northern tip of Isla Partida, where a group of California sea lions gather to rest and, the young ones, to frolic all day long in the waters around these rocks. Many birds were seen using this island as a roosting ground, among them turkey vultures, magnificent frigatebirds, blue-footed boobies, brown boobies, terns, and cormorants, as well as the ubiquitous yellow-footed gull, always in attendance to the sea lions. The barking of the sea lions pervaded the place, where one could separate the barks of the adults from the complaints of the young, calling “mama.”
We began our activities immediately after breakfast, with a series of expedition landing craft tours around the islands, with short escapades to appreciate better the Thurston’s devil rays or “mobulas” jumping out of the water in unsuccessful tries to fly! Oh, they flipped out of the water and showed us their black backs and white bellies, at times, one after the other, or even in groups of three together.
We went among the sea lions, and saw quite big males with their typical bumps on the forehead (with a sagittal crest on the skull for the insertion of powerful chewing muscles), and enjoyed ourselves with the very playful young, porpoising out of the water in their friskiness.
After all this, snorkeling took place, already with better light, where we all enjoyed the abundant sea life under the surface. But the most marvelous of happenings was the presence of the young sea lions swimming with us. They are accustomed to people, and come right up to your mask and blow bubbles, or just might want to show off how well THEY swim!
After all these activities we returned to the ship, where we had lunch, as we sped off to the east to a predetermined spot where we saw a little bit of action. Dolphins were seen going north (possibly bottlenose dolphins), and eventually reached our afternoon destination, off the southeastern coast of Isla Espiritu Santo: the magnificent Bonanza Beach. Two miles of a marvelous sandy beach, curved, and with us as the only takers for this joy (there were two other small pleasure-craft, but we didn’t see the owners. Here we kayaked and swam, and hiked into the desert. Some of us even had the opportunity of seeing, even if only for a few short seconds, a black jackrabbit, endemic to this island. Ah, the plants also were super…
And then, and then, dinner barbecue! Royal dinner and after, a story by William and by Adrian, about the origin of the fifth sun and of the Mexican symbol of the eagle eating a rattlesnake. Before this we marveled at the very colorful sunset off into the west, over the City of La Paz.
