We had a short early morning ride to our full-day destination: Bahia Agua Verde. This lovely small bay lies on the Baja California Peninsula, where a small community of mostly fishermen have their homes. Even though remote, they have running water and a telephone to communicate with the rest of the world. Three small stores supply the town with food, soap, sugar, and cigarettes. There is a dirt road that leads to Highway No. 1, and so, to the rest of the peninsular world.
We had breakfast and immediately set out on our very different day’s adventures: hiking, snorkeling, and kayaking in different parts of the bay. Lovely fish were seen underwater, among them a snazzy barracuda! The hikers wended their way up an ocean promontory, where good vegetation vied with the amazing views from those heights. At the same time, another group of guests were taken by a expedition landing craft to some cave paintings near the community. There, up the hill, were a series of hands in red, splashed against the rocks. There is no idea on the age of these paintings.
Kayaking was interesting, as we were completely alone, only a few of us in the water. Back to the ship and lunch; and then out again immediately to our different activities of the afternoon—especially swimming from the beach and paddling of kayaks. The beaches are soft sand, quite large, and a few are separated away from the town, therefore isolated.
And a few of us wandered into town, asking where the store was. So we got to see Laura’s store, that even has a long-distance telephone, where we purchased some vittles. On we went to visit the second store in town, where we also chose some chili-pepper cans and fruit drinks. One of us purchased some lovely hand-embroidered napkins, for which the lady was very happy.
A good number of birds were seen, among them ospreys, oystercatchers, kingfishers, frigatebirds, blue-footed boobies, and a good number of Heerman’s gulls. Of course, pelicans and yellow-footed gulls were everywhere. The day wound slowly down as we all returned to our ship for a “live dive” by Ian and Justin, an interesting Recap (recapitulation of the day) and dinner.
