Bahia Almejas, 2/22/2024, National Geographic Sea Bird
Aboard the
National Geographic Sea Bird
Baja California
World Whale Day was last week, ours was today. We spent the morning and afternoon in pangas on wavy, windy water watching whales: breaching, spy-hopping, logging, rolling, fluke-flipping, and slowly swimming under pangas. Many of us were baptized by the exhalent breath of close and up-wind whales. A ‘Wow’ Day.
It was Malle and Cousteau’s The Silent World , viewed in a dusty meeting hall on a wintry day in central Wisconsin that forged Jim’s dream and commitment to become a marine biologist. Never mind that he was only 8 at the time and that it would be a...
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We sailed south through Canal de La Soledad to set anchor at El Barril, one of the highlights of our expedition. Here we did an outing with kayaks and Zodiacs, surrounded by red and sweet mangroves, with the San Lazaro Mountains as background. After lunch we moved forward to have our farewell activity — hiking through the astonishing sand dunes of Isla Magdalena. Here we also enjoyed our only chance to admire the Pacific Ocean at Bahia Santa Maria, also known as Sand Dollar Beach. Afterwards we came aboard to share our last recap and dinner together aboard National Geographic Sea Lion .
What a full day of richness and birding galore! Our day started off with early morning hikes on Isla Magdalena, taking in the impressive desert plant life of this exotic terrane, filled with whale skeletons and osprey nests. A stunning midday journey through Hull Canal brought with it enough herons, egrets, terns, gulls, frigatebirds, cormorants, shorebirds, and camera shutter clicks to last a lifetime. After anchoring at Lopez Mateos, we boarded pangas for a late afternoon of wildlife watching and a lovely little beach landing. We found a bald eagle’s nest, some of the southernmost nesting bald eagles (!), and examined incredible shells and beautiful sand. To top off our wonderful day, we enjoyed live music from Los Coyotes and dancing from The Desert Flowers! It was another spectacular day here in Baja California Sur.
We weighed anchor shortly after breakfast and traveled to Puerto Magdalena, a small fishing village (population 85) and the only inhabited area of Isla Magdalena. Enroute, presentations by naturalists were offered in the lounge in addition to wildlife watching from the bow. After anchoring, we embarked on a late morning hike through a desert harboring several plant species unique to Isla Magdalena and along a mangrove forest between the desert and adjacent Bahia Magdalena. After lunch, some guests toured a part of the island on fat-tire bikes then joined the rest of us for a mid-afternoon tour of Puerto Magdalena and the all-important desalination plant. As there is virtually no potable water on the island, drinking water must be brought over by panga from the mainland. Water used for other purposes is obtained from the desalination plant, which produces ~1000 liters per hour for up to 40 hours of operation per week. After the tour we relaxed at Chejos’s, a classic open-air cantina. We enjoyed light beverages and avocado tostados, listening to Chejos’s oral rendition of the village’s history, and playing fetch with Lola, a beloved ‘guardian’ dog at Chejos. The day concluded with an after-dinner assembly on the sundeck for constellation identification and viewing.
