The first day of our exploration aboard the National Geographic Sea Bird started in the quiet waters of the Magdalena Coastal Lagoon, right in front of San Carlos town. Guests and naturalists disembarked and walked on the dunes of the long, sandy, wonderful, and 60-miles long barrier island called Magdalena. We observed a multitude of tracks form jackrabbits, coyotes, white-footed mice, hermit and ghost crabs, and found the marvelous dune plants clustered in green and red carpets all over the place. On the Pacific side, thousands of different shells were awaiting for us to enjoy and photographing them. Some of our guest met scallops, pen shells, fig snails, tivela clams, white Venus and other types of the amazing mollusks, whose antiquity as a group is about 500 million years. Later, a local navigation adviser named Sergio joined us to cruise northward along the narrow canal, and all aboard observed mangroves, and sea and shore birds under a light refreshing rain. As we crossed the nursery area of the gray whales, called La Florida, we started to see the first mothers and calves. At the end of the day in this ecosystem, our guests and staff landed in the little, fancy pier of Adolfo Lopez Mateos, and explored part of this little town.