Bahia Magdalena and Puerto Adolfo Lopez-Mateos
After having sailed all night long around the end of the peninsula of Baja California, we saw the first light of the day just south of the big island of Santa Margarita. After a good while sailing north, we entered Bahia Magdalena, that big body of water where many of the gray whales come to give birth to their calves, and the males fight for those females that did not produce a calf that year.
The waters inside Bahia Magdalena are slightly warmer than those outside the bay, and are definitely quieter, just right for the newly-born animals. And probably these waters are free of orcas, also called killer whales. We stopped inside the bay, within reach of the Bay of Saint Mary, also called Sand Dollar Beach. Here we walked across the island, along a series of marvelously soft-sanded dunes, enjoying the salt plants pointed out by our naturalists. The younger set used boogey boards to slide down the taller dunes, and then to body surf in the refreshing waters of the open Pacific Ocean.
By lunchtime, we were all back on the ship, and had begun travelling through the Hull Canal (Canal de la Soledad), to a point at the northern end of Isla Magdalena. En route we saw a very big array of birds (pelicans, magnificent frigatebirds, great blue herons, cormorants, ospreys and the smaller godwits and whimbrels). Immature ibis were seen as well, and a few coyotes on both side of the channel. Here we anchored, had recap and then dinner.
All day long we had travelled along this channel, having the opportunity of seeing the three typical species of mangrove: red, white and black. Interspersed among them was cordgrass. Tomorrow we start whale watching!
