Isla San Esteban
The Seri tribe of natives, originally of the northern part of the Gulf of California, has always lived on the island of Tiburon, Mexico’s largest island. They had a splinter group, the “Crazies”, living on Isla San Esteban. This island was made richer in available food, by bringing in the large lizard iguana, called the chuckwalla. Water was always a problem, but the island has endemic animals and plants. One of these plants is a lovely foot-high cactus, called Echinocereus grandis, and located on the nearby island of San Lorenzo. We arrived there in the middle of the afternoon and immediately set out to hike in the dry arroyo bed. A chuckwalla was soon sighted, and everybody tried out their photography skills. It just sat there in the late afternoon sun and looked at us.
Many plants were seen, some with green leaves, notwithstanding the dry weather. And two teddy-bear chollas were in bloom! Cacti were everywhere, giant cardones, as well as small nipple or fishhook cacti. Ragweed was seen in fruit.
By the late afternoon we were back to the beach, having skirted (somewhat laboriously) a series of on-the-beach nests of the large, elegant, yellow-footed gull. And off we sped towards our mother ship, eager to see our photos and to have dinner.
