Isla Magdalena, Canal de Soledad
Through a series of circuitous peregrinations we have united with others in search of wildness, adventure, sand to wiggle our toes in, and gray whales to delight our inner child. Landing on Isla Magdalena this morning we found ourselves cavorting in a 50-plus mile long sandbox. Nothing could be softer to release, and then immerse, your shoe-bound toes into than the powdery, flour-like granules of Isla Magdalena sand. Piles of sand spend their time shape-shifting into wondrous dunes, the classic barchan dune tells of the prevailing northwesterly winds, their twin horns perpetually pointing downwind.
Cruising north in the Canal de Soledad we navigated opposite a falling tide. The mudflats grew broader with the ebbing waters and we observed a number of birds taking advantage of the expanding dinner table. White ibis rotated as continuous oil derricks, poking and probing the sands for hapless invertebrates. Gulls gathered on sandbars with a more perfunctory view of the dropping water level. Reddish egrets rushed about the shallows with a more frenetic sense of fish gathering.
As we turned the corner at Colima Coyote we spotted the salutatory blow of our first gray whale! A number of cow/calf pairs were found as we continued north, past the town of Puerto Aldolfo Lopez Mateos and still more as we dropped anchor just short of the Boca de Soledad; all good precursors in our quest for a memorable encounter with the wildlife of Baja California.
