Isla Espiritu Santo and Los Islotes, Baja California Sur, México
Another fantastic day in Baja California! The weather, perfect. The place, incredible! Isla Espiritu Santo, home to endemic plants and two species of very rare mammals: The E. S. Island Antelope Ground Squirrel, and the Black Jackrabbit (dark brown, in reality). We did long and short hikes on this very green desert island (due to a Niòo year), enjoying the cacti (9 species!), the birds (hummingbirds, canyon wrens, mockingbirds, and more, and the quite big number of visible (!) antelope ground squirrels jumping so agilely between the huge boulders and bushes.
The long hikers had the opportunity of walking with an anthropologist, who led them to a site where the Guaycura natives had left a few vestiges of their presence, such as stone circles and chipped rocks. The view of the ocean on the other side of the island was magnificent!
We left Ensenada Grande at around midday and headed for the northern part of the island, to Los Islotes, where we snorkeled among the California sea lions, and later took a series of Zodiac cruises around these two small islets, watching the normal life of a rookery of these interesting sea mammals, as well as the great amount of sea birds, such as magnificent frigates, pelicans, brown and blue-footed boobies, a great blue heron, and turkey vultures and yellow-footed gulls, endemic to the Gulf of California.
Another fantastic day in Baja California! The weather, perfect. The place, incredible! Isla Espiritu Santo, home to endemic plants and two species of very rare mammals: The E. S. Island Antelope Ground Squirrel, and the Black Jackrabbit (dark brown, in reality). We did long and short hikes on this very green desert island (due to a Niòo year), enjoying the cacti (9 species!), the birds (hummingbirds, canyon wrens, mockingbirds, and more, and the quite big number of visible (!) antelope ground squirrels jumping so agilely between the huge boulders and bushes.
The long hikers had the opportunity of walking with an anthropologist, who led them to a site where the Guaycura natives had left a few vestiges of their presence, such as stone circles and chipped rocks. The view of the ocean on the other side of the island was magnificent!
We left Ensenada Grande at around midday and headed for the northern part of the island, to Los Islotes, where we snorkeled among the California sea lions, and later took a series of Zodiac cruises around these two small islets, watching the normal life of a rookery of these interesting sea mammals, as well as the great amount of sea birds, such as magnificent frigates, pelicans, brown and blue-footed boobies, a great blue heron, and turkey vultures and yellow-footed gulls, endemic to the Gulf of California.
