Ensenada Grande and Los Islotes
Our day started with super calm seas and a knock out red and orange sunrise that filled half the sky. There was a simultaneous dolphin show. Long-beaked common dolphins foraged on schools of fish as the sun climbed out of the horizon. Both churned the water into a roughened surface. Dolphin bodies popped out of the water in graceful arcs that smacked the surface in belly flops as they reentered. This maneuver frightens fish into a tight vulnerable school that dolphins pass into, chomping as they enter. One of the youngsters on this family trip was over heard saying,"This is better than a virtual show!" This must have been a great morning!
Later we landed on a white sand beach at the head of a rusty red canyon. The adventurous hiked up and around Volkswagen-sized boulders that lay at rest amongst white-barked palo blanco trees and tall shrubs with a mosaic of tiny green leaves. Those that reached the top of the ridge were rewarded with a distant view of more dolphins far below. Hikers who wanted a chance to also kayak in the clear water took a shorter hike up the same canyon. Earlier rains left a profusion of green dotted with purple from mariola, rama parda, morning glories, and the throats of Costa's hummingbirds.
Kayakers passed within the glassy water on this windless day. It allowed us to look below the surface at schools of mullet, sergeant majors, reef cornetfish, king angels, and bright blue immature giant damselfish. Those that paddled to a nearby cove found gardens of garden eels pull themselves slowly into their holes as our kayaks silently glided by.
Los Islotes is a group of rocks north of our morning anchorage that features a group of California sea lion. There are about 300 that use this area in the summer and 150 during the winter that produce from 60 to 80 pups per year. The pups are born by early July and nurse from six months to a year. The one in this photograph is nursing but may have been one that swam with us earlier. They are curious and fun-loving and will swim up to you, stare in your mask, do a quick somersault, turn back, "fly" by your facemask again with their powerful front flippers and disappear into the distance in a seeming instant. All those maneuvers may take a pup sea lion few seconds to complete but may stay in your mind the rest of your life.
Our day started with super calm seas and a knock out red and orange sunrise that filled half the sky. There was a simultaneous dolphin show. Long-beaked common dolphins foraged on schools of fish as the sun climbed out of the horizon. Both churned the water into a roughened surface. Dolphin bodies popped out of the water in graceful arcs that smacked the surface in belly flops as they reentered. This maneuver frightens fish into a tight vulnerable school that dolphins pass into, chomping as they enter. One of the youngsters on this family trip was over heard saying,"This is better than a virtual show!" This must have been a great morning!
Later we landed on a white sand beach at the head of a rusty red canyon. The adventurous hiked up and around Volkswagen-sized boulders that lay at rest amongst white-barked palo blanco trees and tall shrubs with a mosaic of tiny green leaves. Those that reached the top of the ridge were rewarded with a distant view of more dolphins far below. Hikers who wanted a chance to also kayak in the clear water took a shorter hike up the same canyon. Earlier rains left a profusion of green dotted with purple from mariola, rama parda, morning glories, and the throats of Costa's hummingbirds.
Kayakers passed within the glassy water on this windless day. It allowed us to look below the surface at schools of mullet, sergeant majors, reef cornetfish, king angels, and bright blue immature giant damselfish. Those that paddled to a nearby cove found gardens of garden eels pull themselves slowly into their holes as our kayaks silently glided by.
Los Islotes is a group of rocks north of our morning anchorage that features a group of California sea lion. There are about 300 that use this area in the summer and 150 during the winter that produce from 60 to 80 pups per year. The pups are born by early July and nurse from six months to a year. The one in this photograph is nursing but may have been one that swam with us earlier. They are curious and fun-loving and will swim up to you, stare in your mask, do a quick somersault, turn back, "fly" by your facemask again with their powerful front flippers and disappear into the distance in a seeming instant. All those maneuvers may take a pup sea lion few seconds to complete but may stay in your mind the rest of your life.
