Isla San Esteban and Isla San Pedro Martir
The Sea of Cortez is a magical place. I’m convinced of this because since I’ve been here for the last four weeks, something new and wonderful reveals itself every day.
Daybreak found us anchored in the bay of Isla San Esteban. We took care to move along the shore so as not to disturb the fledging yellow-footed gull chicks. The group splintered off and soon reports filtered back by radio of pinto chuckwalla sightings. This large iguanid lizard is found only here on San Esteban and was considered a major food source for the Seri Indians that occupied this island. This handsome lizard is primarily vegetarian and relies almost entirely on the environment to regulate its body temperature. The sun continued to heat things up as we headed back to our floating oasis. By late morning, we were visited by the long-beaked common dolphin and they thrilled us with their acrobatic frolicking around the ship.
Our scrumptious pizza fiesta was barely over when our expedition leader announced that whales had been spotted. The surface of the sea had flattened considerably and made it easier to view this giant as it surfaced so close to the ship several times. We raced from one side of the ship to the next to get a better look. We then continued on our way to Isla San Pedro Martir. Post lunch siestas were soon interrupted by shouts of more spouts sighted off the bow – sperm whales! We watched in awe, as what seemed to be two females with a youngster in between them “logged” on the surface for several minutes before departing for the depths. Since whales do not hold their breath as we do when diving, this “logging” process allows them to replenish the oxygen in their blood so that they can dive deeper for longer.
Zodiac cruises along the rocky edge of the volcanic San Pedro Martir gave us a close-up look at a new-born California sea lion pup as it suckled from its mother. It’s been estimated that over 3,000 sea lions inhabit this island along with the thousands of blue-footed booby birds. Brown pelicans and boobies, cormorants and red-billed tropicbirds also spend time here. A thick layer of guano made the island look as if it had been dusted with a tropical snow.
As the sun drew closer to the horizon, we moved on and had just settled in with peppy margaritas and tempting guacamole when our expedition leader could no longer contain himself and politely interrupted our re-cap to announce that whales were alongside the ship! The lounge exploded with excitement and quickly emptied as we once again scrambled for binos and cameras. Indeed, we were surrounded by sperm whales and bottlenose dolphins. Behind us and in front of us, the large streamlined bodies of these amazing mammals could be seen flying free from the water with gay abandon as they leapt high in the air. What a sight! A huge sperm whale, thought to be a male, was seen logging on the surface for what seemed an eternity and then gave us a parting wave of its gargantuan tail as it waved goodbye to us.
As I said before, this Sea of Cortez is a magical place…
The Sea of Cortez is a magical place. I’m convinced of this because since I’ve been here for the last four weeks, something new and wonderful reveals itself every day.
Daybreak found us anchored in the bay of Isla San Esteban. We took care to move along the shore so as not to disturb the fledging yellow-footed gull chicks. The group splintered off and soon reports filtered back by radio of pinto chuckwalla sightings. This large iguanid lizard is found only here on San Esteban and was considered a major food source for the Seri Indians that occupied this island. This handsome lizard is primarily vegetarian and relies almost entirely on the environment to regulate its body temperature. The sun continued to heat things up as we headed back to our floating oasis. By late morning, we were visited by the long-beaked common dolphin and they thrilled us with their acrobatic frolicking around the ship.
Our scrumptious pizza fiesta was barely over when our expedition leader announced that whales had been spotted. The surface of the sea had flattened considerably and made it easier to view this giant as it surfaced so close to the ship several times. We raced from one side of the ship to the next to get a better look. We then continued on our way to Isla San Pedro Martir. Post lunch siestas were soon interrupted by shouts of more spouts sighted off the bow – sperm whales! We watched in awe, as what seemed to be two females with a youngster in between them “logged” on the surface for several minutes before departing for the depths. Since whales do not hold their breath as we do when diving, this “logging” process allows them to replenish the oxygen in their blood so that they can dive deeper for longer.
Zodiac cruises along the rocky edge of the volcanic San Pedro Martir gave us a close-up look at a new-born California sea lion pup as it suckled from its mother. It’s been estimated that over 3,000 sea lions inhabit this island along with the thousands of blue-footed booby birds. Brown pelicans and boobies, cormorants and red-billed tropicbirds also spend time here. A thick layer of guano made the island look as if it had been dusted with a tropical snow.
As the sun drew closer to the horizon, we moved on and had just settled in with peppy margaritas and tempting guacamole when our expedition leader could no longer contain himself and politely interrupted our re-cap to announce that whales were alongside the ship! The lounge exploded with excitement and quickly emptied as we once again scrambled for binos and cameras. Indeed, we were surrounded by sperm whales and bottlenose dolphins. Behind us and in front of us, the large streamlined bodies of these amazing mammals could be seen flying free from the water with gay abandon as they leapt high in the air. What a sight! A huge sperm whale, thought to be a male, was seen logging on the surface for what seemed an eternity and then gave us a parting wave of its gargantuan tail as it waved goodbye to us.
As I said before, this Sea of Cortez is a magical place…
