San Esteban and San Pedro Mártir Islands
The early morning light painted the high cliffs of San Esteban Island with reddish hues; nesting yellow-footed gulls, endemic to the Sea of Cortez, perched on the pebbled beach as we brave explorers landed nearby. We ventured into the dry landscape looking for one of the most charismatic creatures of the island, the piebald or San Esteban Island chuckwalla. And sure enough, the “here’s one…” call sounded among the cardón cactus and copal bushes. We all were able to admire up-close the perfect camouflaged coloration and gentle disposition of several individuals of the endemic chuckwallas, iguanas which are the largest members of their genus. And we were lucky again, as we saw the other iguana species on the island, the black spiny-tailed iguana, among endemic San Esteban agaves and fishhook cactus.
Later on, as we sailed south towards our last destination of the trip, we enjoyed once more the company of that mysterious and largest of the toothed cetaceans, the sperm whale. Several individuals swam in the vicinity of the Sea Voyager and even some more distant ones were seen breaching far away! And making a good thing even better, a pod or two of the offshore form of the bottlenose dolphin approached the ship for some quite spectacular demonstrations of their aerial capabilities! (see photo)
The rest of the afternoon was spent visiting one of the most dramatic and important of all the islands in the Gulf of California, San Pedro Mártir. We admired the sheer beauty of its tall vertical cliffs, the abundance of nesting sea birds and thought about the hardships that the Yaqui Indians suffered, when they lived there and extracted the guano in the 1800s. And with the spectacular background that the island provided, we joined our captain in a toast for the wonderful trip that just came to an end…
The early morning light painted the high cliffs of San Esteban Island with reddish hues; nesting yellow-footed gulls, endemic to the Sea of Cortez, perched on the pebbled beach as we brave explorers landed nearby. We ventured into the dry landscape looking for one of the most charismatic creatures of the island, the piebald or San Esteban Island chuckwalla. And sure enough, the “here’s one…” call sounded among the cardón cactus and copal bushes. We all were able to admire up-close the perfect camouflaged coloration and gentle disposition of several individuals of the endemic chuckwallas, iguanas which are the largest members of their genus. And we were lucky again, as we saw the other iguana species on the island, the black spiny-tailed iguana, among endemic San Esteban agaves and fishhook cactus.
Later on, as we sailed south towards our last destination of the trip, we enjoyed once more the company of that mysterious and largest of the toothed cetaceans, the sperm whale. Several individuals swam in the vicinity of the Sea Voyager and even some more distant ones were seen breaching far away! And making a good thing even better, a pod or two of the offshore form of the bottlenose dolphin approached the ship for some quite spectacular demonstrations of their aerial capabilities! (see photo)
The rest of the afternoon was spent visiting one of the most dramatic and important of all the islands in the Gulf of California, San Pedro Mártir. We admired the sheer beauty of its tall vertical cliffs, the abundance of nesting sea birds and thought about the hardships that the Yaqui Indians suffered, when they lived there and extracted the guano in the 1800s. And with the spectacular background that the island provided, we joined our captain in a toast for the wonderful trip that just came to an end…
