Sunrise showed us a fantastically colored mainland Baja California mainland. Volcanic ashes, squeezed into rock of different colors layered in crooked lines received us with a reddish sand beach. Big amounts of driftwood were to be seen, all whitened by the sun. After breakfast we landed there and began our day’s adventures: hiking into the arroyo, swimming, snorkeling and, very happily, kayaking.
One of the marvels of this place is the enormous quantity of different plants, almost all in bloom. And right at the beginning of the wide arroyo we found a plant that is quite uncommon: red- flowered eucnide or sticky eucnide. I think everybody took photos of them! Purple-flowered rama parda or Ruellia in bloom, Japanese lanterns or Juanita climbing among other plants, trees of ironwood which are very old, probably over a thousand years in age! And the rocks we were walking on were of so many different colors.
Kayaking around the area and up to Gull Rock was quite calming, all alone in our kayaks. Snorkeling brought us a beautiful sight of the underwater world with fishes, urchins, and sea stars, as well as many small corals and algae on the rocks.
By midday we were back on our ship, and began the short sail to Isla san Ildefonso, but different groups of bottle-nose dolphins as well as common dolphins made us follow the and enjoy their antics as they fed on fish near the surface, changing directions all the time! But eventually we reached the island of San Ildefonso, and commenced enjoyable trips around the island watching the big number of sea birds on it, and in flight in the air. This island is a reserve for these animals.
The day slowly ran out and we all were soon back on the ship, and enjoying a good cocktail hour.
