Isla San Pedro Martir. Just the mention of this island gives me pure delight. As the most remote island in the entire Gulf of California, I have had the pleasure of many great adventures here in these waters. Today certainly lived up to that anticipation!
The day started auspiciously enough with a perfect green flash at sunrise, that even the non-believers amongst us had to admit (and several photos later proved) dispelled the thought that the green flash was a fantasy! We quickly boarded our fleet of expedition landing craft and soon were surrounded by the sights and sounds of the multitude of birds that give this island its distinctive color (white) and equally distinctive smell (with all that bird guano what do you think the island smells like?!)
Red-billed tropicbirds wheeled in the skies above while brown- and blue-footed boobies dive-bombed into the sea around us looking for breakfast. Pelicans preened on the rocky shoreline and eared grebes were in numbers beyond count in all the waters that surrounded us. Certainly the most vociferous animals on the island were the hundreds of California sea lions who delighted us with their sea lion antics at every turn. The highlight of the morning was a pod of about 50 bottlenose dolphins which found us amusing and seemed to relish leaping in front of us to splash water on their return to the sea.
Our afternoon was spent amongst several baleen whales which were intent on whale business and not interested in us, as well as more bottlenose dolphins frolicking around the ship just as the sun was sinking into the Baja Peninsula to the west. These waters are rich in diversity of life and today allowed us a glimpse into that abundance.
