The first day of our remarkable journey started with National Geographic Sea Lion peacefully at anchor off the eastern side of Magdalena Island, on the Pacific side of the peninsula of Baja California. Beautiful sand dunes glowed in front of her with the early morning light. We didn’t waste time in getting ashore and made the first landing of the trip; we all hiked across the narrow island and admired the multiple adaptations of the hardy desert plants that thrive in a tough environment. Sand verbena, iodine bush, sea purslane, rattleweed and spurge greeted us and showed once again that beauty is never far. Other creatures told us about their presence by means of their tracks: lizards, stink bugs, white-footed mice and even ravens left behind their footprints in the fine sand. One coyote and several black-tailed jackrabbits showed themselves and added a touch of action to the landscape.
Once on the other side, we enjoyed the wide open space and beauty of Santa Maria Bay, also known very appropriately as Sand Dollar Beach. Without a single house, hotel or other man-made building in sight, Sand Dollar Beach is a refreshing reminder of how beaches should be: a clean, empty area where we can commune with the ocean. Big groups of brown pelicans and double-crested cormorants, frigatebirds and gulls flew above us, whereas countless sand dollars and seashells covered the sand at our feet. Truly a beautiful place!
After coming back from the beach, we sailed south and around the southern tip of the island through La Entrada, as the opening between Magadalena and Santa Margarita islands is known. This is the very same place where a couple of American whaling ships from Connecticut, the Hibernia and the United States, arrived in the winter of 1845 and found an abundance of grey whales. Whaling for grey whales started right then and the rest is history.
We too are on a journey looking for grey whales; however, ours is an expedition of peace. Tomorrow we will arrive to San Ignacio Lagoon, where we are going to me meet the grey whale, ambassador of the cetaceans world. But that is another story.
