After our day spent at beautiful Isla Espiritu Santo, the National Geographic Sea Bird headed north, further into the Gulf of California (AKA Sea of Cortez). As we awoke and, one by one, gathered on the foredeck, we could see the morning light shining on several Gulf islands and, behind them, the banded, volcanic mountains of the Sierra de la Giganta on the Baja California Peninsula. Our morning objective was the search for whales. Search we did. We saw several spouts, but they were quickly blown over by the increasing northerly wind. Off in the distance a whale breached several times, but it stopped as we approached. It was a morning to relax and bask on the sundeck, engage in conversation on the foredeck, and listen to Alberto's presentation on Mexican culture in the lounge. His pride in his country is inspiring.
Seeking protection from the wind, we entered San Jose Channel, between the island and the peninsula, and dropped anchor off Arroyo Encantado (the "Enchanted Arroyo") on Isla San Jose for activities of the afternoon and early evening. An arroyo is a desert drainage or wash. Rains in the desert are infrequent, but they can be severe. When they occur, the cacti grab the water through a network of fine, fibrous roots, but much of the water drains off the slopes and into the arroyo, where it may create flash floods of considerable intensity. We walked up the Enchanted Arroyo to admire the desert vegetation. We found huge columnar cardon cacti—the largest of all cacti—and smaller organ pipes and chollas, all largely on the surrounding slopes. The floor of the arroyo was dominated by trees of the pea family—like palo verde and palo blanco ("green stem" and "white stem")—that send their taproots deep into the substrate to exploit the subterranean ground water found there. In response to recent rain, palo adan, an ocotillo relative, was just coming out with clusters of bright red-orange flowers to entice the attention of hummingbirds.
We returned to the beach, where we found a delicious dinner prepared by our galley to be served ashore. They are amazing! As the sun set behind the mountains of the peninsula, the orange sky faded into midnight blue and stars took over the Baja California sky. A fire was lit, the fixings for s'mores appeared, and a debate broke out over the proper way to roast marshmallows. (There was no resolution to the debate. Further research is needed.)
