water WORLD
A daylong eco-cruise to an island national park leaves civilization behind, with whales breaching, dramatic cliffs and sea lions to swim with
You never really know what you’ll find when you head out into Baja California’s Sea of Cortez, but that’s what makes it impossible to resist.
On a recent morning, we left our hotel at the bustling port town of La Paz, Baja California Sur, and took a boat tour out to Isla Espiritu Santo, one of the most popular ecotourism sites in Mexico.
Several companies offer this day trip from town, and you can also catch a boat there from Tecolote Beach, a lovely stretch of sand north of town. We were picked up at our hotel and taken to a small beachfront palapa at Pichilingue, a district north of the city, where we had the chance to pick up snorkels and fins, in case we wanted to swim with sea lions during the day.
Then, our captain, Loreto, and guide, Benjamin Duarte, loaded us into a small, fiberglass motor boat called a panga, used for fishing and everything else in Baja, for the short journey across La Paz Bay into Espiritu Santo Archipelago National Park, which comprises the islands of Isla Espíritu Santo and Isla Partida.
La Paz, along with most of the Baja peninsula, is in a desert. The volcanic mountains that rise from these islands’ desert floor are virtually barren and brown. But there’s life teeming here, and it’s all in the water around us.
We were lucky that day, and only a few minutes from shore we sighted a humpback whale, which was making a leisurely circuit of the area. We were able to hang out with him (or her) for a while, just idling the motor and waiting for the telltale spout to blow to show us where he was located. Then, his back would rise sinuously from the water and, sometimes, the fluke of his tail.
Humpbacks live in this bay, but you can’t guarantee sightings, so we felt lucky to have seen him.
After that, we motored on and learned more about the geology of the islands, created by great volcanic rifts. We saw the remains of a pearl farm that once operated here. La Paz is known as “The Pearl” because at one time it was famous for its pearl fishing, until the oyster beds were finally all fished out. Long before fish farms became popular, a biologist got the then-crazy idea of trying to farm pearls here, and put it into practice, succeeding in creating cultured pearls before being driven out of business by the upheavals surrounding the Mexican Revolution and envious competitors.
Nearby, a jetty originally built for the pearl farm has become a rookery for thousands of frigate birds, who build nests and raise their chicks here. Because they’re not hunted, it’s possible to bring the boat within a few feet and get a good look at these black seabirds and their white chicks. Although frigate birds hunt fish, they can’t dive because their wings aren’t waxy enough to repel water, so they are surface hunters.
Motoring on around the national park, we took turns photographing a glorious rock arch on Isla Partida before taking our narrow boat through the arch itself, with only feet to spare. Emerging from the arch, Benjamin told us to turn around and look at the sun streaming through, which created a long pattern that looked like a map of Baja California.
Next stop was the sea lion nursery, with hundreds of baying sea lions of all ages and persuasions. This was the point where the most intrepid of us had the chance to put on snorkels and fins and actually snorkel with the sea lions. I was too cowardly to do it, but my niece and nephew did, along with several other hardy types, led by a guide.
They were ebullient when they got out of the water, cold during our February visit, and said they watched sea lions swimming around them, seeming to play with them.
“I’m so glad I did that,” my 15-year-old niece said to me, and I wondered if I would have been that brave at her age.
We were all getting hungry at this point, which was perfect timing to arrive at Emerald Bay, a cove with aqua waters and powder-soft white sand where the boat staff set up a simple luncheon for us with ceviche tostadas, ham and cheese sandwiches, soda and cookies. It was also the perfect place to do a little snorkeling, but the day had turned chilly and spending too much more time in the water didn’t seem that appealing.
On the way home from the bay, the boat stopped for us to look at some rock formations that looked like human faces.
The tour was supposed to be four hours but lasted for seven. That was OKwithme. I wasn’t even ready to go home.