We left the dock at La Paz in the middle of the night and cruised a short distance north, waking up at sunrise on the first day of our voyage at Los Islotes, a rocky islet just north of Isla Partida. Even before the light came up we could hear the barking of the California sea lions and the cries of gulls and boobies.

As soon as it was light enough, we launched our Zodiacs and cruised around the rocks, delighted by the antics of the juvenile sea lions, which swam close around our boats, leaping up out of the water and twisting and twirling below the surface.

Along the way we learned some of the differences between these animals and true seals, the most obvious of which was the climbing ability of the sea lions. Because they are able to walk on their flippers, unlike the true seals, they can scramble up very steep rock slopes. We saw several which were perched on the tops of boulders and pinnacles, quite high above the water, basking in the desert sun. Even higher on the cliffs, blue-footed boobies were tending their chicks while magnificent frigatebirds soared in the air high above.