Isla Santa Catalina & Beyond
Little did guests expect an island with a manicured desert garden look, but Isla Santa Catalina’s abundant massive cardons and giant barrel cacti set amongst small blooming palo verdes, copals, and grano-diorite boulders did give the place a park like appearance. We had hardly gone up the wash before northern cardinals, red-breasted house finches, gila woodpeckers sporting their crimson caps, verdins, mockingbirds, and loggerhead shrikes announced their presence through songs and calls.
Iguanas and turquoise green side-blotched lizards scurried out of our way as we hiked up the gravelly wash. And a wary eye was kept in case there was a lurking rattleless rattlesnake. This curiosity of the reptile world only occurs on this one island. The theory is that the lack of predators caused this snake to lose its ability to grow a warning rattle. Hard to prove. Perhaps even more difficult to explain, though, is how it and its reptilian neighbors managed to get to this isolated island in the first place.
Nearly a quarter of a century has passed since I first walked on this island. Not much has changed except a few of the older cacti have fallen over and are slowly returning nutrients to the coarse soil. Plus the beach has become rockier. The occasional hurricane or chubasco has washed away most of a once sandy beach leaving lovely rounded grano-diorite cobbles. Not easy to negotiate, but attractive nonetheless.
During the afternoon, we cruised a placid sea in search of charismatic marine fauna. We didn’t have to go far. Three mobula rays did a graceful, slow motion ballet. Occasionally, their wing tips would break the surface giving us a little wave. The naturalists speculated that they were probably feeding on plankton. Later dolphins, first bottlenose then common, came for a visit and played under our bow.
Yet there was still one more spectacular event before day’s end. As we came into Puerto Escondido, the sun dropped behind the rugged crest of the Sierra de la Giganta and the cloud-studded sky suddenly ignited scarlet red.
Little did guests expect an island with a manicured desert garden look, but Isla Santa Catalina’s abundant massive cardons and giant barrel cacti set amongst small blooming palo verdes, copals, and grano-diorite boulders did give the place a park like appearance. We had hardly gone up the wash before northern cardinals, red-breasted house finches, gila woodpeckers sporting their crimson caps, verdins, mockingbirds, and loggerhead shrikes announced their presence through songs and calls.
Iguanas and turquoise green side-blotched lizards scurried out of our way as we hiked up the gravelly wash. And a wary eye was kept in case there was a lurking rattleless rattlesnake. This curiosity of the reptile world only occurs on this one island. The theory is that the lack of predators caused this snake to lose its ability to grow a warning rattle. Hard to prove. Perhaps even more difficult to explain, though, is how it and its reptilian neighbors managed to get to this isolated island in the first place.
Nearly a quarter of a century has passed since I first walked on this island. Not much has changed except a few of the older cacti have fallen over and are slowly returning nutrients to the coarse soil. Plus the beach has become rockier. The occasional hurricane or chubasco has washed away most of a once sandy beach leaving lovely rounded grano-diorite cobbles. Not easy to negotiate, but attractive nonetheless.
During the afternoon, we cruised a placid sea in search of charismatic marine fauna. We didn’t have to go far. Three mobula rays did a graceful, slow motion ballet. Occasionally, their wing tips would break the surface giving us a little wave. The naturalists speculated that they were probably feeding on plankton. Later dolphins, first bottlenose then common, came for a visit and played under our bow.
Yet there was still one more spectacular event before day’s end. As we came into Puerto Escondido, the sun dropped behind the rugged crest of the Sierra de la Giganta and the cloud-studded sky suddenly ignited scarlet red.
