San Marcos Island and offshore waters
We woke up this morning just off the quiet, small town of Santa Rosalia. Located in the northeastern portion of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur, Santa Rosalia was founded in the late 1800’s when important copper deposits were discovered in the hills nearby. By the turn of the century, the place had turned into a very prosperous mining town with a strong French influence due to the concession given by the Mexican government to operate the rich El Boleo mine to a group of French entrepreneurs. Santa Rosalia at the time used to be much more in contact with San Francisco and Europe than with Mexico City, and even the local church was unique, being designed by Gustave Eiffel. Anyway, that was the town we watched this morning as we waited for Mark Thorpe, from the National Geographic’s “critter-cam” team to join us. Once he boarded the Sea Voyager, we sailed the deep waters between the peninsula and Tortuga Island in search of marine animals. Even though the wind didn’t cooperate much, we were thrilled to get glimpses of many creatures, like the occasional flying fish or jumping Mobula rays. Many sea birds joined us as we cruised the offshore waters and we were delighted to see black and least storm petrels, brown pelicans, sooty shearwaters and blue-footed and brown boobies, like the adult female brown booby portrayed here.
Later in the day, we anchored off the north side of San Marcos Island. The arid, dramatic rocky landscape of the island provided very nice scenery and we took advantage of it by having lunch up in the lounge. We brave explorers engaged into water sports and the rest of the afternoon was spent snorkeling, swimming and kayaking, as another wonderful day slowly came to an end…
We woke up this morning just off the quiet, small town of Santa Rosalia. Located in the northeastern portion of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur, Santa Rosalia was founded in the late 1800’s when important copper deposits were discovered in the hills nearby. By the turn of the century, the place had turned into a very prosperous mining town with a strong French influence due to the concession given by the Mexican government to operate the rich El Boleo mine to a group of French entrepreneurs. Santa Rosalia at the time used to be much more in contact with San Francisco and Europe than with Mexico City, and even the local church was unique, being designed by Gustave Eiffel. Anyway, that was the town we watched this morning as we waited for Mark Thorpe, from the National Geographic’s “critter-cam” team to join us. Once he boarded the Sea Voyager, we sailed the deep waters between the peninsula and Tortuga Island in search of marine animals. Even though the wind didn’t cooperate much, we were thrilled to get glimpses of many creatures, like the occasional flying fish or jumping Mobula rays. Many sea birds joined us as we cruised the offshore waters and we were delighted to see black and least storm petrels, brown pelicans, sooty shearwaters and blue-footed and brown boobies, like the adult female brown booby portrayed here.
Later in the day, we anchored off the north side of San Marcos Island. The arid, dramatic rocky landscape of the island provided very nice scenery and we took advantage of it by having lunch up in the lounge. We brave explorers engaged into water sports and the rest of the afternoon was spent snorkeling, swimming and kayaking, as another wonderful day slowly came to an end…
