After having sailed north during the night, the new day found us in the vicinity of San Ildefonso Island. The early morning light was perfect to take photographs of the abundant birdlife; brown and blue-footed boobies, Heermann’s and yellow-footed gulls, and magnificent frigatebirds watched the world from their perches or flew around in great numbers. Even three peregrine falcons were spotted by the eager birdwatchers aboard! We also had the chance to observe many frigatebirds congregated in a fairly new small breeding colony that just started a few years ago and today several young chicks were seen.
The National Geographic Sea Bird continued her way north during the morning; the open waters off Concepcion Bay and around San Marcos Island are very productive and regaled us with numerous interesting sightings of black and least storm petrels, pink-footed shearwaters, and Craveri’s murrelets. Many mobula rays and a big marlin jumped high above the surface and a solitary hammerhead shark swam alongside the ship for a while. Long-beaked common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins were seen several times during the morning; several bottlenose dolphins went out of their way to practice one of their favorite sports, bow-riding and some went even further by jumping very high in front of the bow! We also watched a single Risso’s dolphin and a couple of dwarf sperm whales. A couple of sperm whales, the big ones, went diving and we were able to listen to their interesting sounds using our hydrophone as they hunted squid in the depths.
During the early afternoon we arrived to Santa Rosalia; born as a company town in 1888 for the “El Boleo” French mining company, Santa Rosalia is a unique place with a strong tradition of copper mining. The original mine ended operations in 1954 but many buildings and structures from those early days are still standing and constitute a motif of pride for the locals. We had the opportunity to visit a couple of local museums to learn more about the town’s interesting history and to explore its streets and stores, including the famous bakery that opened its doors in 1901. We ended our beautiful day enjoying a few—ok, more than a few—margaritas, beers, and guacamole at the gorgeous Hotel Frances before heading back to our floating home and continue our explorations in the Sea of Cortez.
