Sea of Cortez and Isla Santa Catalina
We certainly felt lucky today. On our first morning aboard the Sea Bird, after cruising all night from La Paz, we spotted a humpback whale! It was a smallish humpback, but we got to see its characteristic blows when it came up for a few breaths and then its tail fluke come out of the water before it went for a deeper dive. We had wonderful views of this whale before turning to head south from Isla del Carmen to Santa Catalina. No sooner had we headed south when the call went out that killer whales had been spotted. As we slowed to watch them, they turned and seemed to come to check us out. They came straight toward us and then along the starboard side of the ship. We had several more sightings of them over the next twenty minutes, including some small breaches, where one leapt out of the water and splashed down on its side. As quickly as they appeared, they disappeared and we continued on our way.
Just before lunch, we were almost to our anchorage at Santa Catalina Island when we saw our third species of whale, this time a small group of bottle-nose dolphins. They were busy feeding and soon we were too at a fajita lunch buffet.
Ashore at Isla Santa Catalina in the afternoon we explored a beautiful arroyo. We were surprised at the variety and abundance of plant life. All of the plants have come up with amazing ways to survive in this dry environment. We were introduced to several types of cacti, including the cardon, cholla, galloping cactus and the endemic giant barrel cactus. Another endemic species that we encountered was the rattleless rattlesnake. It was camouflaged well enough to escape detection by the first few hikers but was soon discovered and observed in its native habitat.
After dinner Greg Marshall, from National Geographic, treated us to stories and footage from his critter cam work on emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica.
We certainly felt lucky today. On our first morning aboard the Sea Bird, after cruising all night from La Paz, we spotted a humpback whale! It was a smallish humpback, but we got to see its characteristic blows when it came up for a few breaths and then its tail fluke come out of the water before it went for a deeper dive. We had wonderful views of this whale before turning to head south from Isla del Carmen to Santa Catalina. No sooner had we headed south when the call went out that killer whales had been spotted. As we slowed to watch them, they turned and seemed to come to check us out. They came straight toward us and then along the starboard side of the ship. We had several more sightings of them over the next twenty minutes, including some small breaches, where one leapt out of the water and splashed down on its side. As quickly as they appeared, they disappeared and we continued on our way.
Just before lunch, we were almost to our anchorage at Santa Catalina Island when we saw our third species of whale, this time a small group of bottle-nose dolphins. They were busy feeding and soon we were too at a fajita lunch buffet.
Ashore at Isla Santa Catalina in the afternoon we explored a beautiful arroyo. We were surprised at the variety and abundance of plant life. All of the plants have come up with amazing ways to survive in this dry environment. We were introduced to several types of cacti, including the cardon, cholla, galloping cactus and the endemic giant barrel cactus. Another endemic species that we encountered was the rattleless rattlesnake. It was camouflaged well enough to escape detection by the first few hikers but was soon discovered and observed in its native habitat.
After dinner Greg Marshall, from National Geographic, treated us to stories and footage from his critter cam work on emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica.
