Isla Danzante and Isla Monserrate

After Hernan Cortes the Conqueror was established firmly in Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), he began getting the itch for the exploration of the vast territory he had conquered with the help of the Tlaxcaltec Indians. He established a port in what is today called Acapulco, and had a ship sent off to the West, to explore. The crew mutinied and went off to land in what today is the City of La Paz, in the Peninsula of Baja California. The second expedition “Off to the West” was led by Cortes himself, and again, he landed where today the City of La Paz is situated. That did not stop his curiosity, so a few years later he sent two ships up into the Gulf of California, to explore the “island”. The captain of the small fleet was Francisco de Ulloa, who went up north discovering the different islands inside the gulf. When he arrived to one near where the Jesuits would establish the “Mother and Head of all the Missions in California”, today known as Loreto, he saw that the natives were jumping up and down at the beach, and maybe thought that they were dancing, and so the island was called “Danzante”.

We landed here during the morning, and enjoyed kayaking, swimming in the pure, clear waters, and walking around the beach, as well as small hikes up into the ridges. By midday we were back on the ship, and had our lunch. Not too long later, we had left that lovely place, and had pointed our bow towards our next destination of the day: Isla Monserrate. Larger, and definitely with the capacity to intercept more rain clouds, we again enjoyed walks and wandering on the beach.

A small group of bottlenose dolphins were sighted and followed during the mid-afternoon!