Baja Trip
August 11th

We took the boats out to Canal de Ballenas to look mostly for whales and birds. We saw dolphins again but this time they swam and jumped alongside the boat, going along with us like that in front of the boat is called "bow riding". The dolphins also quickly swim back and forth under the front of the boat. I swear it looked like they were playing "chicken" with each other and the boats. They would leap out of the water RIGHT in front of the boat.
("It is a joy to see them dart around beneath the waves and then break the surface in a leap." - Jeff)

It was SO much fun! We did see or rather, hear, the occasional blow of whales, but at a far distance.

This picture of the front of the boat, shows just how close the dolphins came.

After going along with the dolphins, we stopped right in the middle of birds that were feeding. We were surrounded by boobies and storm petrels. Birds were all around us, diving and squawking while dolphins were diving and squeaking. It was actually pretty noisy!

We were out on the boats all morning (7:30 to 12:30). At one point everyone got into the water and swam among the three boats, waaaaay out in the middle of nowhere. Well, not really nowhere, but way out not near land. :-) It is amazing, how easy it is to float in the water there in Baja. The Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California) is so salty that if you have any fat on your body at all, you float really well. I float like a cork. Ahem.

Jeff and I attempted a night dive since we are running out of nights left here in Bahia. We went out after the 8:00 lecture. The tide was way out and we had to wade about 75 yards to get into knee deep water where we could start floating around. I put my fins on at the shore and then had to wade in backwards with a shuffle all the way. Boy was that bright of me!

So, I'm at knee depth and decide it is deep enough to go ahead and start floating around. I lay out in the water with my little underwater flashlight on and I see a sting ray about 6 inches below my belly. I have to admit I panicked a bit and started attempting to swim the opposite direction of the ray. Unfortunately for me (or maybe for him), Jeff was right beside me and I didn't realize it until I was trying to turn that way and he was in my way. I was pushing him away from me like crazy. The whole time (it was probably 30 second that felt like 30 minutes) the ray just kept laying on the bottom, ignoring everything and everyone. The ray seemed huge at the time (and short distance) but was actually only about 8 inches across, and was well behaved. I felt really stupid afterward, but oh well.

About 5 minutes later I saw a bullseye puffer about 12 inches under me. It kept following me and eyeballing me and that made me nervous. The water was pretty choppy and this made the silt and sand swirl around a lot and cut down the visability. I started deciding it was too shallow for me to be snorkeling. I wasn't very comfortable with the dark and not being able to see very far around me. I am SUCH a chicken! Just after I'd come to the decision to go back in, Jeff pointed out the phosphorescence in the water. If you turn off your light and swish your hand around under water, you can see green sparkles. I'd heard some of the others talking about it on other nights, but I hadn't seen it for myself. It was gorgeous and if I hadn't already convinced myself that I was ready to go back to shore, I'd have stayed out longer just swishing the water around. I thought maybe I'd try again the next evening to snorkel at night if the tide wasn't quite as far out.

(I never did make it back into the water at night, as the tide stayed low. We should have gone one of the first nights we were there because the tide was higher at night and there wasn't as much wading to be done.)

Our beach at high noon . . . er . . . tide.

Sea Lion Skeleton

Common Dolphin Skeleton

Bottle-Nosed Dolphin Skeleton

These skeletons were found on the beach and "scientifically" buried in the sand until the next year. They were then dug up (all cleaned off thanks to the local wildlife) and wired together. Do you like jigsaw puzzles? These have to be some of the ULTIMATE in puzzles. Can you imagine figuring out which bones go where.