buenos tardes de san jose del cabo.
as i write this, we are cruising out of san jose del cabo, which is – big surprise – near cabo san lucas. this is the first trip we take during which we head around the tip of baja to the pacific side. we’ll be anchored in bahia magdelena by tomorrow evening and we’ll stay there for 3 days doing whale watching and boat trips out in the bay.
but we’ve had a few exciting days already — our guests came on board saturday evening and we had a lovely sunset as we cruised out of la paz harbour. sunday was spent cruising and then enjoying the beach at isla catalina/la elephante. i found a gorg starfish on the beach – and even though we are not supposed to collect, i took it. it will remind me on this pretty place (and i can always put it back). on monday morning, we were at los islotes, and i raced through my cabin cleaning in order to spend just 10 minutes with the sea lions. we cruised at lunch down to bahia bonanza, where we spent the afternoon. we also held our beach barbeque at bonanza. we set up a buffet dinner and have a campfire, etc. its fun, and we get to go back over to the beach after the guests leave and clean up is done. this week, a bunch of us took 2 beers each (the limit) and went swimming. it wasn’t crazy cold – maybe 60 – and it was so clear we could see our feet. we could also see the bioluminescents — that was fun. the asst engineer, j, brought goggles so we could stick our heads under water and see them. it was really cool.
the next day brings us to the cabo area. we cruised through the night and docked at san jose del cabo around 2. as crew, we got laundry and trash offloaded and clean laundry in… which took a long freakin time. it was also sheet change day – which is exactly what it sounds like – so it was a lonnnnng morning/day for me. but i got about 3 hours off in the afternoon and i was able to sit in the sun for a bit before napping.
since i started writing this, its now the next day and we are in magdelena bay. i just know i’m going to love this place. we had so many whales this morning, i mean just literally swimming in circles around the ship, and some coyotes on the beach this afternoon. i’ll take some photos and post them this weekend… just wow. we are in the mag bay canal right now, heading into the bay area where we will anchor.
there are mangroves on either side and its surprisingly shallow… in fact we just saw some fishermen/divers standing on a mudflat about 30 feet off the ship. we anchored off boca de soledad and on thursday (which is now today) we went out to see whales. i had the day off, and i went out on the first boat. i didn’t get to touch one, but later boats did… that’s cool though, i went to the beach and walked across the dunes to the pacific ocean. the first time i did it, it was super hot and my feet were burning. the second time, it had gotten cloudy and chillier, and i ended up falling asleep on the beach wrapped in my skirt and sunshirt. the dunes are massive, and it was kind of hard to walk across them, but so fun. i loved seeing the sand rise above my head… it kind of reminded me of dorothy in return to oz, once i walked far enough in to not be able to see the ocean or bay. sand on all sides of me!
(morning) when i returned to the pick up point, there were some fishermen down the beach and a few of us walked down to see them. it turns out that they had caught hammerhead and dogfish sharks, and were slicing the fins off of them to export for shark fin soup. it was almost grotesque. BUT it was an eye opener: shark conservation awareness needs to be more prevalent. i was talking with several guests tonight – i had dinner with them – and we talked about educating these local fishermen about sharks and shark conservation, and trying to get them into the tourism industry instead of killing sharks for money. the hammerheads they had were only 4 feet long, and i was able to pick one up. william, one of the naturlists, took some pictures. i also held a baby dogfish shark fetus. its eyes were the size of sequins, and it was translucent.
the other thing that was kind of surreal was to see the heads of mako sharks all along the shoreline. they slit the heads off the bodies and toss the heads to the gulls/friggets. the birds fight over them, which was amusing to watch, but so sad to see these little shark heads all over the place. i took a shark tooth from one of the mako sharks. it’s about half an inch tall and not super sharp or strong, which leads me to think that this was a baby shark too.
it was an amazing day off. i sat with several guests for dinner and learned i had some great connections with them. two are notre dame grads, one is a florida grad and he and his wife live in charlotte, nc, and the last two live in england and their daughter and son-in-law teach greek and roman classics at st andrews. HELLO connections!
it was great, and we had a great conversation — all about books and africa and traveling. i have never made such great connections with guests before and it was really pretty cool.