Sunday, December 28, 2008

How I got out-smarted by Sea Turtles or Welcome to the Island Life

Here in Mexico all is good as usual. We have the daughter for a while which is great. We booked it from La Paz to the islands six hours away. We are currently at the island of Partida. Yesterday we stayed at Ensenada Grande. We love that place and it is usually a great place, but the wind kicked up last night and the waves got going. It wasn't so bad until the wind died and we turned sideways to the waves making for a restless nights sleep at best. The morning sun got us to get up and set a stern anchor to stop the rocking for a few solid hours of sleep.

As the day began to unfold we experienced the only reason I don't like Ensenada Grande...BEES! We had at least 50 bees visit us in an hour or so. Even the cat gave up trying to eat and kill the bees. That got us to lift anchor and head to Caleta Partida. It is tied with Ensenada Grande as to our favorite place for different reasons. The bird life is amazing at Partida, but the hiking isn't as easy or fun to me as it is in Ensenada Grande. We love them both anyhow.

Chloe and I kayaked around and saw manta rays, fish, terns, gulls, pelicans, ospreys and turtles! I got outsmarted by turtles...a sad realization. I was paddling around trying to get pictures of the turtle, but damn it was fast. It turned out to be two turtles and I bounced back and forth between them like the ball in Pong. Though at the time I was thinking more like "Whack-a-mole" 'cause every time I would go after one the other one would surface ten yards away. I would refocus, but it would dive away while the other surfaced and so on until I gave up. Jerks! Word must have traveled that we hit a turtle last year. Those turtle networks move fast you know.

For x-mas we are going to a boat raft-up potluck. It will be with our same turkey day friends maybe more. So 16 people, two dogs and three ferrets...not bad for diversity. I love the little weasels! We will leave x-mas day for the raft up 5 hours away. It will be a great time among the cruiser family.

The following morning started out sunny and warm. David suggested we go snorkeling. After checking the water temperature and seeing *gasp* 72 degree water. I grabbed my new suit and put on the long-legged farmer John suit. I decided to skip the top not wanting to over heat so I put on my rash guard top as a type of cover from the aguamalas. Chloe tried (unsuccessfully) to slip into my midgity summer suit, but surprise, it was too short. David decided to brave the cold and go just in his board shorts. We went to the North West side of Partida and got snorkeling. We saw tons of little bait fish that surrounded us wherever we swam. There were yellow-tailed surgeon fish, yellowtail, jack crevalles, king angelfish and many other tropical fish. While David and Chloe froze, I happily floated along in my warm suit. Thank you Janice.

The rest of the day was a lazy pace...we are on island time. I took a kayak to the Espiritu Santo side of Caleta Partida while Chloe vegged out on Anthony Bourdain and David cleaned the stainless. Of all the time we have anchored there and even gone ashore we have never gone ashore on that particular strip of land. Partly since it isn't as inviting as a white sand beach. It is all rocky shore and upon landing I saw way too many sea cockroaches for my comfort. Once back in the thick of things it was a very cool place to explore. I was greeted with the chirps and sightings of small birds fluttering around. There were lagoon like ponds that were muddy like, but even at high tide the water can't reach those spots. We guessed some springs must be back there. The muddy beds had tons of fiddler crabs inhabiting them so I would guess that they somehow get saltwater. A mystery for the time for my little brain. I saw the same little paw prints that we saw at Ensenada Grande too....hmmm.

Once back from my excursion, David got to making the bread dough for tomorrow's potluck. Once he was done I started to make the cookies. David and Chloe decided to go to the beach for some father-daughter time while I worked. Fun fun fun!

2 comments:

AH said...

I'm very comfortable with your stance on bees and bugs.

Minx said...

I figured you might share my outlook :)