La Paz

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We booked a full day snorkel and boat tour through Hector and left about 1030 after having a morning jog along the malecon. We boarded a boat on Pichilingue beach, one of the many gorgeous caribbean blue and white sandy beaches on the peninsula about a half an hour to the north of La Paz.

We took the boat from Pichilingue out to Isla Espirtu Santo, which is a world UNESCO heritage site because of the many ruins and artifacts left from the Pichilingue Indians that inhabited this area a few thousand years ago. Our boat ride was about 1 1/2 hrs past the north island Isla Partida to Isla Lobos – essentially sea lion rock. We passed scenery that if I was dropped here with my eyes closed I would swear I was on Lake Mead in Northern Arizona.

We got to swim with a large colony of California sea lions around Isla Lobos. The boat guide warned us not to get close to the large bull males (yes thank you we learned that the hard way in Galapagos) and not to be alarmed if they put their mouth on you, they won't bite you. They think you want to play with them if you go underwater and will swim up to you upside down , spinning and dancing all around you. We had a few nervous moments when we saw a bull male, realizing we must suffer from a bit of ptsd.

We stopped at a beautiful beach and had fresh made ceviche, which inspired us to add it to the list of delicious foods we must seek out almost daily on this trip. We drove by a spot where thousands of frigate birds live, once a pearl harvesting area. We saw many of the males with their chests puffed up large and red in order to attract females.

Finally on the way in we saw some dolphins, a different species than we are used to seeing. These dolphins have a short nose that makes them look almost like a pilot whale. We were also lucky enough to see jumping Manta Rays off in the distance. Unfortunately we didn't get very close but we were so excited, as if was one of things we really wanted to see this trip.







For dinner sadly our taco stand was closed but we got a recommendation from our guide for a local fish stand called Pulpo's for the area's famous Chocolata clams on the half shell. We got a delicious dozen clams and ceviche for dinner and remembered how much we miss seafood from our home's in NJ where we grew up eating clams, crabs and fish all summer long.

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Comments

[Luis Guimaraes]

Cool blog
I enjoyed reading your posts on Baja!! Amazing wildlife sightings. Your entusiasm oso beautiful. Im also a phantom whale spotter!