Punta Mangles Stopover

March 30

Wild colored layers, sea caves and toppling hoodoo towers line this coast. Your inner geologist starts making up stories about how the crazy combinations of rock could have been laid down. We’d seen the strata at Punta Mangles on the way north and now, returning to Puerto Escondito, we could stop at some of the less well known spots. The niche here really isn't a good anchorage in any wind, but it was flat calm, a perfect day to anchor and explore the ruins of a resort and the shell fossil bluffs up close.

We found the water was perfect for swimming, and soloing in the anchorage, we didn't need to worry about drying our swim suits.

Charlie at the resort's stairway to heaven.

Gratitude's solar oven dried out the slightly soggy crackers, last of Lise's delivery.

Two flocks of grebes and a panga.

 Back a couple of days ago in Agua Verde and Coronados Island I noticed a few eared grebes, a species that’s much more common down here than in Seattle. They tend to be quite clubby, usually swimming around with several of their species close by. At San Juanico on  March 28 a string of 8 or so were swimming across the harbor. The next day I noticed about 50 where the smaller group had been. This flock had adopted a scoter like way of fishing. The head of the line would go down and then all the others would follow in a sort of wave. The flock were active midday. The next morning as we powered along to Punta Mangles we saw much larger flocks further out in the Sea, again diving and surfacing together. Finally during our hike we looked out to see several very large gatherings of the grebes, as many as 300 or 400 in one. The birds were so thick they looked like little islands. Could they be massing for a migration?