Isla Isabella: More Whales and Birds

Sunday, January 8

We left San Blas feeling that it was a place to revisit, maybe by land. Time and tide, impatient as always pushed us out in the morning for a calm crossing to the National Park bird sanctuary of Isla Isabella. Its notoriously poor holding ground makes visiting in stable weather a must. On the crossing we noticed many whales. A mother and calf humpback surfaced close to the boat just off the island giving us a great view but no photo.

Arriving about 4, we put in the dinghy and rowed toward the beach. Two huge rocks, the Monas, protect the anchorage a bit from northerly winds and swell. Both are significantly whitened with guano from the frigate birds, pelicans and boobies that roost there. We saw solar panels on shore but were informed that a Norwe-gian research group camping there discour-aged shore visitors.

Cockpit time was rewarded with views of frigates fishing and picking on the boobies. They start fights in the air, pecking at the back feathers of boobies that they suspect have fish. The boobies try landing on the water knowing that once waterborne the frigates cannot take off. We also watched the graceful red-billed tropic birds and Heermann’s gulls going by in flocks as well as peletons of pelicans. (Bill's expression)













Typical Gratitude evening

Before dinner drinks proceeded according to Mexican and Denzel tradition. (Note the green peels at the bottom of the glasses.)

After dinner we had a slideshow of our photos. (See the giant computer screen on the table.)