We arrived back in La Paz on the 13th of January, this time in preparation for our hop to mainland Mexico. We again spent a while frantically ordering boat parts and me frantically hanging out with friends. It was definitely busy! We went for a nice drive to Todos Santos, a hip surf town.
Then, quite suddenly, it was time. Time for us to leave the Baja Peninsula and cross over to mainland Mexico. To me, this seemed like such an impressive and impossible feat. To go across the Cortez Sea for two nights, not seeing land anywhere on the horizon, no crew. Might as well fly! The day on which we left was horrifically windy, hitting 30 knots at some points. I was protesting heavily, I was terrified at the thought of leaving when the port captain was telling people not to. My mother chimed in that the port closure applies to tourist pangas heading out to the islands not well equipped sail boats …Anyways we left that morning.
The La Paz channel is infamous, big winds, big swell, big boats. What can I say? It sure did live up to it’s notorious reputation. I think it was the 27th of January that we left on this endeavor.
Our plan was to leave La Paz then go to Los Muertos then (possibly) Isla Isabel. Or Isabella, it tends to vary. It would be a three-day excursion and we would land in Mazatlan. But as everyone in the boating communicating knows: nothing goes as planned. What we ended up doing was a straight 3 day shot to Isla Isabel.
This was the best boating choice we’ve ever made.
Some of the things that made it wonderful include the following:
A) Orca literally right behind us.
B) Smooth swell and good winds.
C) ISLA ISABEL.
Now its time to tell you about our sacred place. I’m not saying where it is, thought its fairly easy to find, because only a few boats go there and its remarkably unknown. I want to keep it that way. Anchoring was painful, we dog-legged around numerous rocks and we thought for sure that we wouldn’t be able to get the anchor back up. But it was all worth it. We went ashore, completely and utterly unprepared for the wonders we were going to encounter.
We walked all around the island and all we saw were birds. Thousands. Magnificent frigate birds were everywhere, proudly displaying their red chests and on the trail we walked, none flew away. They were so unthreatened their response to human presence was indifferently amazing that they just stared in confusion at the pale, gangly, noisy creatures making cooing sounds at them their babies not us…or maybe we cooed a bit. We were less than 3 ft away from little, fuzzy chicks. I just about died. By the time we returned to Aggie, we were in perpetual natural wonder shock.
Some how, the time in Isla Isabel got better. The next day we went for a different hike, this time up the practically vertical hike up to the cell tower. Up this cell tower is Boobie-Ville. Don’t laugh. Blue footed boobies are some of the most hilarious birds I’ve ever seen, from their electric green eyes to their robins egg pretty blue feet. They are just bizarre. We happened to be at Isla Isabel(la) during mating season, so we witnessed first hand the mating dance that’s amused scientific researchers for centuries.
The male booby puts one foot up in the air and waggles it. He then puts that down and lifts the other foot and waggles it. He proceeds to sway to side to side, whilst honking very, very, loud. So my parents and I all sat down amidst the boobies who were mere feet from us. My mother describes it as a “David Attenborough experience.”
Boobies are just… the epitome of humor and grace, mushed into one blue blob.