Waking up today took a bit longer than yesterday. Perhaps we were already settling into the time zone change. Perhaps it was the exhausting day swimming with whale sharks before, but today we had decided that we were going to enjoy a Mexican restaurant breakfast so we left our apartment full of oatmeal packets and bread in favor of a restaurant that came highly recommended to us by our DiDi driver, Jorge. I was reminded of how awesome the proximity of our Airbnb was for this trip. Literally, the restaurant was across from our driveway. I imagined how far others may have had to walk to find this local joint that is such a great place for breakfast!
Because the weather was so beautiful, we sat outside under the covered framework of colorful fabric flags and winding bougainvillea flowers. Jesus was our waiter and I enjoyed sharing a bit of my Spanish knowledge by introducing myself. We’re trying to use Spanish wherever we can but there aren’t many opportunities. He was nice enough to bring us menus in English so we did our best to try to sort through the different menu items. One thing that was peculiar was everything came with multiple choices and I know restaurants usually offer multiple choices, but this one seemed extra. Kaia chose the pancake breakfast and her choices were endless. Did she want fluffy or regular pancakes? Did she want her eggs scrambled or fried? What kind of meat did she want on the side bacon, chorizo, or turkey? Kaia got three fluffy pancakes that ended up looking like three layers of cake! I mean seriously the thing stood 8 inches high and it was only three layers of pancakes. I think they have a different definition of the word fluffy.
Breakfast finally finished a little later than I was comfortable with. I ran Kaia’s leftover flour bricks back up to the apartment — we would use those for a breakfast later — and then we made our way down to meet up with our tour to start today’s adventure. We were happy to book again with Alonso Tours after having had such a great experience with the whale sharks and sure enough seeing Amalia‘s friendly face so early in the morning was reassuring. She actually refers to us as the Familia because we’re the only family of four and now we’ve booked with her twice.
After grabbing our wetsuits for the day, we headed over to the waiting area along the dock until our boat was ready to take us. Today we were heading in a different direction to the famous Isle de Espirito Santo. The entire island is a national preserve or national Park and at the very northern tip is another island that has a sea lion colony. Today’s adventure would take us all the way up to the very northern tip to snorkel with the sea lions then enjoy a beach day lunch before making our way back.
The water was unusually calm and our tour boat’s twin Honda engines appear to effortlessly sail us through the deep blue waters.
Crossing the channel to Espiritu Santo, our first detour was to see a colony of frigates (aka scissor birds because of their unusual wing shapes). As our boat ventured deeper into the bay the water color magically changed from ocean blue to a turquoise only possible in dreams. There were hundreds of them. All squawking and hollering. Beyond the frigates was a bay used 120 years ago to harvest pearls – an interesting part of their local history. And further around the bays inlet was a pristine beach where humans were forbidden as this beach is protected for returning turtles who will nest here, as they once were hatched and their parents before them.
Our next stop was this stunning cove with a natural arch. The water, once again transformed from rich Pacific blue to turquoise and then it nearly disappeared altogether as the water was clear you could straight to the bottom – it was nearly 20-30 feet deep, but clearer and cleaner that you could imagine.
Legend has it that if you pass under the natural arch you may make a wish, but you may not ask for money or a divorce! (A little Mexican tour guide humor, I’m sure!)
With water still smooth as glass, we barreled forward finally reaching the largest seal colony of the area.
The first thing we noticed, even from a reasonable distance…..the barking from the dog like creatures. In fact, less than”barking” and more “hacking”, maybe “coughing.” Perhaps the sound a human might make after a bad batch of ceviche wasn’t gonna make it through the GI system. Whatever you want to imagine…..it was loud.
With snorkels, wetsuits, flippers (with socks) and life jackets buckled we slipped off the boat’s gunwales into the colder-than-yesterday waters. We’ve gotten pretty good at this way of water entry now, but the water was easily 10 degrees colder than yesterday. But perfectly clear with visibility approaching 100 feet!
As we paddled and bobbed our way closer to the rocky coastline we could see sea lions perched on the exposed rocks. Some baby sea lions were nursing while other slept off the breakfast they were likely digesting. Others barked and hollered for no apparent reason that we could understand.
And then, you’d look down and one would sail beneath you, effortlessly gliding and darting, turning at will. They had large eyes, whiskers and large arms and short legs, both with Cat In The Hat like fingers/toes.
We watched them leap from their rocks or dart through the waters, only to spring up and back onto the rocks.
The GoPro was, once again, invaluable, helping to capture the scenes we hope our memories won’t soon forget. We all took turns knowing that each time you were without the camera……the most epic sea lion encounter would appear as seen from our own mask.
We made our way in a circle around the island, crossing deep spans of water with enormous boulders below and other areas where coral reefs were teaming with all the usual tropical fish while the bellies had to be sucked in just a bit to clear without touching or damaging the healthy reef system – all the while single sea lions, mother/child pairs or even small groups of 4 or 5 would swim by to explore our own presence.
Before too long we arrived around the back side of the island and were greeted by our boat – our captain must have buzzed around to the pick up point while we were all talking through our snorkels and squealing with delight at the sights and sounds of this colony.
Everyone knows I have one great big problem with swimming with sea lions. No, it isn’t that the males can be territorial and even a little aggressive. (It’s true, they can be, but they weren’t!). It is certainly not that I’m uncomfortable in the water – we all seem to be okay here, too. For me, I can’t help but think about the sea lions’ main predators – the great white sharks and the orcas. But never mind, our tour guide told us that those apexes of the marine food chain don’t swim here.
Our next stop was an out-of-this-world secluded beach call Ensenada Grande (Grand Inlet). It was set deep inside towering walls, exposed rocks that felt like Nevada or Arizona, tall thick cactus towers everywhere, water so turquoise then so clear it disappeared (again) — this place was heaven on earth. Other tour groups were there as well because this was the place to sunbathe, go shelling, swim or snorkel and of course – have lunch provided – the traditional ceviche served ice-cold on a crispy tostada complete with the toppings a restaurant would be proud to display (mayonnaise, 9 different bottles of hot sauce and an extra Tupperware of pickled jalapeño onions!) It was actually quite tasty, but a second serving proved to be a bit than Tara could swallow so that was fun while it lasted.
Our tour crew had set up 5 umbrellas in a line. Most of our group found their way under the shade – most relaxed and talked, some snoozed. Kaia’s observation was pretty cool to think about. As peered down the line of shaded travelers she noticed all were staring out at the spectacular view, as if we were all in a theater watching “This Beautiful World!” She wasn’t wrong – that’s exactly what we were doing!
There was a mini photo shoot for Kaia and Owen, and Tara and I briefly got roped into it as well. But after 90 minutes of pure relaxing and pinching ourselves to prove that a place like this really existed, it would soon be time to make our return journey to La Paz.
The trip back had a nice surprise for an already amazing tour adventure…..on both sides of the boat there were countless manta rays leaping from the water and splashing down back into the deep Pacific blue waters. Our tour guide informed us there were 3 primary reasons why rays do this – (1) to splash down hard removing remoras or other parasites. (2) escape from predators and (3) for fun! We literally witnessed scores of them suggesting to me it was for fun! In fact it’s hard to not consider the hopeful optimism each ray might have thinking this one time might actually be the moment they just keep flying, soaring like the frigates and the gulls. But nope……each time their flapping wings seemingly fail them and return to the water they must. You got to love their apparent happiness!!!
