Tomorrow morning, Jane and I head off by boat to the island of Espiritu Santo, where we'll spend four days on the undeveloped wilderness preserve. To get a little taste of what's in store for us, we took a boat ride this morning around the bays and beaches (or bahias and playas) to the north of La Paz. Our guide was the son of our b&b hostess, a friendly young man named Antonio who is very proud of his boat and offered to dive for fresh clams for our lunch. Along with us came two other guests of the b&b and Antonio's visiting uncle and cousin. The water was extremely warm - Antonio said the waters will start noticeably cooling off in January. We snorkeled around a guano-streaked rock island filled with seabirds and huge sea lions. Little stingrays and schools of fish swam underneath us, a large sea turtle broke the surface of the water, and Jane spotted a slow-moving pufferfish far below. Later, Antonio dove to the sandy bottom for clams, which we brought ashore to a quiet beach before he pried them open, sprinkled them with lime and hot sauce, and offered them up. They were wonderful.
As always, I battle seasickness on such trips, but the scenery was too beautiful and pristine to stay sick for long. The contrast between the Caribbean-like blue of the waters and the desert-scorched rock slabs of the surrounding hills was especially wonderful. We're now packing up for our four days without electricity or running water, and soothing our sunburns.
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3 comments:
What beautiful scenery! Such a contrast to the frigid cold and stasis-infused world which I find myself here in Chicago. We have been below zero for over 50straight hours now and everything looks dead. Please do share more photos of your vacation as it gives me some (if only a little) comfort in these difficult times. At least it feels like Christmas here...will you two be opening presents under a tree of some sort? In bathing suits and sunglasses no doubt. What a joke!
No, there won't be any presents opened under any trees. Mainly because there are no trees on the island, and our trip is pretty much our present for each other this year.
If it's any consolation, we really did get sunburned yesterday. And it seems as if the whole of the United States is shivering under a massive winter storm system. Many of the tourists we've talked to down here have come from San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco. And all they can talk about is how cold and rainy and miserable it was there, too!
I love the updates! looks absolutely beautiful! Glad you guys are having a fantastic time. Picked up my mom at teh airport yesterday and we are off to fashion hell valley to do the last minute shopping. Nice to have her here. tonight we are making roast chickens in a rosemary/thyme rub with mashed potatoes. Well merry christmas and can't wait to see you guys next week!
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