Isla Isabela – Mexico's Galapagos

Isla Isabela is a craggy mile long island with a small panguero fishing village in a bay on its south end. The island was made famous for its abundant underwater life and nesting bird colonies in both Jacques Cousteau and National Geographic television specials. On our first morning, we paddled over to visit with Jacob and Julia on Pisces, a Jason 35 sailboat that is quite similar to our Ladybug II. We had met this younger couple a week earlier in La Paz and they were keen to explore the island with us, having not yet been ashore. We joined them and their friends Naomi and John from Campbell River on the beach. In contrast to the usual cruising crowd, Rani and I were the seniors, with everyone else being 41 or under. Both couples have great blogs, Julia and Jacob's is here and Naomi and John's is here.

We chatted with some pangueros, learning that there is a full time fishing community of less than 50 people here. They also told us that regular tourist boats visit from San Blas about 40 or 50 miles away on the mainland. We later found a log book in which cruisers and tourists had signed their names, recognizing several yachts that had preceded us.

Ashore at the panguero village.

The pebbly beach where we landed is lined by colourful fisherman's shanties, painted green with red painted iron roofs. We left our inflatable kayak beside one hut and struck out on a trail that worked its way past a string of composting toilets overlooking a pond. Overhead hundreds of frigrates circled against a deep blue sky. In a forest of short trees that covers about half the island nest thousands of Magnificent Frigates – mainly black with forked tails. The males have red throat pouches they puff out during breeding season, like a heart worn on a sleeve. The females have white throats and the babies start off life as cute and fluffy white cotton balls, quickly developing into less appealing gawky grey adolescents.

Frigate chick and mother.

As we followed the trail toward the north end of the island, we marveled at how close the nests were to the trail and how little our passing appeared to phase the families. We saw both males and females taking turns to guard the nests, each nest containing only one youngster. We passed by a larger pond and then came out of the forest and onto a rocky promontory overlooking the great north rock around which we had sailed last night in the moonlight. Julia shouted back to us that there were whales off the coast. We could see two pairs of humpbacks working their way along the shore, plumes of spray from their breathing making it easy to locate them. As we turned south and walked along the cliffs toward the rock pinnacles known as the Monas, we could see several more spouts in the distance. The sea must indeed be rich here to support such abundant avian and cetacean life.

Naomi, Rani, Julie, and Jacob hiking the cliff trail. The Monas are in the distance.

All along the path we saw yellow and blue footed boobies, some nesting and others courting. They are comical birds, particularly when they walk, and again they showed little fear of us. Most couples were making quite a racket, whistling and clacking at each other We did our best to avoid the nesting birds but managed to take some good videos and still shots. Chris noted that when they look at you face on, the boobies look like anoerexic owls, with their round faces and similar colouration. We also saw several iguanas sunning themselves on the rocks ranging from half a foot to two or more feet long.

Nesting blue footed booby.

Courting boobies.

Another nesting boobie.

We came to a sand beach across form the Monas where there is located the Norwegian Camp. Here, we met a student from Mexico city, who told us that he and other students from universities in Mexico spend from 6 to 10 weeks in this location, camping out, with supplies arriving periodically from the mainland. They study the boobies, tagging them to understand their breeding habits. I'm not sure why it is called Norwegian?

A student explains how he studies the boobie's breeding habits.

Rani walking past a forest of frigate nests.

Daddy and baby frigate.

Frigate family.

Rani with the Monas behind.

Frigates and Monas.

Courting boobies.

We swam in the surf and snorkeled out to the Mona's, but the visibility and life was not a patch on what we were to see later in our own little bay. After a few mis-steps, we found the trail back to the beach and returned to Ladybug. John dropped by before supper and tossed Chris a handful of shrimp from a huge bag that he had bartered a case of beer for with one of the shrimpers anchored in the bay. Chris cleaned them and quickly sauteed them in olive oil and garlic. He has not been a particularly faithful vegetarian of late.

Sunning iguana.

Male frigate with impressive pouch.




Chris faces off with a booby.

The next day, we slept in late, recovering from our lost sleep on the crossing. We woke up in time to see the spouting of whales in the distance. Even though Chris was feeling headachy, we jumped in the kayak and paddled out into the big ocean swells. About ¼ mile off the bay we came upon a pair of whales – one large and one quite a lot smaller (possibly a mother and calf). Chris maneuvered us to get close enough to film and I used Flip to take some movies. At one point we almost kayaked over the tail of the larger whale, which you can see in the video just below the surface of the sea. Being in the kayak sure gets you close to these awe inspiring animals who did not seem to resent our presence so long as we stayed behind them or well off to the side. We will post a video of this in the next blog entry.

Later, despite a big swell rolling into the bay, we managed to go for a snorkel along the nearby reefs, enjoying the warm water and abundant life. Rani saw a sea snake and another cruiser swam over to tell us he had spotted some barracuda off the point. Dozens of parrot fish and schools of surgeon fish swam between the jagged black rocks that had tumbled from the cliffs and all of us were swept back and forth by a strong surge from the swells. We made a cursory attempt to clean some growth off Ladybugs hull and propellor. The prop and shaft were getting quite encrusted after a few weeks in the warm rich water.

We went ashore around supper time and climbed the other trail that winds up a steep hill overlooking the bay to the lighthouse on the south point. The view from the top was stunning – red banded cliffs lining our little bay, the matching roofs of the panguero huts lit up by the lowering sun, and thousands of birds nesting in the rich greenery of the forests. Overhead the frigates whirled and dived, sometimes locked in an embrace with another bird, (presumably courting?). The entire cliff top was lined with booby nests and baby boobies at various stages of maturity. We returned to Ladybug, Chris paddling back to the beach to give the fisherman the last of our butter, so they could cook some shell fish.

Shrimper fleet in the south

Returning to the boats.

At 4 am the next morning we awoke to wind blowing straight into the anchorage from the south east. More about this later...

Videos of nesting birds and kayaking with whales

A few videos from Isla Isabela

The first shows some boobies nesting on the east coast of the island:



The next shows nesting frigates:




And check out this whale watching video. We got pretty close to a very large humpback, almost paddling over its tail - yikes!

Crossing the Sea to Isla Isabela

My friend Jamie Orr reminds me that this is a sailing trip and maybe I should write a bit about sailing now and again, so here is my annual sailing oriented blog.

Rani enjoying vino while anchored off La Paz.

But first a few last pictures from La Paz – a kayaking trip we made to the Mogote (mo-goat-ay), a peninsula that lies off La Paz, with our friends Marv and Ardy off Odyssey.


Ardy and Marv in the mangroves.

We paddled through a mangrove swamp and saw plenty of wildlife including yellow and black crowned night herons and snowy egrets.


Yellow crowned night heron.


Night heron flying.


Egret strutting its stuff.
The wreck on the beach was that of a trimaran, needing more than a lick of paint to put her back in sailing trim.

Wrecked trimaran.


Dolphins swim by anchored boats off La Paz. The Mogote is behind.

Oh – and a couple more pics of a later trip we did to swim with some whale sharks. In one picture you can see the shark – about 24 feet long (much bigger than the aluminum boat we were in!). The next shot shows Rani swimming to catch up with the shark.

Whale shark


Rani swimming after the shark.

The whale sharks were swimming gently along the Mogote about 500-1000 feet offshore, feeding on plankton. This was an impromptu expedition, again with Marv and Ardy, and none of us had our bathing suits or snorkels. At first no one was keen to jump in and swim with the sharks, but once Rani led the way, we all stripped off to our undies and took turns swimming alongside a shark. One of our more modest friends even jumped in with her skirt on! It was amazing to be so close to such a huge beast, in its own element. Later, a nearby tour boat lent us a pair of goggles and we were able to see the school of yellow fish swimming right in front of the shark and some huge encrustations on the shark's body.

OK – back to sailing...

We left La Paz and spent a couple of days in the islands just to the north before making the crossing to Isla Isabela. The picture below shows Odyssey and Ladybug anchored in the shallow bay of San Gabriel on Espiritu Santo island a couple of days before we left.

Odyssey and Ladybug off Espiritu Santo

We departed Espiritu Santo island early in the morning following a rough and windy night anchored under the sheltering cliffs of Galleta cove. I don't like to run our engine as I would much rather sail, so as soon as we broke the anchor out and secured it to the bow roller, I hoisted the main and instructed Rani to run off across the bay on a close reach. The jib is on a roller furler and is usually easy to unfurl, but today I was distracted with 'instructing' Rani on where to point the boat and managed to roll the sail up instead of unfurling it, resulting in a snarl. We cleared things up after much flapping and criss crossing of the bay under the watchful eye of several sailboats and shaped our course for the San Lorenzo channel that separates La Paz bay from the Sea of Cortez.

As we ran south down to the channel, we could see a pair of humpbacks breaching to port off San Gabriel bay. The wind was from the west and a little behind the beam and I set our wind vane up to do the steering. Rani is the navigator, so she worked out a course that kept us clear of the shoals and rocks that guard both sides of the San Lorenzo channel. Rounding the tip of Espiritu Santo, we swung Ladybug onto an easterly course and jibed the main over to the opposite side from the jib, securing it with a line to prevent it from accidentally swinging back. We ran through the channel with sails on opposite sides, 'wing and wing'. At the entrance to the channel, the wind picked up, as it often does near points of land and we made good time for a half hour pushed along by a 10 knot breeze. We could see two other sail boats in the channel, both under motor, despite a decent breeze. It has always struck me as odd that someone would buy a sailboat and then use it as a motor boat most of the time. This is true of many 'sailors' in the Victoria area but seems to be true everywhere we have traveled.

One of the motoring sailboats hailed us to say hello on the VHF. 'Fire Water' was an Atkins ketch out for a trip to Los Muertos. She was fishing and had up a jib to steady her. We exchanged compliments about the other's boat and sailed past her and into the Cerralvo channel. This channel is usually an area of high winds and we were not disappointed when the wind piped up and swung into the north west behind us. We used our aluminum reaching pole to hold out the jib and put a reef in the main to keep things under control as the wind rose beyond 13 knots (as read on our little hand held anemometer). A small pod of white bellied dolphins shot by between us and Cerralvo Island to port. The wind vane was doing the steering and we had plenty of time to enjoy the scenery – extensive white sand beaches to starboard and the inhospitable craggy shoreline of Cerralvo island on the other side.

By tea time the wind was down and we shook out the reef and poled the job out on the opposite side from the main. Towards night fall we reached Los Meurtos, passing well off the sandy point that marks the northern approach to this bay. To let our friends know where we were, we checked in to the Southbound net on our single side band radio, giving our location and the weather (helpful to other cruisers in the area). Later we talked to Odyssey and Blue Moon using the same frequency on the radio. Blue Moon was near our destination at Isla Isabela and Odyssey was about 60 miles away (having left Los Muertos that morning). A near full moon rose in front of us and around us we could hear the splashes made by manta rays jumping from the water.

We kept four hour watches that night and near dawn I spotted the lights of a sail boat approaching from our rear. The trimaran, Sunday, with Gill and Lexie on board hailed us on our VHF radio and we had a good chat, with Gill passing on some suggestions about anchoring at Isla Isabela and visiting San Blas. The wind continued to be light to moderate from the north and we kept up the main and full jib with the vane doing all the steering. We removed the lock on the stove allowing it to swing in its gimbals for the wind on our aft port quarter and a moderate swell cause Ladybug to roll as she ran down to the south east. Cooking wold otherwise have been a messy affair.

While cleaning the decks with a bucket of sea water, I noticed that there were several tiny jelly-like organisms in the bucket. We dipped the bucket into the sea several times, each time coming up with different type of jellies. All were transparent and tube like with an opening at each end. They each had at least one small black spot (maybe a light sensor?) and what looked like a rudimentary digestive canal. Some were simply tubes about 2-3 centimeters long and others were made up of one or more rounded segments, each with its own dot and inner workings. They propelled themselves around the bucket, clearly taking in water at one end and expelling it at the other - very cool.

The north winds and swells continued that day and the next. We were now out of sight of land and saw little wildlife, except for a bird or two. On the third day out it was clear that we would reach Isla Isabela around midnight if we did not slow her down. We had made better time than I had expected with 100 and 120 mile runs on the first two days. We handed the main and continued to run under a slightly furled poled out jib. Still, we averaged 5 knots and the wind vane had a much easier time of it due to the reduced weather helm. This would bring us to the island early in the morning and we agreed that we would attempt a night entry only if conditions looked favourable and would heave too and wait for dawn otherwise. Rani entered way points on our GPS that would take us around the north tip of the island and allow us to look at the first possible anchorage off the rock pinnacles known as the Monas. If this east anchorage looked suitable we would stay there , otherwise pressing on to the southern anchorage off a fishing village.

The moon rose full that night and we began to see shrimpers working the rich fishing grounds off Isla Isabela. We steered around these boats and began our approach to Isabela, which appeared as a dark outline in the south east with a flashing light at its southern tip. Rounding the off-lying rock at the northern tip, we approached the Monas, but found that there was too much swell to anchor here. We could see the lights on the masts of several sailboats in the southern anchorage. We rounded the south point, being careful to avoid the thundering surf and foaming shoals visible under the bright moon.

We were surprised by the number of boats crowded into this achorage that one guide book says can comfortably hold only a couple of boats. A large motor cruiser was anchored just outside the bay and even though it was 1 am, there was a party in full swing on the after deck. We dropped the hook under motor in 36 feet between the motor yacht and the outermost sail boat. The bottom here is rocky and we dragged backwards for 50 feet before the anchor hooked round a large rock. We had buoyed the anchor with a trip line and orange float because this bay has a reputation as an 'anchor eater'. Leaving the GPS turned on with the anchor drag alarm set we turned in for the night. I remained on the settee bunk ready to act if the anchor should drag. Stay tuned for more on Isabela including some good footage of whales and some great booby (bird!) shots.


Sunrise - first day at Isabela

Some videos

Mariachi and Dolphins - not at the same time, though.



Mariachi band at our Mexican friend Maleh's graduation party in Tlaxcala




Mariachi band take 2 at our Mexican friend Maleh's graduation party in Tlaxcala




Dolphins off Isla San Jose, just north of La Paz, Mexico

Leaving La Paz for the mainland

Well we have been sucked into the La Paz vortex once again and have now been here for approaching 4 weeks with a week off for good behavior in Tlaxcala. No pics from our stay for now. We have been enjoying spending time with our friends Marv and Ardy on Odyssey who have helped us sew curtains for our head and hanging locker. The curtains are gold in color and I feel quite regal every time I visit the 'loo' (as Rani terms it). We also just completed a sun cover for our rubber kayak.

We leave tomorrow for the islands just north of here and will cross pending some predicted rough weather in a few days. We plan to sail for San Blas (as in Longfellow's The Bells of San Blas) and then work our way south towards Puerta Vallarta and beyond (hopefully as far as Manzanillo where my friends Dave and Katy have a place).

Tlaxcala and Mexican Hospitality

We fell in love with Maleh’s city, Tlaxcala, with it’s pastel -coloured houses, historical buildings, European style plazas, pedestrian friendly sidewalks, and colleges of higher learning. There are splendid murals in the Palacio de Gobierno by Desidero H. Xochitiozin and his son. The murals depict the history of the region and the alliance of the four lords of Tlaxcala with Cortes against the Aztecs. Nearby, the magenta domes and blue talavera tiles of the Parroquia de San Jose church stood out against a bright blue sky.

Desidero H. Xochitiozin's mural - Four lords.

Desidero H. Xochitiozin's mural.

I saw Rani kissing Santa Claus

Sweet 15 dresses

Chris holding colourful manteles bought for Ladybug at the local market

Curry Dinner at the Hernandez house - Maleh's sister Aida, maleh's Mum Rebecca, Maleh's daughter Mariel, Maleh's youngest sister Angelica

More curry dinner - Angelica's Manuel with daughter Samantha, Maleh, Penny, Chris

Rebecca, Aida, Anaya, Maleh's youngest brother, Andan

On the steps overlooking Tlaxcala

Parroquia de San Jose church dome - Talavera tiles.

Relief outside first indigenous church in Tlaxcala

Mexican Hospitality

We stayed with Maleh's family in a six bedroom, 2 bath house, made almost entirely from concrete. The house was not heated and everyone wore coats and sweaters in the chilly mornings. Mexicans are like us East Indians – if we have a holiday, there is lots of cooking and eating. Every morning, Maleh’s mum or sister Aida would put on a pot of “ponche”, a melange of fruits (guavas, oranges, dried apricots, raisins, and some I cannot remember) , dried flowers of hibiscus, cinnamon and sugar steeped in water. Breakfast was usually flour tortillas served with beans, fish or meat, cheese and avocado with a fruit salad of papaya and whatever else was available.

The big meal of the day in Mexico is comida, generally served between 2 and 4pm. On New Year’s Eve, I offered to cook an Indian meal for comida. Because we were out touring the town until 3, by the time I finished cooking it was 5.30pm, so that must have been very hard on people who had not eaten since breakfast!

I was under the impression that all Mexicans like their food spicy hot and was surprised when Rebecca, Maleh's mum, started fanning her face with a hand while eating my lentil curry. I gave her some rice to soak up the heat of the curry spices. When I found out later that she is taking medication for acid, it made me feel really bad. Maleh's sister Angelica and brother-in-law Manuel came over with baby Samantha just as we were finishing the meal, and I was intrigued to find out that Manuel, who is Portugese, had spent time in India working with a missionary church. I enjoyed listening to him as he reminisced about his experiences and the South Indian dishes he missed.

Usually, there is a light supper eaten later at night. However, since it was New Year's Eve, the family had planned a traditional roast turkey dinner for 11pm. As soon as we had finished comida, Rebacca headed into the kitchen to put the turkey in the oven. I was feeling so full that I could not even imagine putting another crumb of food in my mouth, however late. Most families attend some church service or other on this auspicious day, so everyone except Aida, who stayed to attend to the roast, left shortly for the hour and half service at their Methodist church. Chris and I decided to go for a walk around the city to soak up the atmosphere and popped into the cathedral where mass was in progress. People did not appear to be dressed in their Sunday best as we had expected. There were vendors set up outside the cathedral selling local sweets, guava rolls and muesli rounds, juices and candles.

Church steeple near Maleh' s house

Ceiling of oldest church in Tlaxcala

Rani and Pharmacist friend

Pulque poster. Pulque is a cactus liquor.

We walked up a steep cobbled boulevard with coloured streamers fluttering above us strung from the grand old trees framing this wide ancient street. We stopped at the first permanent church in New Spain, the Franciscan monastery Ex-convento de la Asuncion, built from the stones of a pyramid to the rain god Tlaloc. The sacristy holds the font where the four lords of Tlaxcala were baptised before Cortes. Standing in the doorway, we watched a bishop conducting the service for hundreds of tightly packed worshippers and I prayed for the health and happiness of my family, friends and people in general.

We ate the last dinner of 2009 at 11.30pm with Manuel saying grace in English and Spanish. I can't say much about the turkey as I am still vegetarian, but my tortilla with fried prickly pear cactus, green beans and cheese was yummy. We toasted in the New Year with the slightly tart fruit ponche.

New Year's Day 2010

We walked into downtown Tlaxcala with Maleh. Hundreds of people had gathered for services in a tent outside the Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Ocotlan, the site of several miraculous appearances of the Virgin Mary. The baroque church’s ornate portal and twin towers are carved in white plaster and the stunning interior took an indigenous artist more than 20 years to complete.

A large group of brightly clad native performers were gathered ouitside the church. When we returned a few hours later, we saw them emerge from the church, dancing and singing. In the square outside, we watched them perform elaborate ceremonies in which a shaman blessed musical instruments and musicians.

Little girls dressed up for church

Jaguar man dancer.

The shaman appears to be blessing a musical instrument and the player.

Dancers outside the Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Ocotlan.

More dancers - note the ankle bracelets with seed pod 'eye of the deer' rattles.

In the evening, comida prepared by Rebecca included baked salmon, beans, tortillas, tostados and cheese. Later on, we celebrated Angelica's birthday with two types of cake and hot fruit punch. Is it any surprise that I have gained a few pounds during this holiday? I should mention that hibiscus tea is very popular in Mexico because it is supposed to reduce weight and is also a good source of Vitamin C. However, it is a diuretic so I would not recommend it to everyone.

Post-Grad Party

On the evening before our departure, the family Hernandez celebrated Maleh's Ph.D. graduation from University of Victoria, B.C. All morning, Maleh's mum was in the kitchen, marinating lamb in a red hot sauce, putting individual portions in little packages tied up with string, to be steamed slowly in a giant saucepan. This is apparently a great delicacy, served with rice and vegetables on the side. It looked like a bloody mess to me when I saw the packets cut open on the plates.

Dressed up for the party.

Maleh, Mariel, and Aida

Maleh and Mum getting ready for the party

A mariachi band of 2 trumpets, 2 guitars, one violin, a bass, and a female singer arrived around 3pm. They entertained us for several hours, with the family singing along to popular songs. I told them that Chris used to play the trumpet too and they immediately invited him to join them for a song. He did pretty well considering he had not played for years and even performed a solo, The Girl From Ipanema. No-one danced but everyone had a great time.

Chris joins the mariachis

Mariachis

More mariachis

Young fiddler - great panache

Three amigos

The next day, Aida dropped us at the bus station and we headed back to Mexico City and a flight home to Ladybug. Back on the boat that night, we both missed the warm friendship of our adopted family in Tlaxcala.

Special thanks to Penny and Maleh for some of the pictures.