Day 8. Bahia De Los Angeles.

Day 8.   Bahia De Los Angeles.   We woke early to watch the sun rise over the mountains.  We were not disappointed.  It was beautiful.

At 8am we met with a tour boat for a 4 hour tour of the Sea of Cortez.  We did not know what to expect, and we were blow away by the end of the tour.  The geographic scenery was beautiful, and so was the sea life.  One of the first things we saw was a pod of whales.

The whales were surrounded by a large flock of pelicans.  They were diving and fishing for the fish that the whales stirred up.

  We stopped to do a little clam digging (although only a couple got out of the boats to dig.  Both captains assisted

Our captain was great at finding interesting things for us to see:

A live silver dollar (I have only ever seen the dead ones bleached white by the sun).  It was beautiful!!

A baby flounder

And, a baby octopus and the shell it was hiding in:

From there we went to "Window Island and Window Rock".  As we approached, the rock resembled a coyote howling at the moon

Then, as we went around the rock the "window" came into view

Our ship mates: clockwise - Jerry, Jean, John, Fran, Judy and Don

Our Captain Julio

There we saw some amazing star fish of many different colors.

Upon leaving this area, we saw a monument to a gentleman who so loved fishing in the Sea of Cortez that he requested his ashes to be spread there.  His family then erected this cross:

In this same area there was a huge reef where we saw beautiful fish and star fish

I think the highlight of the tour was a colony of seals.  They really put on a show for us.  The water was very clear and it was so much fun to watch them swimming under the water.  On top of the water they were jumping into the air and rolling on the backs.  We were very close to them and got an excellent view of all their antics. 

Upon visiting another island, we saw many osprey nests, blue heron nests, and a blue heron that posed for us. 

On the way back we got a good view of the campground from the water.  Someone is enjoying the shade from our rig!!

After the tour, we took a quick trip to the local museum.  They had very interesting fossils and artifacts of early settlers.

The last picture is of whale baleen.

When we returned to the campground, fellow campers asked if we would like to go on a geo-cache with them.   They had told us about the night before and it sounded like so much fun.  They actually waited until we got back from the cruise so we could go with them.  That was so nice of them and we were really touched.   It was really a lot of fun. We had to find the cache on a boat that was in a boat graveyard.  It was so cool!   I think they got us hooked!! 

Walking to the cache

We found it!!

The cache was a small box with paper and pencil inside so you could record your geo-cache name and date.  We also recorded our geo-cache name (Tybo), so this is our first official cache!!

We also found out that this same couple will be traveling to Alaska around the same time we are.  We plan to try to hook up again up there.

The cache site was right next to a local cemetery.   It was sad to see a number of  markers for infants.  The people are so poor here, so it is amazing the amount of money they put into making monuments for their loved ones.

  It seemed that the biggest ones were for the children.  This one was for a 14 year old boy.

That is a black plastic bag stuck on a tree that I could not frame out of the picture

We also passed a small grocery store on the walk back to the camper.  As we ventured closer we noticed they had dogs living on their roof:

It is always fun to take a look around inside these stores to see what is open for sale on shelves and what they have under lock and key.   This one had all the alcohol you could want open on a shelf.  But the thing they had under lock and key was hair dye!!

 It is fun to see common item in Spanish also - here are boxes of Frosted Flakes

That evening we had a cookout on the beach and watched a beautiful sun set by the campfire.  The clams we brought back were also cooked up and enjoyed by many.