Apparently, Jacques Cousteau filmed the rare frigate nests and underwater habitat on this island thirty years ago. Now Isla Isabela is a National Wildlife Preserve managed by the University of Guadalajara. Dave and I were captivated by the thousands and thousands of frigates circling this tiny island and the ability to walk among the many nests in the low hanging trees. A short but steep climb brought us to the nests of the blue-footed boobies. The brown boobies have the lime green "patos." It was unbelievable how close we were able to walk among the nests of the boobies on the ground. Most were sitting on eggs, and although we did not see any newly hatched boobies, we did see frigate chicks still in the nest and one sadly that had fallen out of the nest. Lots of pictures and video were taken of both the boobies and frigates to view if interested. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the pictures do not capture the unique smell of rotting fish and guano (bird poop) on this island.
The two very large rocks in some pictures where we anchored are called "Las Monas" (the Mannequins, meaning women's dress-making forms). Speaking of anchoring, Dave was able to find a sandy area with good holding. However, the anchor chain then ran between many large rocks. The issue is that during the night, if the boat spins around, the anchor chain wraps around the boulders so that you cannot pull it up easily and sometimes you have to dive below and try to loosen the chain. Fortunately, we did not spin around during the night and we were able to get out fairly easily. Kudos to Dave for making us wait an extra day in Mazatlan so that we had the ideal weather in Isla Isabela (no wind or swell)!
Many are asking us about whale sightings. Yes, we have definitely been sailing among pods of them (especially yesterday and today around Isla Isabela) for we can see many blowholes and even the flukes. Haven't actually seen any breaching as yet, but we are definitely keeping an eye out! Best time for sightings seems to be in the mornings.
As we make our way down towards Puerto Vallarta, our next stop today will be the Matanchen Bay right next to San Blas. This area supposedly has a delightful fishing village and we are really looking forward to it. My only concern is the area is well known for biting "jejenes" or no-see-ums. Hopefully we will anchor out far enough to escape the worst of them. Very hot and HUMID here.... In fact, so humid that we went snorkeling at Isla Isabela yesterday after viewing the birds to cool off in the 80 degrees water. Not exactly the Bahamas but we did see many colorful fish and did I mention the water temperature is 80 degrees? All in all, a very delightful day! As Dave noted, with days like yesterday, one could easily cruise forever.... Now if we could only catch that elusive Mahi-Mahi!
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