Sea Lions, Dolphins and Whales, oh my!

Yesterday's long drive to La Paz was exhausting. Campestre Maranatha is the nicest campground we've visited in Baja, but when we arrived yesterday afternoon, all we could do was take a refreshing dip in the pool and make a simple dinner in the RV.

Today, our caravan was rewarded with amazing sea life and geology on a boat trip to the islands around La Paz. First, we saw both humpback and fin whales. The humpback whales are huge, much larger than the gray whales that we saw in Guerro Negro.

As the name suggests, fin whales have a distinctive fin on their backs.

Next, we cruised to a nearby island, seeing the blue-footed booby. The blue feet make the birds easy to distinguish from the crowd. One spread its wings for our boat.

After seeing wildlife, we cruised to mushroom island, named for the erosion that makes it look like the top of a mushroom.

Soon, we were followed by several dolphins. We learned that dolphins enjoy the wake of the boat, so the captain increased the engines and made several turns to get the dolphins to play in the wake. The dolphins obliged, following the turns of the boat.

After playing with the dolphins, we passed another island with birds including some red-breasted ones.

On another island, we saw several rock formations, including one that looks like a skull mask. We also cruised through a natural bridge, giving material for Greg to make jokes out of the Disney Jungle Cruise ("this is the back side of rock!").

Our next destination was a sea lion rookery. We've seen them before on the beaches of the other California, but this was the first time we've viewed sea lions from the water. When they're not fishing, the sea lions were lounging on the rocks. It's hard to believe that any creature can be comfortable on sharp rocks, but the sea lions seem completely relaxed. They also seemed unfazed by the boat, probably since they get regular visits from peculiar 2-legged land animals who need boats to cross the waters.

The boat went to a small beach on another island, which we had to ourselves. The crew put out some beach umbrellas, then setup a lunch of several kinds of ceviche, which we ate off tostadas. ¡Muy sabroso!

After lunch, Greg napped on the beach (yes, really!) while Amy followed a few others into the water. Another person in the group claimed that a fish was following him. He was right! It was a puffer fish with a yellow head and a black body. We watched the fish swim towards us as we walked. Then the fish swam right to Amy, looked right at her, and poked its head out of the water. It made a noise like a puff. She had never seen a fish do this before. It then decided that we were too close to shore and took off. Because it was in the water, there were no photos.

The cruise back to the port in La Paz took nearly an hour, and the guide said that it was about 60km (35 miles) from the port. As Amy said, this was an example of why we retired early.