Monday afternoon, we went kayaking in a double kayak. We were in this beautiful bay called Esenda Grande on the Isla Espiritu Santa. This is a national park. We had to share our tiny sandy beaches with other campers and sail boats. The bay is surrounded by volcanic rock structures that were most unique. Thin layers of rock hung over the edges. It was home to many Sally light-foot crabs. They are quite large and come in a myriad of different colors. Later we went back for a barbeque on the beach. As it got dark and I was walking around barefoot, I certainly hoped I didn’t run into Sally. We went at sunset which was beautiful in itself. We were met on the beach by a server holding tray of assorted beverages, chairs in place etc. The meal was great with brownies for dessert. I must tell you each brownie had probably several thousand calories. But who is counting? They started a bon fire in which we roasted marshmallows and had, yes, “smores.” Yum!

At night we saw the most beautiful array of stars. Once aboard, we sat on the back deck of the ship just marveling at their magnitude. The first mate of the ship happened to walk by and gave us a lesson in constellations. She is studying celestial navigation so was quite happy to share her new found knowledge. Of course, on the ship we use the GPS system so the celestial navigation is sort of just for fun. She said, done correctly, it could take three hours to plot one’s course and by then, of course, you are lost again.

Tuesday morning we were in humpback territory where they are calving and then mating again. It was very nice and Tom finally got some good pictures of the whale’s tail flutes like you see in all of the books. We watched with interest for about three hours. They then had a geological lecture. They said lectures are usually interrupted by whale activity, and we hoped this lecture was no exception. Boy were they right. All of a sudden they usher us up on deck and a mother whale and baby put on a show that makes this trip all worth while. She would raise her large pectoral fin and then flap in on the water. What a splash and noise she could make! Her five to seven week old baby was taking lessons and followed suit. The mom would lay on her back and flap both pectoral fins, baby followed. Pretty soon baby started to breach. Tom has some awesome photos, about 400 of these activities plus about 400 from the early morning. We won’t have them on line until we return, first they keep us too busy to sort photos and secondly the internet is slow here. Plus can’t imagine how long it is going to take to go through all of them. The show continued with mom flapping her tail flutes into the water, over and over. Baby gave that a try but seemed to like breaching better. So mom showed her how it was done. Wow! Our star teaching first mate was driving the ship at the time and was able to keep mom and baby close up and personal.

One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore…André Gide