A few photos of my favorite campsite

Here's a few photos of my favorite campsite. These photographs were taken at Sirenita Beach, BCS.
(August 2005)

This photo was taken at dawn from the door of my tent at dawn.


This is the same beach at short distance from the photo above.


I was told the name of the beach is derived from this permanent resident.
She is also seen in the photo above.


I loved these granite "marbles". A peculiar sound keep me awake the first night.
It turned out that it was the sound that the "marbles"
make on the other side of this cove as the ocean polishes them.


This little fellow woke me up, too!


Hermie and his friends would have a nightly party.
The could make an amazing amount of noise for their size.


I got about 5 minutes of sleep my first night on this beach.
The cows on the ridge above me were kind enough
to clank their bells so that I would not miss the pre-dawn light.
I slept quite soundly my second night.

[Edited on 12-16-2008 by Miette]

[Edited on 12-16-2008 by Miette]

[Edited on 12-16-2008 by Miette]

I was hoping someone would tell me what kind of critter it was.
The noise he made scrabbling through the rocks to go by my campsite took about five years off my life expectancy!

Here's the first shot-


Here's the second shot-


Here's the critter running away-


The beach? It is reached either by boat or by a 20 minute hike from another more popular beach.
So, it depends on your personal definition of "isolated".
I would call it secluded, but not isolated.

[Edited on 12-16-2008 by Miette]

[Edited on 12-16-2008 by Miette]

Fun Guys..

Mietta, the cute bandito is called a or RINGTAIL, or Miner's cat.



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Good for you, Mietta. I've seen many of these neat little guys around my Baja house and throughout desert areas of Baja. You most often notice them bouncing across the road at night...coming out of some boulders at the side of the highway, zooming out a few feet, suddenly seeing the danger, then doing an immediate 180 flip and zinging back to cover in the rocks. The acrobats of the midnight run.

Kids in Mulege keep them as pets...sometimes wearing them on thier shoulders with a little leash. A cousin to coatamundis. They are also great mousers if kept in your house...and used to be called Miner's cats by the early settlers and miners. It's a member of the raccoon family about the size of a small house cat. It's nocturnal, omnivorous, and found in rocky desert areas throughout SW and northern Mexico..I have seen them as far north as Wyoming.

They're very agile and great climbers. A bit timid at first, they soon become good camp guests, as you found out. But like raccoons, they do tend to get a little mischievious. Generally solitary and it's rare to see 2 together except at breeding times in the spring.

Some people in the SW US call them civet cats, but that's a cat of Africa and not related to this species, although they do have this in common.. these guys can give off a bad odor from leg glands when confronted.

Glad you had the experience, Mietta. I really like these little fellows, looking like a cross between a fox and a raccoon. Ringtails are good to have around and always remind me of good times. I had the northern cousins, raccoons, as pets while I was a tadpole..and we had some times!



[Edited on 12-16-2008 by Pompano]

When we camped at Malarrimo, we woke up to hundreds of this guy's paw prints all around our camp....I mean 100's. They had dragged away the sandy steaks from the night before...for that we were thankful. Anyone who has camped there knows what happens when the wind blows.....sand in your everything.

Great shots!

Babisuri

Ring-tailed cat (Babisuri; cacomixtle). A nocturnal relative of the racoon, with a black and white striped tail longer than its body, the babisuri lives in great numbers in the rocky cliffs near date palm groves. It is also found on Espiritu Santo and San Jose Islands. (from the Lower Califonia Guidebook)

This photo of a babisuri on Isla San Jose was taken by 'Alejandra de Baja', who requested that the villagers not kill it, so it is on a leash here.

The babisuri comes into homes on the island searching for food.

Around Loreto and Mulege..they are called gato montes....so Manuel and Eduardo tell me just now. I calls 'em ringtails.

Nope, wait......gato montes are much bigger, they now tell me.

Eduardo is holding out his hands WAY wide...I believe he means a puma..mountain lion...sigh.

Manuel is laughing a little bit now..cretin.

All 3 of us have decided to call it ...ringtail.

We all go outside to talk to Noel..a known expert on animals. He says he doesn't know or care and that I have way too much time on my hands and should go fishing or something and let him get back to his concrete work. Such is life.

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Now Eduardo brings Marie and the new baby over to look at the RINGTAIL ..grr...on my computer screen and she says that is definetely a 'gatia'...hoo boy...


I have decided to call it a cacomistle.

..and this baby shall be called: Tonalyl...ancient Aztec for Ringtail.



[Edited on 12-16-2008 by Pompano]

In the fur cap world, many cacomistle caps are called by different names...but they are all warm.

ok -lemme see if this works. Was at Cabo Pulmo last August - here's that cove:

another one - a really pretty spot with lots of awesome fish

Quote:

Originally posted by wilderone ok -lemme see if this works. Was at Cabo Pulmo last August - here's that cove:

Awesome pictures and great story to go along with them.

I would love to see one of those and would be estatic to get pictures of them. I guess this would mean I would have to skip happy hour so I could stay awake once the sun sets

Something we dont normally do while in Baja