BajaNomad

Quick trip to Asuncion Island...jump aboard!

shari - 6-14-2014 at 03:26 PM

Jump aboard our panga for a little trip to the Island...

http://vimeo.com/98226738

Mexico is the surprise factor. You just never know what is going to happen on a daily basis. “Expect the Unexpected” is a motto to live by here.

I personally love surprises and are more often than not overjoyed at the One of the many wonderful things about living in Baja outcome. Part of the beauty lies in such great things happen that are completely unplanned.

The Mexican culture seems to tumble along fine without a lot of planning which may seem foreign to the north of the border folks who are accustomed to fixed dates, times & appointments for things. But here, life seems more spontaneous, full of last minute invitations and grab your camera and hat and go activities.

One such thing happened to me the other day when I was hard at work on a project at home and my phone rang. It was my husband calling from the panga to ask if I wanted to go looking for blue whales. But of course! In 5 minutes I gathered my camera gear, jacket & hat and ran down to the cove beside our house.

In the spring there are sometimes large whales feeding off of Asuncion Island. We had seen what we thought were blue whales feeding in the bay lately and I really wanted to identify them. My husband got in early from abalone fishing that day so had time to take me out.

We toodled around the bay looking for spouts and asked the fishermen if they had seen anything. To my great disappointment, no whales had been spotted the last few days. It was a gorgeous morning so we headed over to the Island to see if the sea lions had their babies yet.

We visited several beaches and saw no pups at all…another disappointment. But it is always entertaining watching the sealions and we observed the bulls nobly protecting their harems.

It was high tide so Juan took me to through a set of large rocks where he saw a blue footed booby bird the week before. As I was scanning all the birds on the rocks I heard a strange prehistoric squawking and saw it was coming from a small Cormorant chick in a nest.



This was the first time I had ever seen Cormorant babies so I was thrilled. Juan skillfully kept the panga positioned so we could watch & photograph them. We were amazed at how dinosaur looking they were. Some nests had 2 or 3 chicks in them of different ages. Some were trying to stand up for the first time and kept falling into the nest. It was a fantastic experience!

Who would have thought I would be seeing newborn Cormorant babies an hour before? See what I mean…you just never know what is going to happen living in Baja! Live in the moment!

Oh and we caught 3 nice calicos lickety split on our way home!

paul r - 6-14-2014 at 03:49 PM

....so cool baby!!...

churro - 6-14-2014 at 04:04 PM

Nice Shari!

Russ - 6-14-2014 at 04:38 PM

Nice ! But... What's with the sweat shirt and life vest on the big guy? It's 85º+ here and everyone is running around naked:biggrin::lol:

shari - 6-14-2014 at 04:59 PM

Juan was abalone fishing that day...it's rather cool here at 6:30 in the morning and fishermen in the sun keep covered up. It is now law they have to wear their life jackets...it's not 85 here! I had a fleecy jacket on too!

Udo - 6-14-2014 at 05:32 PM

Cool video, Shari!

We'll be in BA on Sunday afternoon, and we'll stay until next Saturday.

Don't forget dinner for Monday evening. I'm bringing some Rib-Eye steaks plus the fixins.

I'll also bring some extra freshly-made pancake mix, and we'll work on breakfast later in the week.

chuckie - 6-14-2014 at 05:56 PM

YEAH!

shari - 6-14-2014 at 07:53 PM

I'm IN Udo...cant wait. We may be in San Roque but come to town often....keep your eyes peeled for big spouts! Hope you make it in time on Sunday for shrimp tacos.

MMc - 6-14-2014 at 09:17 PM

I am glad you discovered Vimeo. I didn't want to overload the process. Vimeo is the way to show this stuff. I should have known you would be on top of it. My bad.

shari - 6-15-2014 at 06:48 AM

mil gracias MMc for your mentorship. When I created some whale videos they looked great but lost so much uploading to Youtube even in HD...seems they look better on Vimeo...this Island video was just shot with my little point and shoot so not HD but gives one the general idea nonetheless. This was an experiment to see if Vimeo would accept the song...seems it did.

I absolutely LOVED when that Mama Cormorant had to duck when another one took flight nearly hitting it's head!

Udo - 6-15-2014 at 09:17 AM

Thanks for the whale tip, Shari.
We are bringing a large astronomical telescope to leave at the house for future use. It should bring us 100 times close to the whales than out 15 power binoculars.
Quote:
Originally posted by shari
I'm IN Udo...cant wait. We may be in San Roque but come to town often....keep your eyes peeled for big spouts! Hope you make it in time on Sunday for shrimp tacos.

MMc - 6-15-2014 at 11:29 AM

Vimeo is a much better hosting site, But they don't get as much traffic nor do the make it easy to aggregate from your site. The quality in feature and sound are way ahead of Youtube.

[Edited on 6-16-2014 by MMc]

rts551 - 6-15-2014 at 11:55 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by shari
Juan was abalone fishing that day...it's rather cool here at 6:30 in the morning and fishermen in the sun keep covered up. It is now law they have to wear their life jackets...it's not 85 here! I had a fleecy jacket on too!


Shari. what does the life jacket law require and who enforces it?

shari - 6-15-2014 at 03:36 PM

all fishermen have to wear a life jacket or they cant work...the cooperativa enforces it.

rts551 - 6-15-2014 at 03:56 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by shari
all fishermen have to wear a life jacket or they cant work...the cooperativa enforces it.


Is it a law or is it something the coop has come up with. I see other coops without Jackets.

ANd if I brought a boat up to say San Roque...would I have to wear a Jacket.

[Edited on 6-15-2014 by rts551]

shari - 6-15-2014 at 08:08 PM

no it isnt law but after those fishermen died near Tortugas, the cooperativas made it mandatory to wear a life vest which I think is a darn good idea considering most fishermen dont swim...I dont know about other coops but here you dont work if you dont have it on.

ARCO - 7-22-2014 at 10:32 PM

Shari, Iwatched teh video, is really nice, i hope stay one doy at your hotel.

Shari, I could see at the end of the video, the name Juan Arce, is him your husband? because my last name is Arce too, and i am from Baja California Sur, perhaps we are relatives.:tumble::tumble:

Skipjack Joe - 7-22-2014 at 11:00 PM

They don't sing too much. Maybe it should be - blackbird croaking in the dead of night.

Mexitron - 7-23-2014 at 05:24 AM

Beautiful pic of the cormorants---we had those nesting on the cliffs near our house in Laguna growing up, they've always fascinated me.

boe4fun - 7-23-2014 at 09:14 AM

Can't wait to see you all in a coupla weeks!

motoged - 7-23-2014 at 10:41 AM

Shari,
Great vid....gracias.

Last night I saw this vid (below) and thought of sending it to you.....now I am doing just that :saint:


Maybe see it as you in a previous life.....loving the closeness of these sea beings (not intended to hijack your current experience & work):

http://www.wimp.com/catdolphins/

Bob H - 7-23-2014 at 10:42 AM

What was a great video Shari! Loved the music too...:bounce:

liknbaja127 - 7-23-2014 at 08:07 PM

Very cool guys, can't wait to get back your way!

shari - 7-23-2014 at 10:10 PM

Sr.Arco....que loco...pues todos los Arce's son parientes no? De dondes son sus abuelos? A ver cuando vamos a juntar a contar cuentos? Pues ya con mas razon tenemos que conocer a usted!

Haz visto la pelicula Corazon Vaquero? Es una pelicula hecho aqui sobre de los rancheros...la mayoria son Arce's tambien...es muy buena...you can google it?

ARCO - 7-23-2014 at 10:56 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by shari
Sr.Arco....que loco...pues todos los Arce's son parientes no? De dondes son sus abuelos? A ver cuando vamos a juntar a contar cuentos? Pues ya con mas razon tenemos que conocer a usted!

Haz visto la pelicula Corazon Vaquero? Es una pelicula hecho aqui sobre de los rancheros...la mayoria son Arce's tambien...es muy buena...you can google it?


No la he visto, pero voy a tratar de verla.

Mis abuelos, eran de La Purisima son de familia Arce y Rosas.

shari - 7-24-2014 at 08:24 AM

A poco si? pues tambien los tios de Juan en Bahia de los Angeles son Arce/Rosas!!!

motoged - 7-24-2014 at 11:49 AM

It's nice to watch this potential family connection develop :saint: