Giant Squid are also called red devils becuase they are big and mean and will eat ANYTHING. We are told that every year at least one fisherman is mained or killed by being drug overboard by one of these 3-7 foot long squid who have sharp beaks and even stronger tentacles. Fortunate for us, this guy was part of the "squid die off" which occurs every spring. Apparently, after frenzied mating near shore, many squid will wash up and hundreds will stink up the shoreline after several days.
We found this guy swimming in about three feet of water and pretty docile. After getting in close with our machetes, but not sure how much fight this one would give us, Tony decided to spear it with the spear gun. This was a good idea as the spear barbs kept the squid from swimming away, and we were able to let it ink out in the water away from us. once on the beach, I did head wacking duty witth the machete, but to my suprise the severed head continued to roll its eyes and wave its tentacles at me. Once past the moment of horror, guilt, murder, brute savagry running thru my brain, I knew we were gonna have to eat this guy no matter how good he was, since we had put and end to it. Fortunately, it made super tender steaks. We gave three foot long steaks away to other boaters and still had all this in our cooler.
Tony even cut up the spade fins for bait. After calamari, squid chile and squid salad, I thought I was going to be tired of it, but we had a cruiser pot luck and I made calamari strips that came out more tender than anything Andrea's seafood could have prepared back home. Now we can't wait till squid season next year.
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This island was volcanically formed, and while the crater is filled in, you can still hike to the top for an amazing view of the Loreto area. It took about two hours to reach the summit and we passed over some very distinct geological strata. first was the sandy desert brush we are used to seeing on the islands here, then came the volcanic rock. large red porous rocks mixed with obsidian made up about a third of the journey. fortunately the trail was marked by cairn piles so that you don't endlessly climb over moonscapes. at the base of the ridge, the terrain turns to loose sandy dirt and it was a pretty vertical scamper of the side of the ridge. For every foot up, it was a four inch slide down in the dirt. Tony picked up some of the obsidian pieces to put in our grill for "brickets" on the way back.
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The trek to the top was worth it just for the view of surrounding islands and the mainland.
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a calm anchorage all to ourselves, just waiting to be explored in the morning, what more can you ask for in Baja.
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Beaches beaches beaches.... the north side of the island has some great nooks, coves and even caved in arches to make for some great resting places for shells. Could have stayed days here but wanted to move north for warmer waters. We could only spend twenty minutes in our lycra suits before chills had us swimming back to the beach for warmth. But the reef life is beautiful, so maybe next year we will have better conditions. This is definitely a place we will come back to.
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Besides growing a beard while I was gone, Tony has been honing his gunkhole dingy fishing skills. Caught two trigger fish and a sea bass just cruising around the rocks off the point of the Island. Trigger makes great ceviche, so I prepped it that night with Lime, chiles, tomatoes and cilantro for fish tostadas the next day. That night we had grilled sea bass on the BBQ and enjoyed having the anchorage all to ourselves for a day.
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After a day well spent combing the beach for "olives" and other great shells and prepping Tony's triggerfish for Ceviche, we took a break to enjoy yet another fabulous sunset.
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We will probably sail Cartagena to Panama in Sept. Stay safe with all the canes swirling on both coasts. Spike
