It was an uneventful trip, mainly motoring, and the island came into view at dawn. Las Monas, which means dressmaking dummies in Spanish, lived up to their name and loomed like statues 200 feet tall offshore on the east side of the island. There was an easterly wind blowing so I decided to take the southern anchorage with some trepidation as it is known as the anchorage that has swallowed more anchors than any other anchorage on the Eastern Pacific due to the sharp rocks on the bottom. Sure enough as soon as we anchored a periodic grating noise emanating from the bow as the anchor chain wound its way around rocks. I was sure we were going to have a problem trying to retrieve the anchor when we left.
We had plenty of time to visit the island so we landed the dinghy and rowed over to the temporary fishing village off the northwest of the bay. Isla Isabel is known as the Galapagos of the Northern Pacific. It is a National Park and home to tens of thousands of frigate birds, of which a thousand or so are constantly circling high above the small island which is only about ¾ mile long and ½ mile wide. Frigate birds mate here, the male making a nest and then attracting females by blowing up a large, red flap of skin at its throat to the size of a grapefruit or perhaps a small melon. This bright red beacon will attract a female and presumably if she thinks the red balloon is big enough, and the nest cozy enough, she will take up residence. There were nests everywhere on the stunted trees, typically about 12 feet off the ground. We walked to the east side of the island to view Las Monas and saw our first blue footed booby en route, shuffling from one huge blue foot to another, a little dance, apparently to attract a mate. The huge blue feet seem much bigger than a ducks and seem quite out or proportion to their bodies which are approximately the size of a seagull.
We carried on walking to the northern tip of the island which could have been in Scotland; wild and windswept with abundant tide pools, full of black crabs that scuttled over the rocks as we appeared. We saw whales only about 100 yards offshore and when I climbed up a craggy rock pile at the top of the island I found a pure white booby chick, sitting on a nest with his mother. Why it was born at this time of year is a mystery, but it was a happy chance for us. On the way back we saw a milk snake, red with white bands. There were also many iguana, some 2 feet long, lying motionless and trusting on the path. I dangled my foot over one of them and it definitely was not going to move so we had to be very careful where we put our feet.