The tenacity of life first struck me decades ago when rock climbing in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. Belaying on a high rock ledge, I marveled at the small flowers growing from the cracks in the granite.

The photo above shows cactus and shrubs growing out of the rock on a desert island in the Sea of Cortez where it goes months without raining. Yet there is life - the desert plants, the birds, the lizards, and a rodent I saw that looked like a small chipmunk.

And in the Sea of Cortez life's abundance again attests to its tenacity. We've seen the bottlenose dolphin in huge schools, the larger "false killer whale" dolphin, whales, rays jumping at our anchorages, a 5' shark jumping clear of the water, birds of many types, including the graceful pelicans and the incredible frigate bird, a great soaring bird with the highest ratio of wing area to weight of any bird.

At night we have seen bioluminescence surrounding the boat at anchor.

Bees visit us at some anchorages in search of fresh water.

Humans here also attest to life's tenacity, because through cultural evolution we humans have learned to live everywhere, in all environments, dominating our environment and other species.

Dolphins Video: You can see a large school of dolphins passing S/V Ubiquity when sailing in the Sea of Cortez.

Rays Video: You can see rays jumping at one of our anchorages in the Sea of Cortez.