A walk across the desert landscape, from west to eastern side of Isla Espiritu Santos, is familiar and not so amazing as the first time. It is also much drier and feels thirsty as if waiting for rain. The gulls start squalking at us as we enter the white sand beach. In search of a reported hot springs (though we are already sweating), we carefully walk down the beach. Something primal is up with the gulls. Obviously we are too close to their nest and two, then four start bombing us as we walk haplessly down the beach. Out of their territory, we encounter another brood with chicks lurking about the shore. We turn back, not wanting to upset all the parents, but have to endure the ruckus of the soon to be parent gulls, as we retrace our steps. Bless them – paradise belongs to these stupid gulls – they sure intimidated us!
We paddle, soak up some sun, have a nice dinner, lather up with “skin so soft” to ward off boo-boos and watch the sun set.
We are the only boat in a favorite anchorage. It seems that a lot of boats are on some kind of schedule which we are trying to avoid, and are going north to get out of the summer storms. We have waited too long to secure a north spot, so have decided to leave KIEVIT in La Paz for the hot summer season and have a secure place to store her. We love it here – these magical islands and clear water, which is warm enough to swim without a wetsuit, finally!