Monday 16 January 2017

The Galapagos of Mexico

A beautiful sailing day

Jay and I left Los Frailes on Dec 7th making way for Isla Isabela, also known as the Galapagos of Mexico.  This small island is 30 miles off the mainland coast of mexico, some 70 nm south of Mazatlan.  It was a 214 nm journey from Los Frailes.  As I planned for a 4 knot average speed we gave ourselves 48 hours to make the passage.  The first day out we had beautiful winds, as predicted, and far exceeded our 4 knot average planned speed.  As our arrival time was looking to be around 2 am we had to start slowing down, and slowing down some more and in the end drifted for a while near the island waiting for daylight.  The anchorage is tricky, wide open to the south with lots of rocks and reefs, it is important to take good care.  Jay snorkelled around and found us a small sandy spot to drop the anchor.  We had timed our arrival to coincide with a period of very calm weather and were delighted that the predictions held.  It gave us 3 days to explore this very unique spot.  The birds are phenomenal.  Every bush is full of frigate birds, and not just a few, many!  The grassy areas are the home of every variety of boobie.  This is their breeding ground and due to the remoteness of the island the birds are not frightened of people and tend to just watch you walk by.
There is a small fishing camp and an old research station but other than that it is untouched.  We had some fantastic snorkeling trips.   The rock formations underwater were beautiful.  This wild, remote island definately lived up to our expectations.
Kialoa at anchor, Isla Isabela

Rugged cliffside

A small collection of the fishlife

The Igaunas were not very concerned about us.
Trees full of frigate birds
A closer look at a fully ballooned male

Blue footed boobies involved in courtship
Jay and the fish


Next stop San Blas!

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