As the sun rises the land has hues of mauve, rose and orange. It is a desert. The afternoon sun leaves it a brown landscape, barren. It must be explored carefully to show the growth that exists.

The water around it has various shades of blue, navy leading up to turquoise over the shallows and reefs. It is in these waters that a whole world of its own exists. Needlefish surround the boat being chased by a small yellowfin. Whales are in the distance. Manta Rays everywhere. Visiting this island is like walking into your own fish market. You just need to decide what type of seafood you would like to have for dinner. We do not have a spear gun. It might be on our shopping list soon. Other boaters however around us do. You snorkel and pick your dinner, as easy as that. I keep waiting for the soundtrack of jaws to start playing.

I still have some fear for the fish but its hard when you see aquarium fish in beautiful coral. The little ones are ok. I just keep waiting for the hammerhead ones.

We befriended a couple Donna and Gary aboard the sailing vessel Magic Carpet. I want to be like Donna when I grow up. She has spent her whole life on boats and in the water. We visited the sea caves where we ran into the two of them. A panga of fisherman had come to the entrance of the cave. They were diving for something. As Donna swam over to them she started swimming backwards yelling through her snorkel gear. She was being chased by a Morey Eel. It left teeth marks on her fins. After that the Mexicans were onto the eel like dirt. It makes great soup so they told us.

Donna took Ken and I and showed us how to look for Sea Scallops. Ken dove and swam and recovered dinner for 2 hours. Chocolatie clams were also on the menu. It is a lot of work for what you get but nothing is fresher.

Crabs of various types live around here. In Canada we would have just put down our crab traps with the famous chicken parts. Fishermen here also have similar traps. Our licenses do not allow for fishing for these things. Ken and I tried to catch a few with tongs. They scurry very fast. We learnt a trick yet to be proven to work but we will try. Put a piece of chicken in pantyhose, hang it for awhile. The crab will go to the pantyhose and get their claws stuck into it thus leaving dinner dangling for you. Who knows, it’s worth a try, what else will I going to use pantyhose for.

We had planned on spending just one day on San Marcos but it turned into 7. It is nice not having a schedule. We are back in Santa Rosalia reprovisioning for the trip North.