I had a little race with the boat pictured above, the mighty Shamaness, starting on New Years Day. We left La Paz together and raced with the building winds out to sea. I ended up turning further east as darkness fell, towards Mazatlan, before heading on south, and she plunged boldly into the night bound for Bandaras Bay. After Mazatlan, I stopped at my favorite island, Isla Isabel. It was a nice stopover, with a few trips around the island to see the birds, and also I did some freediving with the fishes. I saw the biggest Grouper I have ever seen, it was much bigger than me, and many other fish that up to now I hadn't seen in large numbers. There were Milkfish, a large, swallow-tailed fish with a fairly small mouth, to be seen in large schools just out of reach of my speargun. I also saw a bunch of Rainbow Runners, of which I had only ever seen one before. Finally, as I was diving around in the deeper parts to the west of the island, there were a lot of very big Rooster Fish coming up to look at me. They got very close but since they aren't very tasty, I didn't take a shot. On the evening of one of the days I went up to a Blue-Footed Boobie colony and snapped a few pictures. Here are two trying to woo each other....
And here is a picture of one in flight. Their vision is very forward looking. They must be super intelligent and good planners.
So now I am in the Puerto Vallarta area and will stay here for the rest of the winter, unless I decide otherwise. The surf has been small, but I still am getting my hair wet and my nose sunburned searching for it.
