First stop was Isla Partida where we were reminded that summer was approaching as the southerly Corumuel winds were kicking up each afternoon then blowing all night, making for some very uncomfortable anchorages. The days, however, were fantastic. Continuing north, we revisited the quaint fishing village of Evaristo before heading across to Isla San Jose to explore the largest mangrove swamp in the Sea of Cortez. We had been warned about the "jejene's" (small, voracious, biting no-see-ums - pronounced "heyheynay") that are the curse of the place. With this in mind, we anchored well offshore believing we would be safe, and dinked in to explore the lagoon. As it was late in the season there were very few of the birds that normally congregate here but it was still a very interesting day of exploration.
Back at the boat, just after dinner, and smug in the thought that we had dodged the biting terrors, we sat back to relax in the cockpit when the maurading little blood-suckers arrived. We could not get below and close the boat up fast enough. The next few hours were spent squashing the buggers, making disturbingly large red blood (our blood) splotches throughout the boat. Some of the smarter ones hid out and reemerged over the next few days to take revenge on us for murdering their pals.
It was an enormous school of herring that had taken refuge (maybe laying eggs) in the clam waters of the bay. For the next few days we were treated to the antics of hundreds of dive-bombing pelicans, snorkeling cormorants, and begging gulls, all trying to get their share of the bounty. From the hills above the bay the school of fish resembled the worlds largest lava-lamp as it moved about the anchorage, splitting up at times and then regrouping like some oversized version of cellular reproduction.
