baja Photo Gallery by lilylou at pbase.com

Earthwatch volunteer trip, working with sea turtles in San Ignacio Lagoon, near Loreto, Baja.

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Leaving the urban jungle	Lots of connections between Anchorage and Loreto!	Our first free day...Mexico's Autumn colors	Posada de las Flores--looking up through the pool
The pool from above	Cell tower (this one's for you, Anna!)	La Mision	Anachronism: historic architecture and energy-efficient light bulb!
Another view of the mission	Picturesque window in the mission courtyard	Verdant arches shelter the streets around the mission	Market
Sunset at the Oasis	More evening colors	Mission in San Ignacio, where we traded vehicles to continue the journey to turtle camp	San Ignacio plaza
Our well-travelled vehicle, air conditioning on vacation	Road to the lagoon	Sonoran desert. Saguaro here is called "Cabron"	Camp
Camp huts with the clothesline in the background		First generation GPS tracker. We forgot to take a picture of Lily's turtle carving!	Inez & Rianna orienting us to the lagoon
Sunset through the main palapa screen	Loading up the panga	It was often a bit wavy
We felt we were in good hands in Pedro's boat	It could get windy on the water!	Collecting the GPS tracker	Tangle
Oranges for mapping the currents	Camp from the water. Many nice skies over the lagoon!	Pedro at the tiller	Francie with a good arm
Three weak links for turtle safety	Kraig carving a GPS kayak	Rob, the master engineer, showing us how it's done	A little bit of Alaska in Baja
Mangorve seeds	Evening sky as the boat sets out for turtle netting	Straightening out the net	More adjusting
The crew in the observation boat	Another great cloudy sky	Evening color	Walking in from the boat when it's too shallow to land on the beach
Pen shell scallops	We were out in the evenings more than we expected--added another dimension to the experience	The sun set every night at 6 pm--totally different from Alaska's timetable!	Sea fans from the benthic sampling
Laundry line	Our home away from home: CORMORAN	Shirl, one of our fellow volunteers who taught us about birds	El champinon ("champion" or "mushroom" is yet to be seen!)
Susan--another accomplished birder	Rob, the project engineer	Setting the net, now that the current was more manageable	We explored Pelican Island while waiting to see if turtles would swim into our net
Kraig and Rob diving for scallops	the scallops were in about 8-10 feet of water	Shoreline	The catch--yummy with a squeeze of fresh lime juice!
Tiny brittle stars...the scallop shells were teaming with life!	Typical shell-rich beaches	Our first turtle bones	Cormorant nests
these cactus berries tasted like cranberries. We did leave some for the birds.	Osprey nest, with lots of pelican skeletons	More turtle remains, bleached clean by the elements	We found only old weathered remains on our mortality surveys
Morning light in the kitchen	Clara with her thermos of tea	Ines or Agnese? By either name, she was our fearless leader!	Heading out for benthic sampling
Smile!	Lowering the petite ponar	Sifting (and measuring) sands	Retrieving the ponar, laden with sand, shells and knowledge
Radio tracking training exercise	Three GPS transmitters hidden in camp	Blue soles	Shell borders from chocolate clams
It's got to be around here somewhere!	Water's edge	Warm showers!	We must be getting close
Pelicans skimming the water	On the wing	Mapping the tides	The sooty shearwater it was not...
Pulling the boat along the anchor line	Beach findings	Diving for fish	We could watch this for hours!
just can't stop shooting the pelicans . . .
		Tandem dive
Amazing number of shells	Gray whale skeleton near camp	Orange in the mangroves!	So many birds!
Dolphin jaw	Evening beach walk	Wading through the mangroves	Standing stone from the area's volcanic origin
Barnacle	The sun is sinking		Looks like another planet
The girls--volunteer staff	Dolphins--what a treat!
	They come very close to the boat...	and play in the bow waves	Pulling the ponar
Rob and the diaphanous net at sunset	Waiting for turtles	Still waiting	At last!
Ranulfo...	...	turtle whispering	Kraig bringing in the turtles to the palapa
Dim lighting...	Heads covered	Curved carapace length
Straight carapace length	One was named after Kraig!	Volker gluing connectors for the GPS trackers onto the carapace	The camera is attached, in its balsa wood housing
Kraig, the turtle, with camera in place	Rianna and Rob, resplendent in their sponsor T-shirts!	Rianna, ready to release the turtle after tagging	Rob heading out into the waves in the dark
Don't step on that stingray!	This is "Kraig," ready to return to the lagoon	Love this picture!	Clouds over bow
"I challenge anyone to catch a ghost crab"	Manta on the beach walk at the mouth of the lagoon	Self-portait	Miles of beach
Beautiful shells, like jewels in the sand	Kraig shooting a blue crab	Don't get too close to me!	Ready for your close-up?
Goofy sun hat		Beach birds	Volker taking field notes
Clara using the radio tracking antenna	Finding the strongest signal	Reaching for the orange GPS kayak	Reading the instruments
Clara looks worried about the future of the sea turtles. We all need to help!	Coffee break	The group on our last day	Papier mache turtle made by Debora from the nearby village
Leaving for Loreto	More pictures from a moving vehicle (Kraig is cringing!)	The road was curvy in places. Passing was an art	Waiting for our boat to Isla Coronado
Tons of birds in the harbor
Local fisherman	Leaving the city behind, on Rigoberto's boat	Another fantastic dolphin encounter	The water was unbelievably clear
Lots of friendly fellow travellers	Learning to use the Flip video...		Amazing rock formations!
		Blue footed boobies!	Sea lions basking at the surface
Even some babies	Diving in
	Very loud barking!		Blue feet from below
	Gorilla face, with a bird on his lips	The gorilla's "Seagull" (yes we know they are "gulls!") friend	There's that goofy hat again. SO much more sun than Alaska!
Three pelicans on amazing aqua agua	Loreto at night...
	The beachfront restaurant at the Hotel Oasis	Coffee!	Kata, the breakfast dog
El Malecon	Kraig on our balcony	Tortuga...and MLE's well-travelled water bottle!	Going home
The Loreto airport...Safe travels everyone!

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comment |

Guest		27-Nov-2009 19:25
Very nice, we are jealous of your world travels. Shawn

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