We are having loads of fun in La Paz! We found our friends from Pythagoras, Darby and Daniel (they are 10 and 11, if I didn’t already tell you that), again, and we met four other kids from the sailboat Hakuna Matata: John (15), Alan (13), Louise (10), and Robin (9). For most of our stay here, we have been swimming at the hotel pool with all of our friends, but we have gone out for a day sail to go snorkeling by Isla Espiritu Santo, where we saw weird spiny sea stars, big schools of little needlefish, and a huge green moray eel! We also went to Puerto Pichilingue for a few days to see our Uncle Roy, who is the skipper of the Lady J, a 185 foot motor yacht. When we came into the bay, we had seen little manta rays that were only about a foot wide swimming at the surface. Coming back from snorkeling near the shore, we found them gliding around beside the Lady J, and Jessie and I splashed out of the dinghy to swim with them. We tried to follow the rays around, but they were too fast for us, so we stayed in one place and waited for them to come near. The baby manta rays were really fun to watch, because they swam around by flapping their wings through the water. Uncle Roy had been watching from the Lady J, and he said that, when we were following the rays, they had come around behind us and swam about 6 feet away from us, turning when we did so that they kept out of sight. I guess they were curious, too!
We stayed in La Paz for about two and a half weeks, occasionally inviting the occupants of Hakuna Matata and Pythagoras over for dinner. Jessie and I spent every day with our friends, and there was a little church in town that we all went to on the Sundays that we were there. Pythagoras joined us when we went to feed the poor children of La Paz with the church, and we had a good time. We served the kids pancakes and hot cocoa, and Dawn, who is Danielle and Darby’s mom, talked to the kids in Spanish and video-taped them.
We had a great time in La Paz, but, all too soon, we decided that we had to leave. Before we left all of our friends, we went to the islands for a few days with Pythagoras and Hakuna Matata. First, we went to Puerto Ballena, the bay on Isla Espiritu Santo that we had visited before. There, we went snorkeling by a rock wall and saw hundreds of colorful fish. The coolest fish I saw there was an absolutely enormous puffer fish that was hiding in a crevice. He must have been at least three feet long, and his eyes were as big as a giraffe’s! Later, our anchorage started to get uncomfortable because of the high winds, so we decided to move on. We agreed that Caleta Partida looked like a good spot to anchor in, so all three boats made the short trip over.
We anchored in the middle of the bay, and Hakuna Matata and Pythagoras dropped anchor farther in. It seems like they chose a better spot than us, because we dragged anchor in the night. The next morning, we re-anchored over by them. After school, Jessie and I jumped off the boat and swam to Pythagoras. I had fun diving to the bottom and looking at all the puffer fish. While we were playing by the boat with our friends, someone called out that there was a sea lion! We all rushed over, and there was a young sea lion, streaking around near the bottom. It was really cool to watch, and we all started to dive down after it. When we swam down near it, it would come up to investigate us, twisting and spinning through the water. It came so close that you could almost touch it, and John actually did, once. Alan found out that it really liked to play around. If you came up to it and spun around or did a flip, it would copy you!! Soon after, the sea lion left, and we got out of the water and had lunch. We went to the beach and looked for shells, and Darby, Jessie, and I were all doing cartwheels and handstands. After that, we decided to look for the sea lion again, and found it! We swam around with it for a long time, and I found out about more of its games. It liked to swim all the way to the bottom and find a puffer fish, and then swim around it in tight circles until it swelled up like a balloon. Once, it tried this with a big Bullseye puffer, and that fish got really mad. It didn’t even swell up, and as the sea lion went by, the puffer tried to bite it! After watching this for a while, I decided to try it (but not with the Bullseye puffer). After finding a small puffer, I swam down to the bottom and came towards it. As I came closer, it puffed up and sped away, and it looked pretty funny. As I was coming up for air, I looked behind me, and there was the seal! It had been swimming right behind me, but it streaked away as soon as I saw it!
The next day, we headed to Ensenada Grande. We went snorkeling there, and we saw another moray eel that was even bigger than the last one!!! At first I thought it was a fish’s tail sticking out from under a small head of coral, but when I went down to take a closer look, I saw the huge eel’s head, with its mouth wide open! It freaked me out at first, but the eel was really cool.
The next day, we left the islands at about 6:00 in the morning and headed for Puerto Vallarta. We were in the ocean for three days, and we saw 8 turtles, just swimming along on the surface! We also caught a 49-inch Dorado, and while Dad was reeling it in, there was a group of dolphins swimming alongside the fish, looking like they were going to take a bite out of it. We got it on board okay, but the next day, we hooked into something gigantic! It fought for about 45 minutes, and it finally snapped the line. We got a look at it, though, because it still had the hook in its mouth, and it was leaping out of the water trying to shake it loose. The fish was a huge striped marlin! The funny thing was that, before we knew what type of fish it was, I said, “I bet it’s a marlin or something!”
We are now in Puerto Vallarta and we’ve found a slip. Our Aunt Jamie and Uncle Bill and our cousins are coming on the 20th and staying for Christmas, and I’m really excited. There is a small zoo near the hotel, and we saw two tigers, parrots that say ‘hola’, and a cute baby monkey and its parents. We also got to pet a baby mountain lion! It was really soft, and it was only two weeks old!
We’ve been having a lot of fun, and I can hardly believe that there’s only about one week until Christmas. Feliz Navidad!