Dive Heron - Part 2

Cristian Poulson created the first resort on Heron Island in the 1930s. Poulson was a fisherman and ran a turtle soup cannery on the island in the 1920s. Turtle harvesting and processing was seasonal work and, as the turtle population declined, Poulson made more money taking tourists to the island in the off season. In 1930, he took over a failed effort to establish a resort on Heron Island. In 1932 he opened his resort in the converted turtle factory. It took visitors 6-8 hours to reach the island in sail-powered motor launches; there was no harbor and passengers were ferried ashore across the reef flat in small boats. Researchers and educators used the resort in the 1930s and the island was declared a national park in 1943. In the 1940s, glass-bottom boats towed by motor boats allowed visitors to view the coral reef. Passengers huddled under a blanket to view the reef through a glass panel.

Catch of the day from the 1960s (link)

Working Boats

I have a thing about workboats. Whenever we're near the ocean, I like to prowl the local harbor with a camera. Workboats are one of my favorite photographic subjects, whether they’re pangas hauled out on a beach or trawlers tied to a dock. As a kid, I learned to paddle a canoe and row a dinghy on the Delaware River in northern New Jersey. When I was a teenager, our family vacationed on Lake Ontario where my father and I fished out of an aluminum skiff with a small outboard motor, which he taught me to operate and let me run it into town by myself. As a marine scientist, I worked on commercial fishing boats and research ships from dories and seine skiffs to coastal and offshore oceanographic vessels. While we lived in southern California, I co-owned a 24-ft Skipjack with two diving buddies; we took it to the Channel Islands most weekends from May to October to hunt white seabass and yellowtail. Now I’m relegated to a sit-on-top kayak that I carry on the roof of the truck. Maybe, when we’re settled, there will be a bigger boat in my future.

Cruising yacht in Point Hudson Marina, Port Townsend, Washington

The Road North (Part 1)

…runs through New Mexico. In late August, I left Loreto in Baja California Sur and drove 1,100 miles to Taos where Rande had spent the summer. Our plan was to drive to Whidbey Island in northern Puget Sound to visit her family, but first I had to deal with an ear problem. On what turned out to be my last dive of the summer in the Sea of Cortés, I had what diver’s call reverse squeeze – a sharp pain in one ear as I returned to the surface. I couldn’t equalize (reduce) the air pressure in my ear with the pressure of the surrounding water. 

Rio Grande south of Taos, New Mexico

The next day, I went to the emergency clinic in Loreto and learned that I had an infection in one ear. The doctor, a young woman who spoke some English, gave me a prescription for antibiotic ear drops and told me to stay out of the water for two weeks. My summer of diving was over. Before leaving Mexico, I made an appointment online for an ear specialist in northern New Mexico. When I arrived at his office in Taos a week later, the infection was gone, but he sent me to a clinic in Los Alamos to test for a tear in the eardrum. They pressurized the outer ear and waited; a decline in pressure indicates a tear. I passed the test; I could go back in the water.

Barra de Navidad

We left Ajijic early on a Sunday morning. Lake Chapala had been dry and dusty, although sprinkled a couple times hinting at the rainy season to come. We were heading back to the Pacific Coast where it would be warm and humid. Descending to the coastal plain from 1,525 m (5,000 ft) on the paved road from Guadalajara to Manzanillo, we could feel the temperature and humidity increasing to 25°C (77°F) and 70% humidity. The air felt dense and heavy. What would summer be like at 35°C (95°F) and 90% humidity? 

Marlin-sailfish sculpture at the entrance to Barra de Navidad

We spent five weeks on the Costa Alegre (happy or cheerful coast), roughly 300 km (180 mi) of coast south of Puerto Vallarta to Manzanillo. A tropical environment, modest beach towns and uncrowded beaches attract Mexicans on weekends and holidays from as far as Guadalajara and Mexico City (link). American and Canadian tourists and snowbirds show up in the winter (November-April) when the temperatures are warm and it rarely rains, but their presence is not large like in Puerto Vallarta.

Tlaquepaque

Historically known as San Pedro, Tlaquepaque was eventually surrounded by Guadalajara as it grew and spread outwards. Now a city of about 600,000, Tlaquepaque is a few kilometers from the city center of Guadalajara. Tlaquepaque (pronounced tlah-kay-PAH-kay [link]) comes from the Nahuatl language and means “hill where the clay comes from” (link) referring to the city's long history of pottery making (link). We drove from Ajijic about an hour north to Tlaquepaque. We arrived before the shops opened, found parking and walked the streets photographing old buildings in the early light.

Ceramic pineapples for sale in Tlaquepaque

Guadalajara

Guadalajara is Mexico’s second largest city with a population over four million in the city and surrounding metropolitan area (link). It’s less than an hour’s drive from Lake Chapala. We took a bus from Ajijic ($50 MXN, about $4 USD) to avoid dealing with traffic and parking. The bus dropped us at the Antigua Central Camionera (old bus station*), which is more than a kilometer from the city’s Centro Histórico, the colonial center of the city, so we caught a taxi from the bus station.

Plaza Guadalajara looking toward the Palacio Municipal (built between 1949 and 1952)

The Centro Histórico is laid out like a cross from west to east when viewed from above (link). The cathedral lies at its crux surrounded by four plazas: Plaza Guadalajara at the head of the cross; Plaza de la Liberación at its base; Plaza de Armas to the south; and Plaza de la Rotonda to the north. The circular fountain in the Plaza Guadalajara is shaped like an oyster with rose petals alluding to the city's two nicknames: "Pearl of the West" and "City of Roses." The stairs lead to an underground parking garage.

Ajijic

We left the Pacific coast before Easter and headed inland to Lake Chapala. Semana Santa (Holy Week) was approaching and the beaches would be filled with vacationers, a kind of Mexican spring break. The drive from Barra de Navidad to Lake Chapala was uneventful. We took Mexico 200 south along the coast skirting mangrove-flanked estuaries and the port of Manzanillo. Turning north on Mexico 110, we passed through Colima, the capital of Mexico’s fourth smallest states, and picked up Mexico 54 to Guadalajara. Gaining elevation, we passed the impressive Colima Volcanic Complex, including Nevado de Colima at 4,300 m (14,000 ft), at the western end of the 900-km (560-mi) trans-Mexican volcanic belt (link).

Ajijic and Lago de Chapala

San Sebastián del Oeste

Drive east into the mountains from the high-tourist areas of Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta and you will discover a rural Mexico moored to centuries of traditions, culture and architecture. At 4,600 ft in the Sierra Madre, San Sebastián del Oeste is only 40 miles northeast of Puerto Vallarta, but it is centuries removed in time.

Sierra Madre from Puente Progreso

Dripping Springs

One of the pleasures of traveling is finding places that are beautiful or interesting. In the U.S., some of these places have been protected by local, state or federal governments to conserve nature, preserve history and viewscapes, and for public recreation. We found one of these places on our way back to Mexico.

Organ Mountains - torrey mountain yucca (foreground) and soaptree yucca

We left northern Colorado in a snowstorm and stopped in Las Cruces, New Mexico for a couple days to collect the remaining documents we needed to complete our tax returns and plan our trip down the Pacific Coast of mainland Mexico. With some free time, we went looking for hikes in the Organ Mountains east of Las Cruces and found Dripping Springs Natural Area. It’s managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and has a small visitor center at 5,000 feet and more than four miles of hiking trails.

Wandering on Whidbey Island

We spent a week on Whidbey Island in northern Puget Sound in January in weather ranging from cold rain and fog to shirtsleeves and sunshine where I tested the landscape capabilities of the Sony RX100. Whidbey Island was named by Captain George Vancouver for Lieutenant Joseph Whidbey who explored the island in a launch from Discovery in 1792 (link). Vancouver had a penchant for naming things after his friends – he named Puget Sound after Discovery Lieutenant Peter Puget, Mount Baker after 3rd Lieutenant Joseph Baker, Mount Rainier after Rear Admiral Peter Rainier, and so on (link).

Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve (NHR)
Ebey’s Landing NHR was established by Congress in 1978 as a partnership among the National Park Service; state, county and town governments; and residents of central Whidbey Island. It is administered and managed by the Trust Board of Ebey’s Landing NHR and is the first unit of its kind in the National Park System. The Reserve covers over 17,000 acres, most of which is privately owned, and includes Penn Cove and the town of Coupeville (link, link).

Farms at Ebey's Landing