La Isla Isabel

(Note: First off, I am absolutely terrible at blogging regularly. I do nothing for a month and then dump a giant load in the space of a few days.  Terribly sorry! With this one I have a bit of an excuse- I was waiting to get the photos from a friend of the trip, as they are from a much nicer camera and therefore demonstrate the beauty of the island much better. However, I think if I wait any longer to write about the island trip, I'll forget what went on there, so here's the rough version of the post, very belated.)

At the beginning of January, there was a weekend trip with exchange students to Isla Isabel, a volcanic island and  bird sanctuary. We set off from the port of San Blas, and headed about two hours across the ocean. It was a fantastic overnight trip that included whale watching, dolphin sightings, snorkelling, and much much more.

At the bright and early hour of 4:30 am Saturday, the exchange students of Guadalajara, Vallarta and Tepic met up in San Blas. We then divided into groups to go on the lanchas, the tour boats that would take us to the island.  One the way there we raced a pod of dolphins, and got a few distant sightings of humpback whales! The entire exchange group kicked into tourist overdrive and we were scrambling around the boat in an attempt to snap some quality photos of the marine life. Unfortunately, the whales and dolphins looked way more awesome in real life than in the photos, but I'll include some in any case, so you can get the general idea. Basically big, majestic, and so much more amazing in the wild, as opposed to in some resort or zoo.

Reenacting the scene from the Titanic (sort of)

Leaving San Blas

The crew of our little lancha

Dolphins!

And even more!

Upon arriving, the first thing I noticed was the huge amount of birds absolutely EVERYWHERE (which I suppose isn't that surprising, with it being a bird sanctuary and all). In the sky, on the beach, weighing down all the branches of the trees. Not an ideal place for anyone with even the faintest phobia of birds. Luckily not being ornithophobic (yep, I looked it up), I just enjoyed the presence of the varied tropical wildlife. Pelicans, blue-footed boobies, frigatebirds were everywhere you looked! Also, there were a large amount of these hideous (but still awesome in their own way) iguanas underfoot.

The male frigatebird with it's giant balloon-like throat

'Whatchu lookin' at?'

View from the top of the hill

The little house is where we set up camp

That day we explored, then hiked to the other side of the island and did some snorkelling. After dinner we made our way up the hill to watch the sunset, which was absolutely gorgeous. (I'm still waiting to get the better quality photos from my friends, but here are mine for now) The entire sky and sea turned beautiful shades of orange and pink, and from our high vantage point, you could see for miles all around you.

After returning, we played this massive game of cards called PENDEJO (but you could easily substitute with another nasty word for idiot if you liked). Basically in a large group of people, you pass the cards around as fast as you can around the table until you have three of a kind. At this point, you put your hand on your nose (while still passing the cards, no easy feat), and at that point the cards basically cease to matter. Those who notice you put their hand to their nose as well, and the last to notice loses that round and recieves a P written on their forehead. The next time you lose, you receive the next letter, and so on. However, this game gets really interesting after the first round. Those who have writing on their face can talk to anyone they want to, however if anyone responds to them, they also receive a letter! You can only talk to those with the same amount of letters as you, which gets very difficult as the game progresses as you don't know how many each person has! (Not helped by the very dim lighting.) By the end of the game, people were yelling at others and trying to trick them into talking, throwing cards around the table, and just generally having one of the rowdiest, best card games I've ever partaken in. At the end, Johannes was the pendejo of the game, but many others (myself included), had various letters scrawled across their forehead.

The collection of pendejos

We slept in this dilapidated house, on the concrete foundation. While not the most comfortable accomadations, it didn't really matter, as we didn't sleep much!

The next day, we went whale watching and this time got much closer to the action! I can't explain how awesome it was to see the sheer size of them, to catch a fin or a tail briefly waving in the air, but it was absolutely one of those MY LIFE IS AWSOME RIGHT NOW moments.  We then went to another snorkeling spot, a bit further out form the day before, and luckily the water was much calmer. It was fantastic, and I saw all the characters from the aquarium in Finding Nemo (except Nemo himself, unfortunately). As I have the mental maturity of a small kid sometimes, that's how I identified the marine life. Not the most scientific, but the characters tend to stick with me better than latin names!

Tail AND spouting water!

I think the whale was waving to us!

Gaby trying as hard as the rest of us to get in a good shot of the elusive whales

Ready for snorkelling!

Me and the Frenchies!

After returning to the house for lunch, we packed up and made our way home. It was a relaxed, gorgeous day and it was awesome watching the sunset as we made our way across the ocean. About halfway there, we stopped by a whale shark and (almost) got to swim with him. I say almost because our guide on the boat stopped the boat and asked who wanted to swim with the beast (about 12 metres long). Naturally, I was raring to go, and so Sara and I put on snorkeling gear as fast as we possibly could. Just as I was about to jump in however (and Sara actually did), we were informed that as a Rotary rule we weren't allowed to swim with the shark because of the risk. I was quite miffed, but at the very least we got very close to it! Maybe it'll happen another time in my life, who knows. Because saying 'I swam with the whale shark' sounds infinitely more badass than 'I swam with the dolphins!'

The whale shark

Adios, Isla Isabel!

Some stoked exchange students

One very sunburnt Wendy

A pensive Sara

Nothing but the ocean, the sun and the sky

It was a fantabulous trip filled with ocean, sun and general tropical Mexican excellence. One of those weekends when you wouldn't want your exchange to be anywhere else in the world.

(Here's a quality picture, taken by our resident Rotex photographer)