a river runs through it

(i'm in catch up mode, whoops. the problem is that after sitting at my computer for 8-hours a day, the last thing i want to do is sit here and do more computer work)

last fall, ivan and i had the day off and decided to get out of peñasco for a bit. as much as i try to convince you all to come visit me here (only the parents and hermana have actually done this), there really isn't much to do. the beaches are beautiful and i love going to pinacate and to wander along the malecon, but these are all things that you can only do so much, you know? i miss going to movies, for example. but come! spice up my life!

but anyways, we decided to drive up to el golfo de santa clara, a little fishing village up the coast from peñasco. just last spring they opened up the new highway to there, part of the "coastal stairwell" up the sonoran coast. i had heard great things about el golfo - that it was a fun little place to visit to see what peñasco was like prior to the tourist boom here a few years ago.

so off we went. the drive is quite spectacular, following the coast, past the wetlands of bahía adair, with glimpses of the sea. and as you approach el golfo, you drive through the (jokingly referred to by ivan) "grand canyon" of sonora:





i imagine that all of these little rivets and canyons were carved out by the colorado river, when it still flowed into the gulf of california. we ended up driving a bit north of town to look over what used to be the delta, and it just ... is unbelievable:



[looking south towards the gulf]


[looking north. the white is a salt flat left by the tide]


i was just stunned. a huge, massive river used to run into this area, and now there is not even a trickle. the small amount of water permitted to cross the border (by law) after the US has diverted most of the water for agriculture is immediately used for the same purpose. and now nothing is here. the wetland is now some 5% of its original area. heart-breaking.

as we entered el golfo, ivan mentioned "don't tell anyone you work at CEDO" and later, as we walked along the beach, i understood why. the beach is crowded with pangas, almost all using gill-nets, and the sand is littered with shrimp parts.





the so-called "vaquita situation" is so complex and complicated that i personally cannot really choose a side, as it were. i feel for the fishermen and for the helplessness of the situation in the upper gulf. but at the same time, the conservationist part of me thinks it's a shame to watch a cetacean go extinct. but before we arrived, i had the naive idea that there wasn't going to be a lot of shrimping or fishing with gill-nets going on. so, frankly, i was surprised to see all the pangas and nets. it's ... hard [side note: CEDO is searching for a compromise to all this; it's just not easy to come by]





anyways, the point is, that going up to el golfo was wonderful. we bought beers, and ate ceviche on the beach (ahhh life, it's rough around here) and wandered around, etc. it's really not such a bad life.

oh, and i saw this fabulous street sign:





sooooo tempted to steal that and hang it above my desk. just need to change it to "gringa ave". haha, i love it.

out to sea

one of the wonderful things about my job at CEDO is the opportunity to go out on the water, in various actividades. after the course of sub-tidal monitoring i took last summer, i've been able to go out with the fisheries team to do monitorings, including a visit to rocas consag, all the way across the gulf near san felipe to do a monitoring. the vaquita refuge is centered around rocas consag, so although i knew it was horribly unlikely, i still half hoped i'd get the chance to see one. no luck there. we did see dolphins on the way back though, which is always fun when they jump out of the water and flip around for you.

but, rocas consag:





[sea birds at rocas consag. that white-ness is not snow]


it was pretty cool. too bad the diving wasn't so great. the visibility was literally a foot, and horror of all horrors, as we're preparing to descend, i was attaching my camera to my BC and .... there it went, falling down to the bottom. ivan and i immediately went down to look for it but to no available. i hope the vaquita are having fun playing with it. it had a good life, but i was still sad to see it go.

....

i took a group out to isla san jorge in november as well to go snorkel with the sea lions. freakin' cold the water, at about 55F, but with a 7 mm wetsuit it's not too bad. :)

there were tons of pups around, swimming right up to us, kissing my mask. i don't think i'll ever get too tired of that!





[babies coming to check us out]


honestly, if the appeal of sand and sun isn't enough to get you down here, then the sea lions should be a huge draw.

....

and finally, i just like these pictures because i think they represent peñasco so well - the town of shrimp and tourism.

i do love shrimp, but these trawlers are absolutely destroying the ecosystem. they rip up the sea floor and capture everything they come upon without any discrimination. 10 lbs of bycatch for every 1 lb of shrimp. it's just unbelievable. i love shrimp, and i hardly eat it anymore (only on the rare occasion).



[trawler]


and well the tourism - these huge condos are suffering massively under the negative press coverage of mexico in the US news. they are practically empty at this, the highest season for visitors. i am truly afraid for many of the businesses in town if tourists don't start to return.



[trawler and sandy beach condos]