With the Dolphins off Rinconcito beach.
Again, I didn’t have a `great night’s sleep, and was up quite frequently, largely because of the heat, which wasn’t too bad, but still hot and humid enough to keep waking me up. The overhead fan worked fairly well, but as it’s blowing hot air around the room it doesn’t really keep the room particularly cool, although it does keep the bugs away. It’s also very noisy, and that kept me up as well. It also drowned out the sound of the waves crashing and lapping on the beach below. But too hot too turn it off.
I enjoyed watching the sun rise over the Rinconcito horizon, and headed out to meet Anna and Lance at around 7 am, and we headed down to the Rinconcito Beach to check out the dolphin and whale tours that go out each morning.
We picked someone to go with, and then went into town, where Anna had a coffee and we waited until around 8 am, when the tours go out. These boats are not large, however. They’re just large motorized row boats that hold perhaps 10 to 12 passengers each.
The trip was probably a little over two hours, and we headed out, I guess maybe 3 miles, seeing some whales breaching the water along the way, scores of small jellyfish in the water, and quite a few dolphins, also breaching the water, and sometimes swimming in small groups of two or three. I also got to see a sea turtle, flapping its paddles and working its way through the water, which seemed pretty slow going.
We didn’t see the scores of dolphins that I had hoped to see, but it was still a very wonderful trip, and I enjoyed being on the water, especially when our boat was moving at some speed. We did see several whales, although I’m not sure what species, and in some cases got pretty close. Perhaps humpbacks, as these were dark in color and are abundant in these waters, but I missed any commentary by the guy running the boat as he was at the back and I was in front, and, of course, I can’t speak Spanish. Bah!
We also saw quite a few dolphins, although not in the large pods that are sometimes seen (which must be incredible to see), usually seeing a single dolphin or maybe 2 or 3 swimming together. I recall being in the Mediterranean at age 18 when I was in the merchant navy, watching numbers of dolphins swimming in the wake by the ship’s prow, easily matching the ship’s speed. However, with the speed they swim, appearing and disappearing in the blink of an eye, it was difficult to get clear photos, which was true also of the whales we saw.
It was a lovely experience. At one point, some of the passages went snorkeling with gear provided by the boat, but I chose not to as I wasn’t prepared to get in the water. I had my wallet, phone, etc., and wasn’t wearing swim trunks. However, I would’ve gone in the water and snorkeled had I realized that as neared the beach we’d all have to jump out of the boat and swim to shore, so the boat could easily get up on the beach without carrying a full load.
But, get out and swim we had to, so I stuffed my things into my water bottle carrier and left that in a small container in the boat, and swam in. I wondered how swimming to shore would be with my rotator cuff injury, but it was fine, and I was really glad to actually be in the water, and regretted not snorkeling earlier, as I got wet anyway.
I headed back to the hotel, and as I was wet anyway I took a swim in the infinity pool, which was lovely. After I got back to my room, I hung up my wet clothes to dry in the sun, which I knew wouldn’t take long, and I crashed, sleeping for a couple of hours, maybe more, although by now my shoulder was really hurting, me, probably because of the earlier swimming, although it felt good at the time.
Once I was up again, around 3, I wrote a little and then took a couple of mile walk into town, getting a better sense of what the town was like.
Then I headed to Anna‘s house, and sher, Lance, and I headed to Mermejita beach to watch the sunset once again, which I think is pretty much a daily ritual for them. We were joined by Moon, a friend of theirs; both Anna and Lance, and especially Anna, seem to know a lot of people in town. That’s not only because Anna has been coming here for over 30 years, but also because many other people return each winter, so there is really quite the international ex-pat community here.
We hung out on the beach, later joined by Maisie, Tilly, and Maisie’s close friend Jules. The weather was cooler now, although still pretty warm, but with a nice breeze. Once again, although they were more people on the beach tonight, it was still relatively empty.
I enjoyed the time, it really would not be able to spend much more time here. It’s too laid-back here for me, and without the kind of structure I really need in order to feel that I’m doing something, sitting on the beach for 90 minutes waiting for the sun to go down. Plus, the heat. You get used to it, of course, but it’s a little too Hot and tropically humid here for me. Because I don’t have a structure here on my day, I feel I’ve had enough time here and I’m ready to head back to Oaxaca tomorrow.
After leaving the beach with Anna and Lance, I headed back to my hotel, showered off, wrote this, and headed to bed, hopefully for a better night’s sleep.
