The trip started with the Mexican medical team being a day late. They would be boarding the ship today, in the late afternoon, rather than the night before with the Canadian team. So we decided to take the earlier part of the day and explore around the island of Espiritu Santos.

Our first encounter was with a group of common dolphins. They were feeding but took time out to play. It was really quite amazing to watch the dolphins and pelicans feeding together.

Our next adventure took us exploring a few caves well hidden in the rock formations of the shoreline. This would be a great place to hide a treasure but that is another trip in itself.

After the caves we headed to Los Isolotes, the breeding grounds of the California sea lions. 
We toured around the island in the pangas and were fascinated by the abundance of life in and around the island. There were blue-footed booby birds, brown booby birds, Frigates, a nesting heron and turkey vultures. They were all around nesting, soaring and fishing. The sea lions numbered in around 400+. The males, females and pups, were all barking, swimming, and play fighting; some even followed us in the pangas. The sea lions aren’t the only type of marine life you can see here, in fact, the waters were loaded with a variety of fish and the rocks are teeming with Sally Lightfoot Crabs.

On our way back to pick up the Mexican team we encountered a humpback whale. Though the time spent with it was short it was still incredible to experience a whale in the wild. It even fluked (showed it's tail before diving) before taking off.

We picked up the team and headed north with our evening destination being the island of Isla Pardito.

Once we arrived the islanders came out to greet us and helped unload the Palmas (palm tree fronds used as roofing on Palapas), lumber and tools. We would be building a new Palapa for the island but later in the week.

The sun was setting and what a beautiful sunset is was. A perfect ending to a beautiful day at sea, with the anticipation of our work beginning the following day. No sooner did the sun set, when the moon started rising. It is so breathtaking here and to think this is just the beginning!