Spanish conquistadors spoke of the Sea of Cortez as a place with devil winds, sea monsters, a tribe of fierce Amazonian women warriors, currents that made ships sail backwards, and rocks that float.

Fourteen miles long, a few wide at the most, Espiritu Santos consists of two barely connected islands (Isla Partida to the north and Espiritu Santos closer to La Paz (100 miles northeast of Cabo San Lucas). There are broad sandy beaches, hidden coves with fresh water streams blending with mangroves inside, incredible rock formations, seasonal waterfalls, navigable sea caves and about a dozen of the most spectacular, pristine, generally deserted bays, beaches and anchorages to be found anywhere.

The islands are located just a few miles off Tecolote beach twenty minutes from La Paz. Here you can anchor or camp in an extinct volcanic crater surrounded by three hundred foot walls pocked with caves formed by steam fissures eons ago. If staying overnight, you will experience the Milky Way with zillions of stars overhead and phosphorescent trails of light streaming around your boat caused by sea lions shooting about underwater. In one bay, I experienced hundreds of pelicans dive-bombing schools of baitfish, making a racket sounding like a battle going on all about me. One may encounter several species of whales, dolphins, see giant manta rays belly flopping in the air, and even 50´ whale sharks. You can snorkel in water with 150' of. visibility.

If you venture on land, there are over 100 documented archaeological sites including Indian caves used for habitation, rock shelters, open fire pit areas, burial caves, pictograph sites, shell middens and areas where they manufactured stone implements. When visiting these sites, remember they are protected and it is illegal to disturb anything. Many of the sites have not been thoroughly examined by scientists yet and much remains to be discovered and analyzed. If you come by your own boat, the authorities request that you do not bring any pets on the island. They can spread viruses that the island animals may be unresistant to in the same manner as the Indians were to the White Man´s diseases.

The flora, fauna and geology of the islands are also unique. The Black Tailed Jack Rabbit, and many species of reptiles and plants are indigenous to the island. Bird watching is excellent here and one can add American Oyster Catchers, Snowy Egrets, Herons and Egrets, Frigate birds, Eagles, Turkey Vultures, Red Tailed hawks, Kestrel and even Great Horned Owls to their list of sightings. Many migrant and wintering species can be spotted here as well.

John Steinbeck spent weeks exploring the waters in this area just prior to WW-2 in a trawler with his scientist friend Ed Ricketts. Their collection of marine life later formed the basis for the world famous Monterey Bay Aquarium. Among the hundreds of species of marine life discovered, captured and preserved was a small fish that spent its entire life with its head up the anus of a larger host fish.

The novel "The Log From The Sea of Cortez" by Steinbeck, is full of information and amusing stories of life here in Baja Sur, including time spent visiting Isla Espiritu Santos and nearby Baja Sur state capital La Paz back when it was just a sleepy fishing village.

Adjacent to the volcanic crater five hundred feet or more above the sea below, I "discovered" an archaeological site half the size of a football field. A casual walk along the top of the ridge leading to the crater led to several ancient fire pits, shell middens, discarded broken arrowheads and rock chippings. I was excited; the place seemed untouched for centuries. I imagined I was the first to "discover" the site. That's when I spotted that cigarette butt. Now I recall from my school days that Indians invented (if you will) smoking and passed the pleasant addiction on to Columbus and his crew - but this cigarette had a filter on it...

Piles of large seashells called middens by archaeologists can be found along the shoreline outside of La Paz and all over the islands throughout the Sea of Cortez. You can find Indian middens all the way up the coast clear to Alaska for that matter. It's important not to disturb these shell sites as they often have clues about the history of the tribes that once inhabited the area.

Harumi Fujita a Japanese archaeologist has been studying the ancient tribes of the Baja Peninsula for over twenty years. At a place called Babasuri Rock shelter on Espiritu Santos, her team dug a trench over a meter deep in the back of a midden and C-14 radiocarbon dated the shells back 40,000 years! The shells showed evidence of having been worked by human hands. This 2001 discovery appears to be the earliest evidence of humankind in Mexico! Prior to this discovery, the earliest evidence of people in Mexico was approximately eleven thousand years before present.

Atop one volcano are hollow mettalic ringing, 2 meter tall stones - perhaps the ones the Conquistadors found floating. Any of the 14 species of whales that inhabit the Sea of Cortez or the over 1,400 lb. marlins could account for reports of Sea Monsters. The beautiful Amazon women? Perhaps the bonita La Paz senoritas found in Carlos and Charlies' bar.

The islands were owned by a fishing Ejido (cooperative) for decades but were purchased with funds contributed by the Mexican government, Microsoft and others a few years ago who placed the islands in a nature conservancy to protect them. They have been recently designated by the government to be a marine protection area to help rejuvenate fish population. The island was purchased at just the right moment as resort developers had been angling to buy the islands. Now, the islands will remain a place of refuge where one can escape to. Espiritu Santos makes a good day tour from La Paz or Cabo San Lucas just 2 hours by car to the south.

David Mandich, has been living, writing and selling real estate in Cabo for 10 years. A Century 21 Paradise Properties Agent, he can be emailed at: davidm@century21baja.com or by telephonet: (Vonage from the USA) 1 520 204-1604, Local: 624-143-1011, Cel. 044 624 132 8919

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