Mike in the Wild

I've written quite a bit about my snorkel adventures in Cabo San Lucas.  Even beating out whale watching and beachcombing, snorkeling is indeed my favorite activity in this resort city at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula.  As a cruise passenger, the easiest site to visit for underwater exploration may be Pelican Rock, a fast ride in a water taxi from the municipal dock.  I even wondered if it might be Cabo's best snorkeling spot when I wrote about it just over two years ago. (See  Pelican Rock .)  But I was recently reminded on a November cruise that there are two additional sites that are also both excellent for snorkeling and almost as easy to reach: Chileno Bay and Santa Maria Bay. I've actually visited those beaches before, on excursions while on other cruises.  Cruise lines sell tours that sail vacationers from Cabo's harbor to both bays in the Sea of Cortez.  Usually from a catamaran, I've snorkeled in the pristine water shelteri...

Forty-five minutes in a panga on choppy seas, breathing in gasoline fumes, was how I started my first visit to the marine preserve surrounding Loreto.  Jacques Cousteau had labeled the undersea environment the world's aquarium.  Above the sea, nausea prevented me from enjoying any marine life that might have been skimming the water's surface. I had arrived in this quiet corner of Baja California on a cruise ship, in mid-November, with only a short, eight-hour stop at the port.  Loreto was a lovely town, with charming streetscapes and an historic colonial-era plaza.  But on my mind was the vast surrounding Sea of Cortez seascape, designated as Bahia de Loreto National Park and protecting 800 square miles of ocean, coastline and five uninhabited islands.   We were six passengers on the small boat, a panga, that made its way from Loreto's tiny port to Isla Coronado, the closest of the preserve's five islands.  There were no fishing boats within view, a te...

Almost no one visits the Cayman Islands without seeing Seven Mile Beach.  Crescent-shaped and renowned for its bright coral-sand and clear, calm water, it extends along most of the west coast of Grand Cayman Island, where I was visiting.  Cruise ship passengers like myself are especially lucky because their tender port is at George Town, lying close to the southern end of the beach.  However on my short stay, I headed almost to Seven Mile's very northern end, Cemetery Beach, where I snorkeled to an off-shore reef.   George Town is the capital and largest city in the Cayman Islands.  It's also an easy place to find a taxi van or a public bus traveling to anywhere on Grand Cayman Island.  I quickly learned that both services operated identical-looking vans that each held around a dozen passengers.  The taxi offered a specific ride to your location at a fixed price with the possibility of several different itineraries sharing your van.  Meanwhil...