Mike in the Wild

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...