Over the last few days we have enjoyed three types of star sightings.
Bahia Alacran (that means scorpion!...but we didn't see any) Valentine's Day
We pulled in to this anchorage, knowing there was some sort of eco lodge onshore. About 8 little yurts , and one larger one, lined the shore. We paddled ashore on our SUPS and in our tiny wooden rowing dinghy. There we met Steve, from San Jose CA, the guide for the ecolodge guests. He gave us a few pointers about where to hike and off we went. There were some great views from on top of a perfectly triangular cone covered in scree.
Steve had invited us to join him and the lodge guests for happy hour so we headed out to Skagua, baked up some chocolate chip cookie dough we had made the previous day, and headed back in. After enjoying 2 hours of visiting and sitting around a campfire with hospitable strangers, we started to head back to the paddleboards to go home. Steve shouted over, "hey check this out, guys!" It was far from any town, low tide, and the moon hadn't risen yet, it was plenty dark. The bioluminescent phytoplankton were in the wet sand above the water line. When a person stamped or jumped, stars blossomed around each landing. Bright greenish yellow specks followed Eila as she pranced down the beach. It was a joy to see.
To continue the stars below show, as we paddled to the boat, each swipe of the paddle illuminated the water. Our bow wake, our paddle splatters, and even the occasional fish below were localized neon Milky Ways.
We made haste to put the boards away, and gather on to the forward trampoline to snuggle under blankets, star gaze, and watch for the moon to rise. Zero light pollution made for a pretty opportunity.
And now, 3 days later, we encountered our third field of stars. This time, underwater. While exploring our day anchorage between Isla Mitlan and Isla Coronado, we encountered a lovely bank of five-pointed stars while "dinghy snorkeling.' What this means is slowly meandering along in the dinghy in the patches of glassy water, and oohing and aahing over the show below. It was a thick patch of Pentaceraster cumingi, sometimes known as the Panamic cushion star, Cortez starfish or knobby star (from Wikipedia). Their bright orange and cream contrasting knobs made a beautiful bouquet to finish off our Three Star weekend.
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