The Last Leg

Puerto Refugio is astern and to the south of Skagua, and Puerto Penasco is 90 miles due north.  Refugio was a special place to spend our last week cruising. There were multiple beaches and 3 different anchorages to hop between.  The best aspect of Puerto Refugio was the chance to meet other sailors.  Two other sailboats and one trawler had friendly folks aboard to socialize with.  S/V SJ was there the whole time, and had Sarah and Craig aboard.  We went on hikes, had meals at each others' boats, and two different beach fires.  At both of these beach fires, Sarah brought her black light and went searching for scorpions along the upper beach in the dark.  Both times she was successful in her search.  Scorpions turn fluorescent blue in black light!  

One absolutely amazing discovery was on the east bight of the main anchorage.  We dinghied over with Sarah and Craig to just poke around and see what there was to see.  The first thing we noticed was that there were many pelicans.  Three different arroyos ended at the beach.  We picked one and started walking along.  Within only 50 yards, it ran below a sloping hill with a few folds and dips in it. Some of the "Elephant trees" (that's what one person we met called them) were sprinkled around.  In every single one there was a pelican nest!  And many pelicans stood in loose groups near the various nests.  I thought to myself that there must not be many predators on this island if the pelicans are so casual about security. And indeed, there are no mammal predators on the island.  But we spotted crows lurking in a tree near one set of nests, and twice sea gulls entered empty nests and flew off with eggs, directly in front of a watching pelican.  The most noteworthy detail was the sheer number of birds and nests, and the specific location where they had chosen.  No where else in all of our island hopping, have we seen any evidence of Pelicans nesting.