CALETA DE LA ISLA - ROCKS & CANYONS

Our stay in Caleta de la Isla has been interesting, both because of the wind and anchoring problems we had (February 9 2002), and because of the fantastic geology and vegetation we found in the area around the cove. The two islands of Espiritu Santo and Isla Partida used to be a single island which was about 12 miles long and two or three miles wide. A volcanoe formed toward the north of the big island and eventually the cone collapsed, forming a submerged crater that is now Caleta (Cove) Partida that seperates the two islands. There is a small sandbar that goes dry at low tide which still connects the two islands.

Caleta de la Isla is just over two miles from the center of the collapsed volcanic cone. We hiked over and around many of the hills and small coves near our anchorage and found them all to be formed by some kind of volcanic activity. The cliffs and hill to the north of our anchorage appeared to be the result of several different layers of mud that had flowed over sandstone. The dried mud was hard like rock but would peel off the underlying structure in three inch thick sheets. The alternating mud and sandstone layers were 20 to 100 feet thick.

The La Paz area receives only seven inches of rain a year, and five of those inches fall between August and November in the form of tropical thunderstorms. The downpours create big runoffs that gouge deep gulleys, waterfalls, and canyons thru the island. We explored several of the canyons and creekbeds during our stay at Caleta de la Isla.

Here is the view looking down into a small canyon, a couple of days after the heavy rains we described in our earlier log (February 3 2002). Each of the small canyons contained many small pools which varied from inches to many feet deep. The vegetation is much more lush around the pools than anywhere else.

We thought there might be small aquatic animals in the pools but we saw none.

Getting into and out of some of the canyons required scrambling up and down small cliffs and large boulders.

Some of the pools were beautiful

We encountered a strange tree that grew directly out of the rocks on the canyon walls. We found this tree only in the steep canyons, never in the valleys. Seemed out of place in the dessert:

That is Caleta de la Isla in the background, looking southwest.

The rock really varied from place to place. Most of the small canyons were carved out of sandstone while the cliffs that we climbed were a much harder igneous rock that was black and sharp. But they did make for nice climbing. It is truly amazing how the plants can grow out of solid rock in such a dry climate.