Recently, my mom finally made it down for a visit. One of the great things about having guests – wherever you are – is that it forces you to get out and experience your location in the eyes of a noob. Serendipitously, our neighbor’s daughter and her family were also visiting the same week and they happened to be planning a trip to Isla Espiritu Santo a large island off the coast of La Paz in the Sea of Cortez. It has been on my bucket list, so I jumped at the chance to go see it.

The tour company – Keko’s tours – was awesome. The captain and tour guide were locals, super chill and adept. They’ve obviously done this once or twice before. We boarded a small boat with about 12 people under beautifully calm conditions.

After a brief stop to watch dolphins, sea lions and pelicans attacking a bait ball, we head to a man made jetty, that is now a breeding ground for Great Frigate Birds.

The landscape of the island – a preserve – is strikingly beautiful with latticed sandstone and dramatic layers juxtaposed against impossibly turquoise water.

Our first major stop was to hang with the sea lions at a tiny island off the coast.

At first, both my mom and I were a bit nervous about getting that close to the wildlife having years of “no touching” drilled into us by national parks and preserves, but to our surprise, when we got in the water, the sea lions came off the rocks and into the water to play. At one point, this young adult sea lion came up to me and presented his belly right in front of my face. I resisted, but after about a minute, I reached out and tickled his belly, after which he spun around and nudged my shoulder with his nose. EEEEEEEEE!!!

As we peeled off our wetsuits in the boat, we navigated towards a shallow bay for lunch which our guides sarcastically called “the cafeteria.” Luckily, they had the forethought to arrive before most of the other boats and we spent a lazy couple hours stuffing their delicious home-made ceviche in our mouths while combing through the sand looking at all the tiny shells and basking in the sun. What an awesome day!