Seven-day Isla Espiritu Santo paddle full of ups and downs

Photo: J.P. Squire

Isla Espiritu Santo is famous for its endless pink cliffs of ash flow tuff - compressed ashes from volcanic eruptions. The cliffs and sculptures carved by erosion are along both sides of deep fjord-like bays on its west coast.

Towering pink cliffs. Twenty white sand beaches. Flying manta rays. Swimming with curious California sea lion pups. Snorkeling with tropical fish. Endless pelicans and herons keeping human paddlers company.

A seven-day kayak adventure around Isla Espiritu Santo, 27 kilometres north of La Paz, Mexico had numerous highlights, not to mention making new outdoor friends from across the U.S.

Baja Outdoor Activities, now known as Indomito, describes it as “The Jewel of the Sea of Cortez” and "one of the planet's iconic sea kayaking destinations." This Mexican National Park island is a UNESCO biosphere reserve due to the proliferation of amazing wildlife above and below the water.

The La Paz-based company offers two options—fully-catered and co-operatively catered. For the latter, 12 paddlers participate in all the camping, cooking and kayak loading/unloading duties. The Kayak Sheriff and Constant Companion Carmen have survived numerous multi-day kayak camping expeditions on the B.C. coast and in the Southern Interior, so that was a given.

Photo: J.P. Squire

One of the highlights of a kayaking holiday in the Baja is swimming with sea lion pups at Los Islotes at the north end of Isla Espiritu Santo.

The kayakinbaja.com website (missing the 'g') explains the island circumnavigation is for beginner-intermediate kayakers with daily paddling times of 2.5 hours to 4.5 hours. The Sheriff doesn't know any beginners who could paddle that long every day for six days with one day off. This is definitely intermediate territory, depending on Mother Nature or perhaps Santo's spirit. More on that later. Translated, Isla Espiritu Santo is "Island of the Holy Spirit."

The island itself has fascinating geography—fjord-like bays deeply recessed on the west coast and cliffs more than 650 metres high along an undented shoreline on the east side. In fact, there is more than one island in the park, the main island, three small islands on the west side and large Isla Partida and diminutive Los Islotes (home to a sea lion colony) at the north end.

The key to any successful guided expedition like this is guides who are kayak safety instructors, knowledgeable about the area, cautious leaders, good cooks, first-aid savvy and used to lots of camping. They must also have a great sense of humour when spending 120 to 150 days every season to accommodate complete strangers.

Guides Tulio and Antonio would rank among the best, especially because they love everything that Isla Espiritu Santo has to offer.

"I really like the wildlife and just the different sceneries, all the different colours that you get from pink to white to black," said Tulio. "The jumping mantas are my favourite. I really enjoy those. I also like the mangroves. Yeah, all those moments are really nice. The interaction with people is nice too, just being able to show our guests what we like—in our 'office’—that we really appreciate."

While they prepared a delicious dinner one night, the Sheriff asked how many recipes they repeat during other expeditions. "None," responded Tulio. "But new guests wouldn't know," the Sheriff noted. "But we would know," he replied with a laugh.

The highlights included swimming with sea lion pups at Los Islotes. One guest did receive a gentle nip but one nuzzled the Sheriff's shoulder), snorkelling over coral outcroppings with a wide variety of reef fish and other creatures, manta rays unexpectedly leaping high in the air multiple times and sharing kayaking experiences with other paddlers from Seattle (who have explored the B.C. coast) and the U.S. east coast.

The trip's “ups” included checking out one incredible beach after another, paddling past endless cliff sculptures of ash flow tuff (compressed ashes from volcanic eruptions), past seals lying on the rocks, spying mountain goats perched on the slopes and listening to large flocks of noisy sea birds. The detailed instructions on how to use the porta-potti were hilarious.

The only real “down” was the result of Mother Nature (or the Holy Spirit) delivering wicked headwinds and ocean chop for several days. Mother Nature didn't stop producing that wind and ocean swells up to a metre high on the last day (talk about ups and downs).

On a personal note, the Sheriff paddled a Solstice Titan, which the guides admitted was "the biggest, heaviest (and slowest) kayak on the market." Add the aluminum kitchen table strapped to the back deck and the 90-minute, non-stop paddle on the last day was the most challenging the Sheriff has ever faced.

"Is it always this windy?" the Sheriff asked. "This isn't windy,” was the guide humorous response. “Wait until next week!"

The expedition didn't complete the scheduled circumnavigation, just paddling up, then down the west side because the east side had even stronger winds blowing.

Photo: J.P. Squire

Isla Espiritu Santo is a UNESCO biosphere reserve due to its proliferation of amazing wildlife. A wide variety of seabirds call the Mexican National Park island their home and keep a wary eye on kayakers.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.