The Mexican Galapagos Island

December 18, 2024   

While at Isla Isabel we were lucky enough to meet a biologist who had been studying there since doing his thesis about Isla Isabel 39 years ago.  We talked to him about the changes and about the animals that live there. 

He told us that it is estimated that there are 50,000 resident Magnificent Frigate birds, 10,000 Blue-Footed Booby birds, Brown-Footed Booby birds, and several other species of migratory bird, as well as Iguanas and smaller lizards. 

Magnificent Frigate birds are very large birds with a wing span between 7-8 feet and it is crazy to think of 50,000 of them living on the island all year round.

After arriving and having breakfast we were eager to get to shore and explore this magical place.  We launched our tender and rowed into the beach.  Constant swells breaking on shore meant timing a surf landing, and we chose to leave our outboard motor off for ease of carrying the tender up on shore after our landing.  It also turned out that at low tide it was quite rocky just out from shore and it would not have been good to have had an outboard motor on for going through that area.

Isla Isabel is sometimes referred to as a Mexican Galapagos Island because the animals have no predators and they are not afraid at all.  Stepping on shore was quite magical. 

Blue-footed booby birds were on the sand at the tree line and as we looked closer we saw them on the ground underneath the trees up to about 20 feet inland. 

They stood, cocked their heads, and looked at us as though they had never seen a human before. 

Some were sitting on a nest on the ground or on the sand with an egg underneath them, others appeared to be in the midst of mating dances, and others looked at us while lifting one foot and then the other and making their very specific cooing sounds. 

They were an incredibly cute bird and very photogenic. 

We walked to one end of the beach and then out onto the rocky shoreline up from the crashing waves.  As we stood out at the point looking towards our boat at anchor and the rock pinnacles towering behind her, waves crashed up on shore in front of us and Frigate birds soared all around us. 

At times they would come so close that I am sure we could have reached out and touched them.  Standing there beneath and beside them while watching so many soaring it was quite the sight, but I had to wonder if we would have any chance of not getting pooped on at least once.  In the end, not only did we not get pooped on our whole time there, but we also noticed a surprising lack of bird pooh smell from the island. 

We explored to the other end of the beach and around the rocky point on that end and found one of the trails that connects to the other side of the island; that trail would be for tomorrow. 

On the rocks we watched crabs scampering around on the vertical, and even on the overhanging, rocks with amazing speed and grip.  Even when a surging wave would crash in and engulf them they managed to hold strong and then continue to go about their movements when the wave retreated once again. 

We spent the rest of the day enjoying the beach and swimming.  We met another cruising family, and Falcon had a great time digging in the sand with their two kids. 

Looking around there seemed to be the ever-constant flight of the Frigate birds, the waddle and coo of the booby birds, the breach, blow, or splash of a humpback whale, and the crashing of the swells.  

It was amazing how many fish would gather around our boat at night.  We could hear their bloop, bloop sounds as they surfaced and milled about, but as soon as we shone a flashlight they would scatter.   

That first night, as the daily blow of the wind calmed off, our boat turned side-to to the swells and we rocked constantly through the night.  We had to make sure that everything was stowed as though we were going to sea or else we could expect sliding glasses, tumbling pots, or falling items.  Getting up to go and pee at night felt like a calm night underway at sea, and if we didn’t latch a door for a second it would swing wide open and slam shut.