Porpita porpita, Portuguese Man o' War and Violet Snails

Nothing wakes me faster than the sound of no sound. It is the sound of no air conditioning, a silence that screams "get out of bed and turn the AC off before a power surge hits." Which is what I do. Then I do a systems check around the trailer - modem, direct tv receiver, laptop are all on. I switch on the fan. Nope. I look out at the ceiling fan on the porch - it's running at barely-turning speed. What we have here is a brown-out. It is only June 5th and a bad omen for what the summer will bring. I am relieved when I go outside and can barely see across the park because the air is so dense which means the brown-out occurred for a reason and not just because it felt like it.

Seems like a good time to go for a walk.

Areas of the beach are littered with clusters of Porpita porpitas known as blue button jellyfish (although not really jellyfish). I've never seen them here before. Oh, maybe one or two but nothing like this. Some of the Porpita porpitas are the size of centavos, smaller than a dime. This one was about the size of a nickel. The color is stunning, a dark cobalt blue.

Although the sting is not lethal - just mildly irritating - I resisted the urge to pick one up.

Biologists used to believe that Porpita porpitas were related to Portuguese Man of Wars but they're not. And, I've just learned, Portuguese Man o' Wars (or little blue fucks as I call them but maybe I'll stick with their other name - blue bottle) are not really jellyfish either but a siphonophore, a colonial organism, which is why biologists believed they were related to the blue buttons. Anyhow, I'd seen very few of these little blue...I mean blue bottles the past two summers but they're starting to show up, still in small numbers.

This one looks as though it's about to pop. And that's what the kids here do - stomp them and pop them, kind of like bubble wrap. It looks like it's filled with crystals, doesn't it?

Keeping with the blue theme, this is called a violet snail and it feeds upon Porpita porpitas and Portuguese Man o' Wars. Something else I'd not seen here before. (Check out this gorgeous website. My little point-and-shoot didn't do these shells justice.)

Flocks and flocks of cormorants are heading to the estuary.

Sadly, this one can only watch from the beach.

Spanish Word(s) of the Day: flaco y gordo

A friend is visiting Kino and we've been exploring beaches I've not been able to get to in my Ford Econoline van. He's got a nifty new Toyota that seems to be able to climb every dune so the other day we made a trip north to the Seri village of Punta Chueca. My friend had admired a sandstone carving I have of a fish - Nemo the Seris call it - and so we were on a finding Nemo quest.

If you're going to the Seri villages of Punta Chueca or Desembuque bring items to trade. Even if you're set on buying a basket, the price will come down (but only so far) if you have stuff to trade. The Seris want mostly clothes, knives, scissors, fishing line, cups, plates. Once at the village be prepared to be descended upon by women with baskets, shell necklaces, ironwood and sandstone carvings. I know quite a few women from the village - the ones who come into Kino to trade - and so it was fun seeing familiar faces. And although I'm not fearful of going out to the villages, I do dislike being marked as a rich gringa - especially in that fancy Toyota - so I felt better knowing that these women know I'm a poor gringa who lives in an aluminum trailer.

We were looking for Josefina, whose husband is the sandstone carver. Hortensia placed a little girl, Melinda, on my lap and had her direct us to Josefina's house. Josefina's sons told us their mom was in Desembuque so our finding Nemo mission had come to a halt. They said they'd tell her we were looking for her and sure enough she and her husband and daughter showed up at my trailer the next day with a little sandstone Nemo.

After unsuccessfully bartering over baskets - and giving out scoopfuls of Halloween candy - we headed north to explore the beaches.

At our first stop we came across this dead caguama, a type of sea turtle.

But across the way we could see a large sandspit that extended way out into the Gulf of California, almost to the island of Tiburon so we struck out for that. No problema for the little Toyota that could.

We walked wayyyyyy down to the end of the spit. Not a lot of shells on this beach but the ones that were there were very interesting. Check out these starfish:

The one on the left, flaco (skinny), and the one on the right gordo (fat). The skinny and the fatty. I couldn't place a coin next to them for size comparison - all I have are pesos and that wouldn't help most of you - so I took a group shot of the starfish I gathered on that beach. The squares in the tablecloth are about 3/4 inch squares.

We ended the day watching the sunset from the porch at Jorge's.

Sand Dollars

There aren't a whole lot of unbroken sand dollars on the beach here. A perfect sand dollar is a real treasure. PJ and I tried to go to Sand Dollar Beach one day but the roads were too wet and rutted so we went to the shrimp farm instead. Supposedly people come back from Sand Dollar Beach with bags of sand dollars.

Last week I went out on a friend's boat over to Turner Island and Dog Bay. As we approached the beach, we saw hundreds of sand dollars alive and in their natural habitat. I do not take live creatures from the beach but Saul nabbed one on the anchor to show me what a live sand dollar looks like. So I, uh, took it. I'm sorry Poseidon. I'll never do it again.

It was all fuzzy, velvety and purple. Absolutely gorgeous. Other finds included vertebrae or whatever they are from turtle shells, lion's paws shells (never ever find those on the beach here), and someone's skull.

Sand dollars are members of the sea urchin family.

The real finds of the week were these itty-bitty sand dollars. They are so delicate, I don't know how they make it to the beach in one piece. And those puffy things? They're also members of the sea urchin family. Talk about delicate! Here's a close-up.

So kids, that's your sand dollar lesson for the day from Miss Bitch, I mean Miss Beach.