The anchorage at El Refugio is a small V-shaped cove with white cliffs on either side and a sandy beach at the V. The cliffs are home to numerous sea caves, a few are large enough to take the dinghy into. It’s a small anchorage and fits two boats comfortably and three at a squeeze.
Our first day at the cove we went for a snorkel along both cliff walls and in a few of the dark caves, where there were many large trumpet fish and snapper. The highlight for me on the trip was finding a nudibranch, which I was very excited about it. There were many Christmas trees and sea stars of every colour and shape clinging to the rocks.
We stopped at the beach for a look and within a few minutes Ava had accumulated quite a pile of puffer fish skeletons. The sand was hot, so we didn’t stay long.
The cove seems to trap the heat and by late afternoon it had gotten really hot, so we went for a drive in the dinghy and floated by the cliff walls in the shade. We took the dinghy into a couple of caves.
At the end of one of the cliff walls the edge is shaped like a face. I thought it looked pretty cool, particularly as the sun when down casting it in a golden glow. We finished the day with fresh snapper that Andrew caught.
21/6/2019
The kids had a morning of school work, while Andrew and Jamie went spearfishing returning with coral trout for dinner. There had been dolphins in the cove all morning working in groups of about 10, herding fish to eat.
Looks like coral trout for dinner tonight
One of the dolphins spotted from the boat.
After lunch we took the dinghy out to get a closer look at the two different pods of dolphins nearby. The dolphins had been riding the bow waves when Andrew went out this morning, but this afternoon they had all become camera shy and rather reluctant to stay above the surface for long. We did manage to get a few photos.
It appears that the dolphins weren’t so camera shy after all, as they put on a sea world worthy performance just before dusk in front of our boat. Truly memorable.
