Islas de Todos Santos - August 22, 2002

Camping at La Bufadora was sparse but quiet and restful. At La Jolla the dogs and morons were waking us up. On the island the gulls were waking us up. Here there was silence.

Right next to the slot, there was one of two really cool caves we explored. In this picture you can barely see the other end of the tunnel. The tunnel is about 100meters long. About halfway down, there is another cave that cuts to the right. We could hear and feel waves coming from that side tunnel, but there was not the slightest hint of light. We didn't have proper caving lights, so we didn't explore that side tunnel.

George and I hung out in the middle for a while, then I went to investigate the light. It turned out that it was open to the sky, with a small pocket beach to the left. To the right, there was an exit tunnel back to the sea, but it was only about 1 foot high, and then only in the troughs of swell.

I waited for George to come, but he didn't. I went and looked down the tunnel and could see him paddling out. Up to that moment, I was exhilarated, but for reasons I cannot fully explain, I was suddenly fighting back panic. I felt very-very alone and wondered why George had left. Had he seen something that I hadn't? Adding to my irrational fear was the fact that Intermittently the tunnel was being partially closed by the swells. I pondered the fact that I didn't really know of anyone else who had been where I was, and that there was no rule that said it was possible to make it back. I pulled myself together, timed it, and made it out with no problem. It turned out that George left because I didn't signal for him to come down, so he thought it was boring cave and didn't want to hang out in the chop anymore. My conclusion - There are many things that I am not afraid of, but caves are not one of them.

When I got out, I was greeted to this. Mike looks good even when he is bleeding. Apparently he miss-timed the waves coming through the slot, and sampled some of the rock bordering it. He was a little shaken, but completed the days paddle anyway.

Leaving the slot was more fun than coming in. George had to crest three sets of waves on the way out. This one was the biggest at about 5 feet.

We encountered countless caves on this trip, but a few were most memorable. A while after the slot, we encountered another cave that looked like it had a pocket beach inside. Problem was that the opening was guarded by a menacing rock. It didn't look safe to enter.

We paddled a ways, turned a corner and found a huge cave with a large entrance and room inside, then a smaller tunnel connected to a lighted area. All of us went as far as the large room. It was very dark, so most soon left. The smaller tunnel didn't look quite safe to me because of the swell running from both ends. It wasn't closing off, but was getting a little thin for my taste.

George saw a pattern and went for it. A while later he came back and said there was a pocket beach at the end on the right. Well, if George did it, it must be possible, so I decided to go for it. I was mentally preparing myself to flip deliberately if a big one came though, but it was really relatively easy with reasonable head room. Very cool pocket beach on the right, but also there was an exit on the left that turned out to be the one we had passed up earlier from the outside.

I was glad that George talked me into this one because it was a great cave, and helped restore my shaken confidence after the last one.

George soon joined me, and we hung out in the "intersection" of the three tunnels facing the incoming waves. It was a blast, and when we were done, we headed out that other entrance which was actually a lot easier than it looked from the outside. We snuck up on the others, who were still waiting for us to come out the way we came in. - Very cool.