Spot The Fish In This Picture

Here amid the scattered wreckage of the lost German freighter Lunderberg lies a highly toxic fish.  You don’t want to touch it or step on it lest it inject neurotoxin through its spines, which are designed like little pressure mines, the more the weight, the more the venom.

Lunderberg went down in 1954, surrounded by the towering pinnacles of Lands End.  (Not the one in England, or the catalog store, or for that matter Finisterre in France, but the spectacular formation off Cabo San Lucas.)

I met this fish, and a number like it, yesterday while diving.  The water was 69 degrees F., which is much colder than I like it, and I had to rent a 5mm wetsuit in order to stay, well, warmish.  I did three dives in three different locations, and under similar conditions.  The bottom was a tumble of rocky blocks, lightly dusted with coral.  (It’s really too cold for abundant coral growth.)  Fish were not exactly abundant either.

At Lands End there was a small cave (a dead end), the Lunderberg wreck, and a sea lion colony.  At one point I turned around and was startled by a female sea lion rushing straight at me.  She came to a stop a couple feet away, made a grinning, pop-eyed face at me, and then vanished while I tried to bring up my camera  On another occasion, while traversing the wreck, I thought a piece of wreckage looked remarkably like a seal splayed out on her back, and this time had a chance to prepare my camera.  I approached while shooting video, and the sea lion got up from the bottom and slowly swam away, giving me about ten seconds of excellent footage.  (I’d post it here, but it would take up too many megabytes.)

Other than that, I’m getting the hang of this resort, which is designed to keep its customers intoxicated all the day long, starting with free mimosas at breakfast, tequila tastings later in the morning, happy hours beginning at 11, and bars and restaurants open till 1am.

While I am not averse to alcohol, I don’t particularly care to stay drunk all day long, and so am being virtuous at least for most of the day.

Cheers!