Back today after a week of spending as much time as possible floating in Mexico's dreamily aquamarine Sea of Cortez, swimming among the tropical reef fish and sea turtles and watching the eagle rays leap out of the sea to belly flop back in with a sharp smack. A mating ritual by the males, apparently (the guys always have to show off by doing something really useless, don't they...? [grin]).

 I've never been in a desert area of Mexico like this part of Baja California, and found the contrast between the intense blues of the sea and the ochres, pale creams and yellows, and soft  browns of the land, magnificant. What a landscape, of winding arroyos and broad, parched washes, serrated peaks and flat desert, all covered in saguaro and other cactus and lots of scrub, patrolled on high by wheeling vultures and eagles and hawks.  

I love Mexico and its literal and figurative warmth, the good-natured Mexicans (who always remind me of the Irish transplanted to a hot climate), and all those spicy regional dishes each with its own fiery combination of chilis. And the way Mexican cooks prepare seafood! Cilantro and lime, tomatoes and chilis, mesquite grilling and marinading; mmmm!

 Highlights of the week for me were kayaking and snorkelling the pristine coast of the Cabo Pulmo  National Reserve, gliding over the Pacific's northernmost coral reefs from above and then dipping below the surface to swim in clear and warm sea water among huge schools of fish, watching startled sea turtles flap hurriedly across the shallow reef areas that they like to graze. I especially liked the black and white polka-dotted boxfish, the big iridescent green-blue parrot fish, the variously-coloured triggerfish with their comical long faces.

Visit an area like Cabo San Lucas, so beautiful, and the 'tourist corridor' of huge resorts being strung along the coast, and you can see the struggle between development and conservation. In the past, conservation was losing out -- the Sea of Cortez was being overfished and mismanaged (or rather, not managed at all). This is apparently changing -- Cabo Pulmo is an example of shifting attitudes, and certainly, it already draws scuba divers from around the world and promises much as an ecotourism site. But this area's seas remain under serious threat from overfishing and exploitation, industrial and touristic. It seems hard to find ways to both see these special parts of the world and also tread softly!