Bahia el Refugio to Punta el Pulpito, April 19th 2003.

In the morning we got another weather report from the Solstice. A chance of north wind at 10 to 15 knots. Not a problem since we planned to head south. When the wind came up it helped shove us south against a mild flood tide. From a great distance away we could see the huge tilted rock named “Punta el Pulpito”, which looks a little like the Rock of Gibraltar. It seemed to take a long time for this rock to get larger and larger until it towered over our heads. This rock sticks out of the edge of an otherwise low flat section of the island. This means that there isn’t much shelter from the wind except in the foothills of the rock itself. We spent some time landing on several beaches looking for places to camp. None of them have much protection from the wind. On the desert behind one of the beaches we found a group of flat stones arranged in a triangle, signs of civilization. I wonder if Sid Taylor or Konstantin have camped in this very spot and arranged these stones for their cook-stove. This is where we camped.

The rocks in the berm here are made from an opaque black obsidian that clinks when you step on it. I found one piece that was shaped like a “hand axe”. It is probably just naturally broken like this, but I fantasize that it was left behind by stone-age Indians. Actually hand axes are a bit of a mystery: Although millions of them have been found, no-one is sure what they were really used for. Most of them have sharp edges all the way around making them difficult to use while holding them in the hand. One theory is that they were thrown like a discus, a “killer Frisbee” used to bring down animals near watering holes. There is no water on this island and my hand axe has its sharp edges worn smooth by waves and time. It does feel good in the hand.