The Colors of a Rainbow: Ensenada to La Paz (again)

Colorful Bonita

During El Tiburon’s nearly 3 week - 1,000 mile voyage from Ensenada to La Paz our journey was graced by vivid colors of nature. Sky, sea, land, marine life dazzle, but Mexican art and architecture also speak to my soul.  As always, I try to photograph it all; as always, I am unable to capture the whole truth. Unfortunately, my photographic talent does not measure up to my desire to capture the beauty of the moment. I am always torn between wanting to save the beauty and surrendering myself to the moment. My need to record history for pleasure in the future reduces me from participant to voyeur.  I imagine myself too old to sail or travel to foreign ports, sitting in a rocker, or maybe off my rocker, pouring over old photographic memories. Hence, the blog. It’s a selfish act.

More Bonita Color - Shashimi with wasabi and ponzu.

Lush gardens at Puerto Los Cabos Marina

This year copious amounts of rain have magnified Baja’s brilliance. A record year of seemingly endless tropical depressions has transformed the familiar volcanic moonscape  - majestic as it was - into a lush topography of green peaks and valleys. Increased humidity and cloud cover has turned the dry desert into a tropical paradise. Plumeria, bougainvillea, palms,and cacti blooms flourish. But, don’t get fooled, the sunsets remain pure desert meets sea romance. Color everywhere.

Sparky needs a swim. 

This green hill at Bahia Los Frailes is usually just sand, evidence of lots of rain!

When I started reviewing my pictures, and organizing how and what I might want to post on the blog, the intensity of the colors knocked me out. In fact, Mexico is so darn colorful it’s almost impossible to get depressed here. “Happy” is just about a perceptual state of being for many gringos in this country.

So, with a grin on my face, I started categorizing my photos and humming a favorite song by Dj Skeptic.

“the colors of the rainbow shine so bright

every time I look into your eyes

it’s the colors of the rainbow that feed my soul

over and over, just like you do”

Voila! Rainbows!

True to my nature, once I decided on a blog post theme, researching the subject became necessary. Thanks to Wikipedia for expanding my knowledge of a fairly common event.

A rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon that is caused by refraction and reflection in water droplets in the Earth’s atmosphere resulting in a  spectrum of light appearing in the sky.  As sunlight passes through the water droplets, it is bent and then cast back inside the droplet, and refracted again as it is leaving. Seems like magic to me. 

Another bit of magic, all rainbows are full circles, but the average person sees only the upper half of the arc. Even more magical is that white light turns into brilliant colors. The smooth graduation of intensity to a maximum of spectrum of colors was cited by Isaac Newton. He identified seven colors based on the ancient Greek sophists who believed there was a connection between colors, musical notes, the known objects in the solar system, and seven days in a week. 


                          A drum roll for the 7 colors:

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet.

Use ROY G BIV to remember the order of the colors of a rainbow. 

The following photographs are my humble attempt to represent Newton’s spectrum.

Red Sky at morning, Sailors take warning

Spark watches an Orange sunrise in Baja

A Yellow Sun hits the horizon with SV Lunatica at anchorage

A Yellowtail Tuna.....Y U M...Yellow Scuba Tank too.

Green, everywhere Green

Unbelievable Green outside Puerto Los Cabos

Blue Ocean, Blue Skies. Great Day.

Blue, but Happy at Costa Baja's infinity pool.

Indigo. Tropical Depression. Puerto Los  Cabos. 

Aqave Azul. Indigo Bottle.

A near perfect Violet sunset at Marina Coral.

More Violet, Cabo Pulmo Morning

Violet and Magenta Sunset, Sea of Cortez

You are probably wondering, "where are pictures of rainbows"? We sailed threw rain a couple of times as we headed toward La Paz. The rainbows were so splendid that I could not take my eyes off the bright colors arcing over the sea and stretching to Cerravlo Island. I lost myself to the moment, for a minute.

I did manage to take a couple of picture of human-made examples of rainbows.

Sarah's idea of the Colors of a Rainbow.

Darrell's idea of Rainbow Colors.

He managed to taste of few colors while I shopped.

Best find of the day. I wanted to take this rainbow of lights chandelier home with me.
A bit grand for El Tiburon's main salon.

We both agree that the La Paz sunsets are the best example of all the 

colors of a rainbow. 

P E R F E C T.

The famous La Paz sunset.