First, my rather brief review of the AMNH is that it's wonderfully extensive (in a similar fashion to The Met, there's no way you can really see it all in one day) but when you've been spoiled by immersive museums like The Royal Tyrell and the Royal BC, the AMNH was, in a word...sterile. Like an early 20th-century zoo, everything is behind glass. Caged. Nothing exists in its natural environment, leaving an exhibit somewhat bereft of context.
Neil Degrasse Tyson, however, made up for some of this by providing a different kind of context in his 45-minute video about the universe and dark matter. After the video, we walked down a spiral ramp which depicted distance as a measurement of time. At the top of the ramp is the Big Bang. The formation of our sun and solar system is at least two thirds of the way down. Humanity is a footnote at the base of the ramp, a couple of footsteps away from dinosaurs.
Some things in the world make you feel small.
Neptune's Finger, at the southernmost tip of the Baja California peninsula, is also quite humbling:
As is the Cabo Arch:
These rock formations are the result of both volcanic activity and the San Andreas fault (incidentally, the San Andreas reaches all the way up from here to where I live on Vancouver Island) and they are striking in a primordial kind of way. The water is treacherous there, where the Sea of Cortez meets the Pacific Ocean. Less than a kilometre away, tourists play in the calm waves of Lover's Beach (right next to the aptly named "Mystery Cave" [two people come in, three come out, Pierre the tour guide tells us])
Cabo is a study in such contrasts. On the beach side of the highway are golf courses, resorts and multi-million dollar condos. On the hillside, backdropped by sharp, desolate mountains where some natives still live, are shantytowns and litter, not to mention buildings that never recovered from the hurricane last November. Tour guides tell us that Cabo would be nothing without us, the tourists, but anti-American graffiti during a drive through town will paint a different picture.
It is not difficult to see, however, that Cabo survives on the Almighty Dollar (Canadian or American). For every Mexican at the marina hawking t-shirts and jewellery, there is a visitor. What once was a fishing village now thrives thanks to tourism. It is a city whose population has more than tripled in 25 years.
Our destination yesterday was a tropical reef, where activities included snorkelling, paddle-boarding and kayaking. Our experience was handled through Cabo Adventures and I would highly recommend them; we had a great time. Kim mentioned to me before I convinced her to try out snorkelling again that her experience in Mazatlan wasn't so impressive.
The water, however, was clear, and the fish were beautiful. My only recommendation: try not to swallow too much salt water!
--James
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