Vam anar a Mallorca, Day 8: Cala Pi, Cala Beltran, and Es Trenc
Remember that boat fieldtrip along the south coast earlier in the vacation? The one where Laura was wishing that we were on shore to look at the rocks up close? Well, she got to!
We only had about an hour of driving to get from our apartment to the hotel for the night, so we added some fun stops along the way. But first, we hit up the supermarket for groceries because we'd soon be headed to Cabrera National Park and would need to bring our own food. After loading up, we headed to Cala Pi.
Although Cala Pi looked gorgeous, as pictured below, we cut across the beach and up the rocks behind the fishing shacks on our way to Cala Beltran.
Once atop the rocks, it was an easy flat-ground hike along the sea to the narrow cove. We were greeted by a trio of Black-winged Stilts that flew up and down the inlet before settling on the far shoreline.
Cala Beltran had no sand: just rocks and exquisite turquoise water. Less than a dozen people were sunbathing on the rocks, so it was yet another quiet time away from the crowds. As I took forever to capture the inlet in photos, Laura slipped into the water and started snorkeling. I soon caught up with her and it was amazing!
Laura swam over to me and asked if I saw the flounder. I started looking for flounder. Like foot-long flounder. It took me a while to see one of these leeeeeeeetle guys move and give away its location. They were about 2-3" long and so camouflaged!
I also saw these fish, which I would maybe call goatfish back in the states, digging in the sand for a meal. I followed them for a while...
...and then I saw both the goatfish and the flounder together and was so excited to get a picture!
Then it hit me: the flounder were following the goatfish hoping to pick up some scraps or any fleeing prey. I spent the next 20 minutes just following this dynamic around. Any time I lost track of a flounder, I looked for goatfish and found more.
"MEDUSA! MEDUSA!", I heard some locals yelling as I snorkeled along and didn't think much of it. Silly tourist! I should have recognized what "medusa" meant in any language because I know that it is one of the life stages of a particular sea creature. All those years in college for marine biology and it took them frantically yelling "JELLYFISH!" for me to pay attention.
Then I got into the shallows and started to notice all the little critters like this upside-down crab
and the anemones flowing in the current
and this padina algae
and this coralline algae
and this miniature clear shrimp. I believe it was a Common Prawn (Palaemon serratus). It was very curious and got very close. Eventually, he got too close for even "microscope" mode on the camera. Then, I felt a pinching sensation on my knuckles and realized that a second prawn was using its claws to see if I was edible. I peeeench!
But alas, the jellyfish got more numerous. Laura was on the rocks above the water, trying to warn me as I laid on the submerged rocks in the shallows to brace for close-up photos. Signals or currents got crossed at one point and I backed up right into a jellyfish. That was my cue that it was time to head out. We walked along the cliffs on the way back to Cala Pi so Laura could inspect the ancient reefs and I could take some more photos.
Here are some of Laura's fossil photos and commentary:
"These limestone rocks formed in a Miocene coral reef and back lagoon. These first two images show basketball-sized fossilized head corals (such as Montastraea) from a time when the waters were warmer and more tropical than they are today. Corals are made of minerals that dissolve easily in fresh groundwater or rain water, so these are just molds or impressions of the original fossils."
"There were also small finger corals, such as Porites and Acropora."
"I even found some beautiful coralline algae! These are the light-colored, layered things in the next photo. These may have even been part of a branching rhodolith, a tumbleweed of the sea!"
"There were also some mollusc fossils (snails, clams, etc.) that had also dissolved out of the rocks, leaving molds."
While Laura was busy taking closeup photos of fossils, I was shooting further up the trail, testing out some long-exposure ideas.
We had to attempt this photo several times to get one where the wind allowed it to remain PG.
There is a torrent behind Cala Pi, where the water flows down to the sea during the wet season.
Next, we drove towards Es Trenc, stopping to photograph these stilts in one of the salt ponds, where your Mediterranean Sea Salt may come from.
Es Trenc is the most popularized nude beach on the island. Although 1-2 people were topless at Cala Beltran and toplessness was acceptable at most beaches, Laura hadn't been comfortable enough to join. But she didn't hesitate to pop her top as soon as we hit the sand at Es Trenc. The full-nude section of the beach is a bit of a walk. When started noticing bare bums, we stopped, stripped, and tossed our swimsuits into the backpack. After our swim, we stopped for a tropical drink and headed back to the massive parking lot.
It was a short drive to Hotel Isla de Cabrera in Colonia de Sant Jordi (not on Isla de Cabrera). This hotel was the closest to what we are used to staying in back home, with swimming pools, solid A/C, and a bountiful buffet dinner. We, of course, saved room for so many desserts! It was luxurious, and we slept well before heading to the "hostel" on Isla de Cabrera the next day.
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