CEDO


	Playa Elegante RV Resort is located on the Sea of Cortez in Puerto Peñasco, (Rocky Point), Mexico. Our city and resort has a lot to offer visitors.


	Other Things to Do in Rocky Point

CEDO is the Center for the Studies of Oceans and Deserts and is located in Las Conchas in Puerto Peñasco – you know - the building with the whale skeleton out in front. If that’s all you think of when you think of CEDO then you are in for a surprise.
CEDO offers a free public tour twice a week, which is well worth the price (free) if you love to visit Rocky Point. The tour, which lasted approximately 1½ hours is entertaining and educational. Felipe Maldonado is a great narrator and quite entertaining. This short article was written by Lannette Phipps and published in the Rocky Point Times in July 2001.




	On this past July 17^th I went to CEDO to participate in their free tour at 2:00 PM. What I was expecting was not at all what I received. I expected a walk through of the facilities and things to be pointed out and that was about it. What I got was an informative lecture on the Sea of Cortez and its inhabitants – from evolution to the birthing rituals of sharks. At our tour there were 23 people present and we all gathered in the CEDO courtyard with a great ocean breeze blowing through and listened as Felipe Maldonado began his sermon. We first learned about the Sea of Cortez, also referred to as the Gulf of California. Did you know that one thing that makes this body of water different is its depth. From Puerto Peñasco to San Felipe, a distance of 63 miles, you might find depths up to 300 ft. If you travel further south say from Guaymas to Santa Rosalia, the depth of the ocean reaches 3,000 ft. Also the surface temperature – it reaches the low 50’s during the winter and the high 80’s by summer. Some intertidal creatures that inhabit these waters can be found no other place in the world. Any living thing that you find in our waters has either adapted to the environment or has the ability to come and go as the conditions become desirable or undesirable. The Sea of Cortez is also surrounded by dry desert and experiences tide fluctuations of 23½ feet. The next subject Sr. Maldonado spoke on was dolphins. Everything from communication to size and shape of their body, their habits and intelligence and we learned all about the “Vaquita,” which is the name given to the smallest of all Cetaceans (dolphins, porpoises, whales) by fishermen. It is also called the Gulf of California Harbor Porpoise. It reaches 1.5 meters long (4.5 ft.) and weighs 36kg (80 lbs.) and is extremely shy. So shy in fact, that the first photo of the Vaquita was not taken until 1988! Experts estimate that there are fewer than 600 Vaquita alive today and that 39 to 84 are caught annually in gillnets. Next we were educated on whales. The Blue Whale is the largest of the species and can be found in these waters all year round. The most abundant whale is the Fin Whale and winter brings a variety of whales to the area. We got a whole discertation on the makeup of the whale, their eating habits, how they catch their food and the process a whales mouth goes through when filtering the food. When a Blue Whale is feeding they might have as much as 40 tons of water in their mouth at one time. Bet you didn’t know that! Seals don’t have external ears – sealions do. Felipe says that a sealion can outrun any one of us, on any given day, on any beach. A challenge I don’t think I’d like to take. I thought this was the best part of the lecture. Felipe was very animated and entertaining when telling us about the mating habits of the sealions – how only the biggest and strongest males fight for the right to mate with the females. We learned that sealions, unlike seals, use their front flippers sort of as wings and their back flippers as rotors to guide them through the water. We were shown skeletons of the seals and sealions and learned about their differences.




		This ‘can construction’ is part of the workmanship that went into the earthship building.



		Inside of the earthship.



		CEDO giftshop.

Felipe assured us that there are hardly any sharks found in our waters (near to Rocky Point). He said that the fishermen who go out hardly catch the species over 4½-5 ft. in length – a comfort, I guess. He provided a lot of information on sharks from the different characteristics of their species to the egg laying process. You can find shark egg casings on the beach from December to the end of April. There are many shapes and sizes – very interesting and unique. You’ll have to take the tour yourself to see what they look like.
    In between all of this great information Felipe paused for questions any of us may have had and then we were on to jellyfish. I have recently spotted jellyfish on the beaches around Rocky Point and was comforted knowing that the sting is not extremely painful. They inject a toxin and the sting should be treated with heat. You can also use meat tenderizer or ammonia to change the structure of the protein. Of course if you are allergic to them then the sting would be much more dangerous. The Portugese Man of War (very dangerous jellyfish) usually do not inhabit these waters but can sometimes be found in late summer. When we have high winds they are more likely to wash this way.
    After the jellyfish discertation then we headed outside to the Fin Whale Skeleton where we learned about the evolution of whales and receivbed an explanation of each part of the whale skeleton. Did you know that whales use 90% of the oxygen in their lungs? Humans barely use 10%. Now you understand why whales can stay underwater so long. Scientists have evidence that show Sperm Whales can go to depths of 10,000 feet and stay underwater for as long as 90 minutes. Whales might be able to communicate with each other through great bodies of water if it were not for our human sounds (boats, subs, etc.).
    After the Fin Whale we headed to the Earthship, a building constructed out of “garbage” such as tin cans, used tires, etc. Not only do you reduce the amount of trash but you save in material cost. Felipe explained that it is very labor intensive to construct one of these houses but you need no special skills and the benefits of its energy efficiency are well worth it.
    Located within the Earthship was the gift shop where one can purchase a book on how to build your own environmentally friendly house. The gift shop also contained T-Shirts, caps, coffee mugs, books on the area, cookbooks, sweatshirts, magnets, keychains, toys, stuffed animals, books on decoration and paper cutting and children’s books. A most interesting book I found in there is called “Sierra Pinacate” written by Julian D. Hayden. It has amazing photographs of the Pinacate Volcanic region and a ton of information.
    It was a well spent 1½ hours. Felipe was a great teacher and lecturer and I learned so much about this area and its inhabitants. I would highly recommend it to visitors.
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	Playa Elegante RV Resort in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mexico (011-52-638) 383-3712 • Fax: (011-52-638) 383-6071 Email Us • Contact Us