9. Puerto Los Gatos
The "Port of the Cats" lies just three miles north of Tembabiche and is a popular spot for cruise ships due to its red rock formations. Apart from some dangerous reefs surrounding the cove this spot offers a save anchorage for sailing boats. Puerto Los Gatos offers a vast amount of activities like climbing the red rocks, exploring the hills, mountains, desert, mangrove lagoon or snorkeling in one of the many coral reefs.
The red sandstone is partly extremely porous and so crumbly that one can leave a message with the bare fingers on the stone or break off parts. All kind of formations can be find when climbing around. The sand of the beach within the bay is reddish in colour and comes directly from the eroding rocks.
Walking along the coastline you can find thousands of crabs and other small animals that hid between the rocks.
Snorkeling along the reef I could find amongst others starfish, sea cucumbers, stingrays. Surprisingly, I also found plenty of pinto / blue spiny lobsters which were just sitting in the sand next to the reef. Unfortunately, I had to find out later that these were all already dead. We could not explain their cause of death and it must have happened recently because they were floating around completely intact. As they moved back and forth on the sea floor due to the gentle waves, I didn't even get the idea that they couldn't be alive anymore.
