Exploring Baja Sur (Mexico) — part 3
(click on a photo to enlarge)
Whales & Tales
The “Whale Camp” excursion was arranged for us by Todos Santos Eco Adventures based at our place of lodging, Los Colibris. We departed Todos Santos at 6:30 AM and headed for the camp. Along the way we saw many Harris’s Hawks and Crested Caracaras perched on the Cardón cacti.
Crested Caracara (Caracara cheriway)
I could have spent all day photographing and watching the birds along the way but we had to press on to catch the boat that would take us to the whale camp. Or so we thought.
Missing the confusing turnoff to the dock, we ended up in the quaint fishing village of Puerto San Carlos. Once we discovered our mistake, our guide quickly called the tour operator, Baha Expeditions, and we were told that they would meet us in a “few minutes” and take us to the dock which turned out to be less than 20 minutes away. An hour and a half later, they finally showed up, took us through a “scenic” shortcut through the town dump where we finally arrived at the dock several hours late.
Approaching “Whale Camp”
The camp, located on a sandbar in Magdalena Bay, consisted of good-sized canvas tents, outdoor shower (no thanks!), latrines and a large tent for eating/congregating. Considering the price, it was pretty spartan. There was also no tent set up for us when we arrived (later we found out that through some miscommunication, our reservations had been canceled!). They fed us some lunch since we had missed that meal while waiting for them to pick us up and then we sat for another hour and a half while the crew assembled a tent for us. It came equipped with two sleeping cots and another on which to put our gear. There was no storage chest or floor covering or light as found in the other occupant’s tents. The sandy floor was hardened with many buckets of sea water which made the inside of the tent very humid. Oh well, our main reason for coming was to see whales. But wait, there would be no whale watching today because it was determined that it was still too windy to take the boats out. So, we walked on the beach, had dinner and then as darkness fell we settled in for a long night. Surely tomorrow would be calm and beautiful.
Sand Dunes
We awoke to pea soup fog.
Awaiting Pangas
We could barely see the water and our hopes for seeing whales were fading. Nevertheless, we waded out into the cool water of the bay, boarded the boats (pangas) and tried to keep a positive attitude. At least there was no wind.
A Boat Full of Optimistic Whale Watchers
We wondered how the guides were going to find whales as visibility was measured in yards and it would be impossible to see a spout in the dense fog. But, we got lucky. After an hour or two, as we got farther and farther out into the bay, the fog disappeared. And then……………
Thar She Blows!
The Gray Whale (Eschrichtius robustus) has a long migration route from its summer home in Alaskan waters to its calving grounds in the warmer waters of Baja, Mexico and the Gulf of California. They travel in groups called “pods.” By April the young are old enough to make the journey back north. Gray Whales are “baleen” whales meaning they filter their food through the sieve-like baleen or whalebone. Their primary food is benthic (bottom-dwelling) crustaceans. Below is a photo of the exoskeletons shed by the growing crustaceans which had washed up on one of the beaches. They were about 1.5″ long and there were millions of them!
Gray Whale Food
After our first sighting we watched and had encounters with whales for the next three hours. We were told that the whales were busy migrating out of the bay into the waters of the Pacific and would probably not approach the pangas. Fortunately the whales didn’t realize how busy they were because………
A Curious Gray Whale
Whale Partially Under the Panga Boat
One Cooperative Gray Whale and a Bunch of Excited Whale Watchers!
One of the best encounters of all………..
Some of Us Got to Touch This One!
Several of the whales rose from the water like this and seemed to roll on to their side to better look at us. So there were whale watchers and people watchers! We were also annointed with whale spray several times. You can see the pair of blowholes which just got us all wet in the above photo. You’ll also notice that the whale carries lots of opportunists on its skin — everything from barnacles to parasites making it look like a big rock rising out of the water.
Because they had more important things to do than play around our boats, the whales eventually headed out to sea. Maybe this one was waving good-bye.
The Perfect Ending
Published by Arlene Ripley on March 11th, 2010 Tagged Mammals, Nature, Wanderings
March 13th, 2010 at 4:57 am
Wow, what an awesome experience. Something I have been dying to do myself. Except for the camp problems, your whale watching was definitely an exciting time. It is so cool that the whale came so close to the boat. Your photos are wonderful. Great post!
May 24th, 2010 at 5:21 am
Fantastic.