Puerto San Carlos
Today, we went whale watching in Magdalena Bay which is on the Pacific coast of the Baja peninsula. We had rented a car the day before and made a three hour drive across to Puerto San Carlos and stayed overnight at a small but clean Mexican Hotel. After a hearty Mexican Breakfast, we met up with our guide, Chrispen Mendoza and set off in search of Gray Whales at 7:30 am. During the morning we saw a number of Whales in the bay however they were proving elusive especially having a close encounter. We did see a number of them broaching but only one came comparatively close and dived under our boat.
Finally, Nicholas came to our rescue. A mother with a calf called Nicholas by the local guides decided to come and play with the boats. Gray whales can grow up to 50 feet in length and it is during January and March they inhabit the many lagoons along the southern part of the Pacific Baja for both calving and breeding
Nicholas was certainly curious about us and came alongside a number of times to be petted by both of us. The skin felt like touching a well inflated inner-tube and was soft to the touch. We quite forgot to take as many photographs as we should have. So, some of the coarse ones in the picture album were frames taken from the video we shot during the close encounter.
His mother kept a close eye on all of us by doing a thing called Spy Hopping, which is using their tail to come out of the water and look around to see what is going on. She did this a number of times, it was quite an experience.
By May the whales have left the Baja lagoons and are migrating along the west coast of the US to their summer grounds in Bering Sea.