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Published: February 12th 2015
We departed on our whale watching tour around 0800 amidst chilly morning in a dense fog. Our boat captain said that the weather here is either windy and choppy or calm and foggy in the bay, so I was happy we had the latter.
Magdalena Bay is the 2nd largest bay on the Pacific Coast and measures 32 miles long. There are two main bays in Mexico that serve as the birthing grounds for 90% of the ocean's grey whales. The reason I planned this trip this time of year is that the grey whales start arriving in Mexico in December and January and give birth mid to late January to their 16 ft long calves. The whales come to the bay because it is a warm and protected place that is devoid of their two predators, the orcas and Great White sharks. Magdalena Bay is considered the best place in the world for up close and personal whale watching.
We traveled in our small panga boat with 3 other guys from France for about an hour and a half until the Captain turned off the engine and told us "we are here" based on his GPS
coordinates. We sat in the thick quiet fog for almost a half an hour before we started hearing exhales without seeing the whales making them.
Dennis stood on the bow scanning the foggy horizon and was the first to spot a whale just off the starboard bow. It appeared to be a bull grey whale coming straight towards us. From my vantage point all I could see was an immense swell of water rushing towards us. I yelled "Dennis careful!" acting as though Moby Dick himself was coming at us. We all held our breath as it silently glided by us, veering at the last moment. The water was clear enough to see the entire whale in detail as he swam by, even his eye and the barnacles on his back. This moment made me think our or guide telling us how the ancient Pinchilingue Indians of this region worshipped the whales and believed they were the guardians of the underworld.
We later saw our first mother and calf but they quickly disappeared into the fog after a few short glimpses. I was hoping that these whales would approach our boat and allow themselves
to be pet as I had heard of and seen pictures of, but I began to doubt if we were going to experience such a phenomenon.
We sat in the fog for over an hour cold and wet without hearing or seeing anymore whales. We were fastly approaching lunchtime which was about an hour boat ride away to a remote fishing village. I was thrilled by seeing the whales that we had seen so close this morning but was hoping for more. We continued to trawl heading towards Magdalena town for lunch as the fog started to lift and the sun began to shine.
I first saw a full breaching whale directly off our bow in the distance, water spraying skyward in such a deluge it seemed as though a bomb had just exploded underwater. The captain drove closer and we saw another boat stopped and two people hanging over the side with their hands in the water.
There were two pairs of mothers, each about 60-70 feet long with their newborn calves already 16 or more feet long. They were all staying near or on the surface by the boat.
The mothers appeared to be pushing their calves out of the water and nosing them towards our boats. For the next hour we were able to reach over the boat's side and pet both mothers and calves as they swam around the boats. Their skin felt rubbery and soft like a thick neoprene wetsuit. We looked into their eyes and were sprayed by the mist from their spouts. Occasionally, the mothers would blow large columns of bubbles under our small boats. The calves seemed very playful and were nudging their mothers and swimming on top of them, sometimes a surfacing mother would rise with the calf on her back, which would result in the baby sliding off. It was hard to process just how incredible and beautiful a moment this was in our lives interacting with such prehistoric, intelligent and colossal creatures that were obviously enjoying interacting with us as well . Several times I choked back tears of joy and amazement.
Eventually we saw the flukes of one mother and then the second, indicating that they were diving deeper and that baby play time was over for now. It reminded us how the whales were totally
in charge here and that we weren't harassing them in any way. They could just simply dive deep and resurface 1000 ft. away if they so chose, like we had seen earlier in the day with others.
Captain Miguel asked us if we wanted to go to lunch in the small fishing village of Magdelena Town. We were told of the epic food here by another traveller that we met in La Paz, so we agreed. On the way into the village, our captain pointed out the large sardine boats and brought us alongside a small boat, like ours, that was about to haul in their shrimp net. Another tourist boat bought some massive shrimp from the fishermen. After beaching at the village, everyone immediately stormed the bathroom, from going 7 hours without a potty break.
The village of Magdelena Town is only accessible by small boats. The few trucks driving up and down the beach were driven onto makeshift barges comprised of two fishing boats lashed together on a calm day and carefully driven across the bay on a calm day. Only 240 people live here, fisherman and their families. Our captain introduced
us to Tio Chejo, the chef. We were given 3 options for lunch, "fish, lobster, or shrimp". We tried a combination of all 3, while the gringo's in the next boat ordered 2 lobsters and asked Tio Chejo to cook up the giant shrimp that they bought from the fishermen. We were led down to the beach and Tio pulled in a lobster trap, having us select our lunch straight from the bay. Needless to say our lunch exceeded our expectations in every way, being the most delicious seafood feast we had ever had. Just when we thought we had finished, Tio brought us seconds of both shrimp and lobster.
We drove back to Puerto San Carlos with butter still on our lips and smiles across all our faces realizing this would be one of the greatest days that we would remember for the rest of our lives.
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Playagal
Sal Foran Robusky
Puerto San Carlos
I enjoyed reading about your whale tour, especially the baby sliding off the mom's back! I too have a great fascination & admiration with whales. The lunch (did those pics every look good!) looked amazing & SO fresh. (I wish more people could see how much is involved with bringing food to one's table). Your entire day sounded wonderful and was a nice glimpse of the wonderful charms of Mexico and its friendly people.