It was pretty windy during the night and the morning wasn’t very calm either.  It wasn’t bad enough to cancel our whale watching tour, but the water was really choppy.  The five of us headed out with Antonio himself as our captain, around 8:15am. 

I had an interesting interaction with the environmental educator at Antonio’s while we were getting our life vests.  I asked her if conditions were close to what they would consider bad enough to cancel tours for the day.  She laughed and said not at all, she said that many people would choose not to go out in conditions like this, especially Americans.  She said that most Americans she deals with prefer things to be very easy and comfortable and they get upset easily if things are not just right. She said that her favorite group of people are Canadians.  I asked why and she said, “Because they are like Mexicans, they never complain, they just deal with what they have in front of them and make the best of it”.  What a really honest woman I thought to myself.  She totally called us Americans a bunch of wimps, but hell, I can’t say that I disagree with her based on most of the Americans I know!  

The ride out was pretty wet with a lot of spray due to the chop, but the temperature wasn’t that bad.  After fifteen minutes or so we entered the area where there were maybe 4 or 5 other whale watching boats milling about. It wasn’t long before we saw a mother and calf California gray whale.  They seemed to be a little skittish this morning and no whales approached the boat any closer than 20-30 feet. After a few minutes, Antonio started the boat and began motoring further west.  We drove for another 10-15 minutes west.  The large surf of the open Pacific was now visible to the naked eye and it was a large surf.   I wondered how far Antonio out would take us?  We were several miles from the nearest whale boat and then all of a sudden, we were on the whales!  A mother and calf came right up to us and introduced themselves to us by scratching their massive bodies on the keel of the boat.  We all touched both the mother and baby whale!  Antonio knew exactly what he was doing by taking us so far out.  The water was rougher here, but he knew there were whales and it was worth it.  We spent more than an hour with at least three different pairs of whales. They were all so amazing.  Here are some of the better pictures I got, many more are in the album linked on the main page.

Brian and Marisa touching a baby whale.

Robb is trying to clean the spray off his Nikon.

A large mother whales surfaces next to us, probably double the length of our panga..

Momma whale on the left, baby is submerged on the right.

Deep breath!

I missed several good "eye" pictures, but got this one.

Cat is getting a photo of Robb touching a baby whale.

Antonio in the back of the boat watching over the scene.

This whale species used to be called “devil fish” by whalers in the 1800s because the California gray whale was one of the most violent they had encountered.  Many whalers were killed over the years by angry gray whales.  Pushed to the brink of extinction by the early 1900s, now recovering well, this whale formerly known as a “devil fish” showed us how beautiful and gentle they can be.  They are still hunted in the northern parts of their range, so it intrigues me that they are so forgiving and still allow us to touch them and their babies in their nursery lagoons.   

Finally the fun was over and Antonio pointed to his watch.  The ride back to camp was fun because the water had gotten so choppy.  Poor Marisa really needed to go to the bathroom bad by this point and the boat was just launching off of every wave and crashing hard into the next.  I had to laugh! :)

Once back at camp, we paid our bills and hit the road for town.  Back in town we parked in the town square because Brian, Marisa, and I wanted to explore the mission.  Robb & Cat had already explored the mission a few days before, so they opted to hit the road.  We all said our goodbyes and went our way.  It sure is great to meet good friends in the middle of nowhere for fun. :) I’m glad they made it!!    

Brian, Marisa, and I explored the San Ignacio Mission a while. Another great mission I've gotten to explore. :)

After the tour we went out to the highway to get gas and groceries.  The plan was to head out to Bahia Tortugas and maybe go out to Malarrimo Beach.  This turned out to be an example of poor planning in my part because this road out to Tortugas is WAY longer and rougher than I thought it would be.  This also turned out to be another example of weird priorities for the Mexican Road Department (If that exists).  The last 5 miles or so into Bahia Tortugas was fresh nice pavement.  Really makes no sense to me to run into the pavement after we spent the last 50 miles on nasty washboarded road.   

We made it to Bahia Tortugas around 5pm, gassed up, then headed east of town to find a camp site on the advice of a local man at the gas station.  We ended up along a desolate stretch of beach near El Rincon.  The surf wasn’t that bad and we thought about going kayaking, but we were all tired and we just decided to relax in camp.  It seemed like the weather was starting to move in more each passing day.  We were lucky to have had such good weather the first week of the trip. 

Here is our camp, facing Punta Clambey.

I took a walk long the beach before dark and found some sea turtle tracks!  This is not the nesting season, so I’m not sure why they would be up on the beach walking around.  I’m not even 100% sure these are sea turtle tracks, but they sure looked like it to me.

Punta Clambey in the last light of the day.