Gorda Banks & San Jose del Cabo
Today, we awoke to a beautiful sunrise near Los Frailes cruising towards Gorda Banks, an area well known for spotting humpback whales. We spent a calm morning through this area looking out for marine mammals. Some of us spent the morning out on deck with binoculars and cameras in hand, some of us on the railings throughout the ship and some of us peeking through the forward lounge windows in search of what we saw: groups of two’s, three’s and four humpback whales. We witnessed many blows, a few tail slaps, some splashes, and rolling. Some of us spotted a hammerhead shark and a few bottlenose dolphins. There were many sea birds flying around us. The National Geographic Sea Bird turned port and starboard to get good looks at this amazing wildlife in the distance as we headed south towards our destination.
In the afternoon we docked alongside in San Jose del Cabo. We were split into two groups and traveled by bus into the old town. One group spent the afternoon birding at the estuary off the main downtown area in search of many bird species, specifically the Beldings Yellowthroat and xantus hummingbird, which are both endemic to this area. Many species were spotted at the estuary, the vermillion flycatcher, ospreys, American coots and more. The other group spent the afternoon exploring the old town of San Jose del Cabo, strolling around the mission and town square and shopping from local artisans and souvenir shops for trinkets to take home.
To end the day, we spent the early evening out on deck enjoying specialty Limoncello drinks in hand made by our bartender, Daniel, while watching the sunset and anticipating the green flash. We approached Land’s End at dusk’s last light to see the famous arch and its surrounding rock formations, which swarmed with many sea birds and boats with beautiful colors of blue, red, and orange in the sky.
