San Ignacio Lagoon
After a bouncy night at sea traveling north up the Pacific side of the Baja California peninsula, we were delighted to awake in much calmer waters. We’d made it, and our much anticipated visit to the gray whales at Laguna San Ignacio was a “go!”
We enjoyed breakfast while we awaited the arrival of our “pongeros,” the Mexican boat drivers who joined us as we visited the gray whale breeding and calving lagoons.
As we traveled through a shallow sea dotted with sand bars, breakers roil over the bars and our run into San Ignacio dodged the rough spots along the way. We saw whale blows in the distance and our anticipation grew stronger.
Gray whales have returned from the brink of extinction...after being decimated not once, but twice. They have one of the longest migrations of any mammal. We felt honored to have this opportunity to visit them.
Once in the lagoon, it wasn’t long before we found ourselves among many cow and calf pairs. We saw spy hopping, breaching and head slapping behaviors. Closer to our Zodiacs we found gray whales, in cow and calf pairs, swimming, rolling, diving, and even exhibiting “friendly” behaviors towards us humans. Later in the day, we experienced some more unusual behaviors. A tail swoosh from an adult female sent a wave of water into our Zodiac (miraculously not damaging any cameras). Another adult female seemed to have a very itchy back and lifted our Zodiacs as she scratched herself against it, pushing us along as she went. But none of us will forget the friendly behavior when we touched, and even kissed, whales.
We look forward to what lies ahead in what we hope will be an extraordinary voyage.
After a bouncy night at sea traveling north up the Pacific side of the Baja California peninsula, we were delighted to awake in much calmer waters. We’d made it, and our much anticipated visit to the gray whales at Laguna San Ignacio was a “go!”
We enjoyed breakfast while we awaited the arrival of our “pongeros,” the Mexican boat drivers who joined us as we visited the gray whale breeding and calving lagoons.
As we traveled through a shallow sea dotted with sand bars, breakers roil over the bars and our run into San Ignacio dodged the rough spots along the way. We saw whale blows in the distance and our anticipation grew stronger.
Gray whales have returned from the brink of extinction...after being decimated not once, but twice. They have one of the longest migrations of any mammal. We felt honored to have this opportunity to visit them.
Once in the lagoon, it wasn’t long before we found ourselves among many cow and calf pairs. We saw spy hopping, breaching and head slapping behaviors. Closer to our Zodiacs we found gray whales, in cow and calf pairs, swimming, rolling, diving, and even exhibiting “friendly” behaviors towards us humans. Later in the day, we experienced some more unusual behaviors. A tail swoosh from an adult female sent a wave of water into our Zodiac (miraculously not damaging any cameras). Another adult female seemed to have a very itchy back and lifted our Zodiacs as she scratched herself against it, pushing us along as she went. But none of us will forget the friendly behavior when we touched, and even kissed, whales.
We look forward to what lies ahead in what we hope will be an extraordinary voyage.
