Our last day among the great whales encompassed everything that makes Baja California an enchanting place to explore. Waking up a little earlier this morning, we said goodbye to the eastern gray whales that traverse the Pacific to mate and give birth in the lagoons along the coast of the peninsula. Playful and curious, cow-calf pairs teased our expedition landing crafts with tail splashes and breaches. Once back on the ship, our pilot from San Carlos, Sergio, came aboard once again to guide us through the narrow, navigable channel of Hull Canal to Magdalena Bay. To end the day, we ventured to shore across to the aptly named Sand Dollar Beach on the edge of the cerulean Pacific Ocean. Tomorrow, we may leave Baja California, but Baja California will never leave us.
2/25/2022
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National Geographic Venture
Port Lopez Mateos
This morning, National Geographic Venture docked at the interesting port, San Carlos. From the 1940s to the 1990s, the port was used for loading agricultural products and fertilizers from the nearby Santo Domingo Valley. Nowadays, San Carlos is basically a place for loading sardines from a local cannery. It is also an important tourist base for whale-watching, principally mating gray whales. At the port, all guests and staff boarded buses to Lopez Mateos, a town located near the northernmost tip of Magdalena Island. The buses traveled across Magdalena Plain, a section of the Sonoran Desert that receives a lot of moisture in the form of dense fog from the Pacific Ocean. Lichens and orchillas, a type of flowering plant, give the desert a phantasmagoric appearance. Guests and staff enjoyed spotting numerous birds, including crested caracaras and kestrels. Once in Lopez Mateos, we boarded local pangas for whale-watching. During two rounds of whale-watching, we encountered several whales close to our pangas. However, most of the whales were preoccupied with traveling, searching for mates, or just finishing their time of reproduction and thus exiting the lagoon. In reality, the whales were not interested in interacting with the boats and their excited cargo, but we had many opportunities to observe the behavior of these magnificent animals. In town, we all delighted in a delicious fish lunch, ‘pescado zarandeado.’ We enjoyed exploring the local dock with its many colorful shops and crafts, and we admired the wonderful sculpture of a cow-calf pair of gray whales.
