For almost my whole life, Pokin’s been talking about wanting to pet baby whales. I don’t know what the big fuss is with them, but this year we finally actually made plans to see them.
Gray whales migrate south during the winter to have their calves, and apparently one year, some baby whale got the idea that it’d be a good idea to swim up to humans on boats and get pets. Other whales got FOMO, and pretty soon, generations of whales got used to swimming up to humans. Of course the humans loved it, and now it’s a tourist hot spot where people from around the world come to touch whale.
Within the Sea of Cortez, there are multiple places to visit whales. The two main places are San Ignacio Lagoon, and Magdalena Bay. Based on the logistics of where we had to go, Pokin went with Magdalena Bay (although whale sighting odds are apparently better up north in San Ignacio.) Pokin picked an outfitter called Magdalena Bay Whales, and booked it.
That was the easy part. Now we had to get there. The getting there took 3 full days.
First we got up. Too early.
Then we took a connecting flight from Phoenix to Loreto.
We got in too late to make a transfer so we slept for a night in Loreto. Loreto’s one of the best places to go Blue Whale watching, but we decided to ration our whale watching time and opted to wander around the town and the malecon instead. Outside of whale watching, Loreto is definitely primarily a tourist sports fishing town.
The next morning, we got a car hire to take us 3.5 hours across the peninsula over to San Carlos, where we were to spend another night. I didn’t know what to expect of San Carlos. It was also mostly a fishing town. We got dropped off at the Isabella B&B (which is affiliated with Magdalena Bay Whale Camp), my bud paid for the tour with money he raided from my bin, and we were left to our own devices for the rest of the day.
The town was pretty small, but fairly spread out. The roads were paved with sand, and it was really windy, so walking around took a while. It was also incredibly exfoliating as fine sand particles continually blasted us in the face. We took a loop, ate sand, snorted sand, spit out sand, and went back to the hostel.
The food at the hostel at least was pretty good. There were plenty of chips that everyone liked. Pokin ordered all sorts of weird seafood stuff, and since there wasn’t much to do everyone went to bed early, because we were told the boats would depart the next morning at 6am.
Oh she also ordered some sort of weird margarita.
The next morning, before sunrise, we got up to wait for our guides. Breakfast was included, but everyone was nervous about being on a boat so only Pokin ate much of anything. She got huevos rancheros. Brave. The sensible people got oatmeal. I decided to fast.
As the sun started to rise, our guides in gumboots showed up, and it was time to make it to whale camp!
We loaded up on these small boats, and zipped across the bay as the sun rose. What a sight! I would have loved it if I wasn’t freezing so much. I guess even freezing, I loved it and made an exception for being on the water again.
I thought we were going to unload our luggage but it turned out we were starting to whale watch right away. Whales are morning mammals, so no time was to be wasted to the whale meet and greet.
I didn’t know what to expect as the boat headed out to the ocean, but pretty soon I realized there were blowholes and spouts all across the bay. Everywhere I looked there were whale spouts. Whales everywhere!
While this area has the best chances of having whales, it turns out it’s not a given that whales will swim up to you, or that you can every touch one. We later ran into a family that has been back 3 times, but has yet to touch a whale. Well the big goal is to be able to pet a whale. They swam close, but not close enough…
And then one swam up to my bud and got a quick pat.
“How was it?” I asked my bud
“It was alright’ he said
“Cool.” Good enough for me. Glad my bud got to pet one. For me, I came to see whale. No need to paw one.
A few more hours out at sea, and I was done . I was cold, I was sleepy, and I think the rest of the boat felt the same. We saw plenty of whale and got lots of video, so it was time to head to whale camp.
Our boat starts speeding towards shore, and soon enough, we pull up to a number of glamping yurts flanked by two giant whale bone carcasses. Epic!
I loved it, my bud loved it. This is going to be cool.
My bud turns to Pokin “why didn’t you book us more nights here?”
“I had no idea how much you guys would like it,” was her rather unsatisfactory answer.
I got in, claimed my bed, then decided I’d rather see what was available for lunch. They actually had hot cocoa on the menu. I like the spirit-bear-friendly menu. But Pokin went for more disgusting seafood instead.
Whale watching was only once a day, so we were left to our own devices for the rest of the day. Anna and Adam explored camp, and my bud, Pokin and I went on a short trek from camp to the other side of the bay.
In all, it was maybe a 1 hour round trip.
The next morning, we got out on the boat for more whale action. Compared to yesterday, it was much quieter. We didn’t see any whales who wanted to play for quite a while. Jerks! Luckily they eventually came around.
No one got to pet any whales today, but at least they came by pretty close.
Everyone started getting pretty cold (because no one told us it’d actually be cold in February in Mexico — apparently we should have known that. I blame Pokin for not sufficiently communicating this to the group, even though I guess she did tell us it’d be windy and to dress warm. I still blame her.), so because everyone was cold we decided to head back to camp for a quick last break, before getting back to the mainland.
Whale watching was pretty fun. I’d hang with whales again.
From San Carlos, it was a 3.5 hour drive to La Paz. Onwards!
