Today was a whale of a day, beginning with an absolutely breathtaking sunrise. It proved to be a good omen for our morning and afternoon panga-cruising in Bahia Almejas, an area where immature male and female gray whales cavort and mature males and females get together. It’s sort of like a middle school recess meeting a singles club.
The bay has traditionally been the area with the highest number of whales in the Bahia Magdalena complex, and that high number was evident today. On each of our morning and afternoon panga cruises, we saw more than 50 whales and many of the classic behaviors: spyhopping (hundreds of examples, sometimes with two or three in the same photo frame), breaching (eight times), rolling with flukes and/or flippers breaking the surface, logging or “napping,” panga-bumping and panga swim-bys. Many of the spyhopping whales eyed us, as if they were panga-watching while we were whale-watching!
We stepped off the pangas for lunch and dinner with drop-jawed wonder, speechless and shaking our heads at the uniqueness of what we had witnessed. The thousands of photos that were taken will enable each of us to relive this most memorable day.
