Our morning started in a grand way today as the National Geographic Sea Bird sailed off the Cabo Pulmo National Park, in the southern portion of the peninsula of Baja California; the clouds painted in beautiful pastel colors before sunrise, which regaled us with a marvelous green flash. We were in humpback whale waters and it was not long before we spotted the first ones! The area around the southern tip of the peninsula is a well-known winter breeding and calving area for those humpback whales that feed off the Aleutian islands and the coasts of Washington and Oregon during the summer. Here, they mate and give birth to their calves and the males actively compete with each other trying to gain the right to be the father of a future calf.
As we continued sailing around the cape region looking for more humpbacks, we had the chance to admire a brief but very impressive phenomenon as a waterspout formed in front of us, carrying sea water up to the clouds above. Wow!
Several more humpbacks later, we encountered another one that entertained us for a long time with multiple tail-slapping and breaching more than a dozen times! Having had our fill of whale action for the day, we continued on our way and arrived to the new marina of Puerto Los Cabos to visit the charming town of San Jose del Cabo. We divided into a couple of groups to go bird watching at the San Jose river estuary and/or exploring downtown; numerous bird species were spotted at the river and multiple souvenirs, ice cream, and beer were enjoyed in town.
Back on board, we sailed to Land’s End, were the majestic granite rocks near Cabo San Lucas form the iconic arch and constitute the boundary between the Gulf of California and the open Pacific. And as we entered the open waters and began sailing north to Magdalena Bay a gorgeous sunset ended another wonderful day in Baja California.
