Gorda Banks & Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur
As a perfect day draws to a close, spotlights from the ship flicker back and forth across the rocks at Land’s End. Once sure of our position they are dimmed. We sit alone in a calm and quiet sea gazing upon tall sea stacks and the famous arch outlined against the blackness. Party boats and pangas have withdrawn to the lights of town. For a moment or two, if we don’t look back, we can experience this place as the first exploring mariners did. Darkness frames the scene accentuating the important features, the wave sculpted granites of Friar’s Rocks. Pelicans swing from right to left, a flash of an image. The only sound is the gentle lap of water against the shore and the bark of sea lions engaged in constant communications. Picture postcards of this place are ordinary views. We take home instead an extraordinary memory.
Picture postcards present the perfect day as always occurring under sunny skies. But a light coating of clouds can turn the sea into pewter with silver streaks from the filtered sun. It is hard for creatures of the deep to hide here. A marlin surfaced repeatedly pursuing a dorado. All around, like geysers, the spouts of whales led to backs and finally tails that rose skyward, waved and disappeared. We watched a group near Cabo Pulmo and another was entertaining closer to Los Frailes but upon reaching Gorda Banks the action really began. Two huge bodies rocketed from the water in perfect symmetry, long pectoral fins rotating, twisting their massive bulk into a pirouette. Breaching humpbacks! But that was only the opening act. Once all the body parts were sorted out we were able to ascertain that there were three individuals in the group but one was the real dancer. Thirty-nine times it propelled itself skyward as if it was trying to fly. Like the performer who enters from the back of the stage and with bounding leaps gradually moves into the center, our cetacean entertainer started at a distance but stunned us all with controlled ascents within twenty feet of the bow. How strange it was to look down upon its rostrum and see a fringe of baleen projecting from its “lip” like a tiny “Groucho” mustache. We dropped the hydrophone and eavesdropped upon their conversations. Whoops and bubbles and hollow howls were repeatedly uttered but we could make no sense of what they meant nor upon which beat the dancer would soar. For an hour the show went on. We would have been content to stay much longer but fortunately the curtain was drawn and we were able to continue on.
On an ordinary day, no birder would set out at mid-day in search of perching birds but when the clouds insulate the land from the hot sub-tropical sun the avian world forgoes its siesta. The desert was alive with residents and migrants and our list was impressive indeed. Snorkelers too ventured away from our dock in the middle of Cabo San Lucas and they too returned with reports of colorful findings. And yes there were those who maximized their time in town and sported new vibrant clothing.
As the day draws to a close, we leave the protection of Cabo Falso and face the Pacific, heading north in search of new adventures.
As a perfect day draws to a close, spotlights from the ship flicker back and forth across the rocks at Land’s End. Once sure of our position they are dimmed. We sit alone in a calm and quiet sea gazing upon tall sea stacks and the famous arch outlined against the blackness. Party boats and pangas have withdrawn to the lights of town. For a moment or two, if we don’t look back, we can experience this place as the first exploring mariners did. Darkness frames the scene accentuating the important features, the wave sculpted granites of Friar’s Rocks. Pelicans swing from right to left, a flash of an image. The only sound is the gentle lap of water against the shore and the bark of sea lions engaged in constant communications. Picture postcards of this place are ordinary views. We take home instead an extraordinary memory.
Picture postcards present the perfect day as always occurring under sunny skies. But a light coating of clouds can turn the sea into pewter with silver streaks from the filtered sun. It is hard for creatures of the deep to hide here. A marlin surfaced repeatedly pursuing a dorado. All around, like geysers, the spouts of whales led to backs and finally tails that rose skyward, waved and disappeared. We watched a group near Cabo Pulmo and another was entertaining closer to Los Frailes but upon reaching Gorda Banks the action really began. Two huge bodies rocketed from the water in perfect symmetry, long pectoral fins rotating, twisting their massive bulk into a pirouette. Breaching humpbacks! But that was only the opening act. Once all the body parts were sorted out we were able to ascertain that there were three individuals in the group but one was the real dancer. Thirty-nine times it propelled itself skyward as if it was trying to fly. Like the performer who enters from the back of the stage and with bounding leaps gradually moves into the center, our cetacean entertainer started at a distance but stunned us all with controlled ascents within twenty feet of the bow. How strange it was to look down upon its rostrum and see a fringe of baleen projecting from its “lip” like a tiny “Groucho” mustache. We dropped the hydrophone and eavesdropped upon their conversations. Whoops and bubbles and hollow howls were repeatedly uttered but we could make no sense of what they meant nor upon which beat the dancer would soar. For an hour the show went on. We would have been content to stay much longer but fortunately the curtain was drawn and we were able to continue on.
On an ordinary day, no birder would set out at mid-day in search of perching birds but when the clouds insulate the land from the hot sub-tropical sun the avian world forgoes its siesta. The desert was alive with residents and migrants and our list was impressive indeed. Snorkelers too ventured away from our dock in the middle of Cabo San Lucas and they too returned with reports of colorful findings. And yes there were those who maximized their time in town and sported new vibrant clothing.
As the day draws to a close, we leave the protection of Cabo Falso and face the Pacific, heading north in search of new adventures.
