Lopez Mateos, 2/17/2020, National Geographic Venture
Aboard the
National Geographic Venture
Baja California
We dedicated today’s explorations to Magdalena Bay, in pursuit of encounters with gray whales.Our local panga captains know the waters intimately, and brought us past bird life, sand dunes, mangroves, and some big, exciting, waves, in addition to showing us gray whales.
The informal education of a childhood among frogs, hardwood forests, and intensely
snowy winters of northeast Ohio established Chelsea’s passion for the natural world.
Indulging her curiosity about the world through formal education, she added a
geol...
Our final day of this amazing journey in Baja California was spent at Puerto Los Gatos on the Baja California Peninsula and cruising north to Loreto. Today was magically calm so we took full advantage and dropped the kayaks and paddleboards one last time! This bay was such a great place to spend the morning, and the water was refreshing enough to take a fall off the paddleboards and enjoy a swim. We had wonderful wildlife encounters, including five species of whales, lots of mobula rays, a few unidentified pinnipeds, and my personal favorite was a breaching thresher shark! We also went looking for small invertebrates on an intertidal walk where we discovered a tide pool full of snails and krill! Today was a great end to an amazing trip!
We awoke navigating on the Cerralvo Canal, between Cerralvo Island and the peninsula, searching for wildlife. We were not disappointed, as two different pods of common dolphins came to visit and bow ride with us for a long time. After lunch, we anchored at Pichilingue Port and disembarked the vessel to visit the capital city of Baja California Sur, La Paz, where we had the chance to interact with the locals in some of the most popular places, like La Fuente, a traditional ice cream parlor, and the Jardin Velasco in downtown. Then guests enjoyed a fiesta, dinner, and returned on board National Geographic Venture .
Today we woke with the shining stars and took Zodiacs ashore to meet our coaches for a trip to Chale, a small town on the shores of Magdalena Bay. The goal was to find some wintering gray whales, magnificent leviathans which frequent this coast to give birth before the long migration back to their Arctic feeding grounds. These whales did not disappoint! Spyhopping, breaching, and even a bit of tail flukes. As a result, there were lots of smiles and laughter all around! We returned to the town for lunch and then headed back out on the local boats for a second round. As we returned to the ship, the sun set over La Paz, with glassy waters of gold in the harbor, and pink clouds above. The constellations of Orion, Taurus, and the Pleiades shone over our Zodiacs on our way back to dinner aboard National Geographic Venture .
