There are days in our lives that stand out over the rest: sad days, dramatic days, boring days, all kinds of days; some days we remember for a few weeks or several months. Other days we want to forget. But there are also some simply wonderful, happy days that we will remember for as long as we live. Today was one of the latter.
It started with a wet ride from the ship to the entrance of San Ignacio lagoon, on the Pacific side of the Baja California peninsula. San Ignacio is one of the three main calving lagoons where gray whales spend the winter and spring months mating, giving birth, and nursing their babies—and those babies where the reason why we were there. And boy, did we see babies today! Shortly after we entered the lagoon we found many mother-and-baby pairs all over the area. Some of them moved slowly, whereas other cruised around at speed minding their own business. But many showed great interest and approached our boats with obvious curiosity and regaled us the privilege to watch their antics from just a few feet away. It was beautiful to see how those babies played around their mothers, getting on top of them and sliding down as the patient females came up to the surface to breathe. We delighted watching them while the whales themselves kept an eye on us, two different groups of smart, curious mammals looking at each other; multiple times they approached us so closely and persistently that we couldn’t help but oblige and pet them. What a life-changing experience!
Although many of us could have stayed in San Ignacio lagoon for the rest of our lives, we needed to continue our expedition and National Geographic Sea Bird headed south. We soon encountered some of the inhabitants of the open ocean and enjoyed watching both bottlenose and long-beaked common dolphins coming to the bow to get a ride on the pressure wave in front of the moving ship. But the day was not over yet and more surprises awaited us. And surprise arrived big time in the form of not one or two but three blue whales! And many pictures later, we watched in awe as one of them swam just off the ship’s bow revealing how massive its body is, making for the perfect ending of a very special and memorable day in Baja California.
