Whale Watching Trip With Baja Jones Adventures

This is a trip description written by a happy Baja Jones Adventures whale watcher.
President's Day Weekend Whale watching trip with Baja Jones Adventures.

We had to be awake and at the van at 4:30 am to leave from San Diego for our whale
watching tour to Baja, Mexico. The driver said we leave this early to avoid the traffic in
San Diego and Ensenada as we drive south. The drive was long, but interesting. Our
lunch stop included an interesting cave painting site located high on the side of a
mountain.

Our first full day in Mexico began with breakfast at a small local café called Puerto Viejo
(The old Port). Our group of 8 met for breakfast at 7:00 AM. Everyone was excited. I
was bubbling with energy as we enjoyed Spanish omelets, tortillas and hot cakes.

I left the restaurant and walked to the van that would carry us to the Bay. I noticed
heavy fog surrounding the town. I wondered if we could whale watch with fog like that.
Maybe I said something out loud, because Baja Jones (Keith to all of us) spoke up and
said that fog is a good thing. He explained that fog meant there would be no wind. The
fog would be gone by the time we loaded into the boats and because there would be no
wind, it would be warm and a very nice day. This forecast proved to be quite accurate.
We arrived at the boat embarkation point, a place called Punta Mariscal, at around 8:30
AM. There we received life jackets and clambered onboard the waiting fiberglass
launch. Once everyone was seated the boat driver quickly backed away from the dock
and headed slowly from shore.

Even before arriving at the Area #3 whale watching zone we could see dozens of whale
spouts from inside the van. Once we stopped and were all outside the van we could
even see some whales who raised up out of the water in an act called spy hopping.

Loading into the boats is an interesting experience here. There is no dock. Only a
shallow sloping muddy seashore. We loaded into the back of an old blue pickup truck
and then the driver drove out into the water where the boat captain was standing in
knee deep water, holding the boat steady.

We stepped from the tailgate of the pickup truck onto a seat in the boat. As soon as all
of us were onboard, the captain pushed the bow toward the whales, and climbed into
the boat himself.

Then we slowly motored away from shore, as our boat driver carefully found a channel
through the mudflats. Within 5 minutes we were in deeper water and surrounded by
blowing whales.

At first we shouted and pointed at every whale spout. But soon we stopped because
there were so many it quickly became “normal” to see a whale swim up from below and
blow a spray of water 10 or 20 meters from our craft.

The day progressed with continued whale spouts and an occasional jumping whale. We
enjoyed this experience for about 45 minutes. Somebody later said they thought the
morning started slowly. They thought maybe the entire trip would be just like that.

But this all changed in just moments, when a huge gray whale slowly moved toward our
boat. Keith saw the whale coming to our right side and said that this whale was going to
come closer. It continued to approach, then sank beneath the water and swam under
our boat. The whale was longer than our boat by almost twice. She was also wider
than our boat and we could look over the left or the right side and see her floating
directly below us. Her back never touched the boat, but it was almost frightening to me.

I think Keith grew excited by this because suddenly he leaned way over the side and
plunged his arm down into the water. His arm and his blue jacket sleeve disappeared
beneath the water, almost to his armpit. After a moment he threw his arm up and as
water poured from his jacket he shouted something. Telling us all that he had touched
the whale underwater. This started a rush, as all 8 of us pushed to the one side of the
boat. The boat tipped up on it's side as if it would roll over. Keith moved to the opposite
side and told us it was okay to try and pet that whale.

For another hour, that seemed like only 5 minutes we took turns touching, rubbing and
even kissing this wonderful animal. After an experience like that how could we possible
do better? Keith insisted we should think about this as a great individual experience.
He said we should not try to compare it to tomorrow because we could have a different,
but equally as great experience tomorrow.

I'm going to bed now. It's 9:00 pm. The sun and water tired me out. I'll surely dream
of some jumping whales tonight.

Laura Soleil
Writing from Laguna Ojo de Liebre (Scammon's Lagoon)
Baja California Sur, Mexico
February 12, 2010