Today, amigos, was one fine day and a big highlight of my life! I'm heading back to the states.....slowly.....with Dennis. He's a friend of friends and we are caravanning back to the states. It worked out as we were leaving around the same time and wanted to meander slowly back up the Baja. Dennis has been coming here for about 30 + years. He's heading for his home in Northern California and I'm heading to the east coast.... southern route ....
Southeast of San Ignacio on the Pacific Coast is a large bay called Laguna San Ignacio. This bay is used by calving gray whales January - March every year. They are closer to the shore here and they exhibit friendlier behavior than at other calving lagoons. They are called "friendlies". Many of the mothers and calves actively seek out human contact. They play hide-and-seek with the boats, go back and forth under the boats and pop their heads up wanting to get petted and scratched, blowing bursts of bubbles into our boats, and then they spy on us with their heads vertically above the sea surface to see the effect their shenanigans are having on us. They must be pleased because we loved it. There were about 6 boats out this morning and most had 6-8 people in them + the captain.
We only had 2 people + our taxi driver (the laguna is out about 35 miles on an impassable road for an RV so we had to take a taxi) and the captain and Dennis & I.
Roberto (captain) seemed to be very experienced and saw a "friendly" (Dennis with a friendly)
within 2 minutes......she was pregnant and she practically clung to our boat. Pictures don't do justice so take my word for it.....it was delicious excitement.
Patty & the whale!
Oh, only licensed Mexican boatmen are issued permits by the government during calving season.
Don't know when I'll get to an Internet Cafe to send this out but wanted to share while my typing fingers and body are still salty from the whales antics.
I'll write more about Mexico when I get back to the states....about March 12....Hope you are all well and happy.....adios...pat
p.s. never found Internet Cafe, so am sending this from my dear friends (Mike & Susan) in El Paso's home (5/15)...it feels great to be back in the states
