Bob Pets a Whale

Saturday, February 13

Today Bob got to pet a whale. Well, what else could you ask for? I might as well end the post here ... but you might want to know how it was that he got to pet a whale.

We arranged with our hosts, Gary and Terry, to hook us up with a day trip too Laguna San Ignacio. We were up early, and had tea and coffee in our yurt, which is well-furnished with an electric hot pot, purified water, and a microwave. We joined a whole crowd at the breakfast tables at 7 a.m. for fruit salad, eggs, toast, and most delicious bits of ham and bacon. All told, eight people boarded the van here at 8 a.m. for the day trip, and we picked up another couple in town. Another 6 people boarded yet another van from the tour operator, Kuyima, for a three-day whale-watching odyssey.

So, off we go to Laguna San Ignacio, which, we have read, is the primo spot for watching California grey whales. The laguna is 60 klicks away, over mostly really bad road. To go those 42 mile will take us 2 hours. B and I sit in the back of the 10-passenger van.  It's bumpy back there. We share stories with the other passengers. There is a young couple lately from a truck farm in Arcata, where they went to learn how to grow things. They are traveling farther south in Baja to work at a farm-cum-spiritual-experience resort for a couple of months. There are a brother and sister with links to China Lake. She remembers celebrating her 3rd birthday at China Lake, where her engineer father worked for NOTS. What she remembers is a sandstorm; the sand stung her legs. Her father left there to become director at Deep Springs; her brother was born on the way to the hospital in Bishop. (She also knows a great deal about whales, so we learn a lot throughout the day.) One other couple is French, and yet another couple from Austria.

Spring is coming to Baja. The plants and bushes are greening.  The ocotillo is especially surprising, as there are a lot of young plants, and the ones near the shore are twisted and tangled by the sea winds. We even see some lovely purple flowers (pea family?) but not very many of them. But after an hour and a half on the road, and no sign of water, I begin to believe that this lagoon is mythical. When we crest the last rise and see the distant water, I am overjoyed. Prematurely, it seems. We turn parallel to the shore and continue for a long time, passing clusters of buildings and dwellings. Finally we see a sign: Kuyima 2.5 K. We arrive, disembark, use the necessary, and gather for a briefing. There are any number of pangas moored off the shore line. Surely this is it.

  Surely  not. We are briefed, issued life jackets, and again board the vans to trek yet further down the coast. At long last, we debark the van and board our pangas - clean, sturdy boats with Honda outboards - in an estuary.  We motor past birds and pelicans, and into the lagoon. We are sheltered by a point to the south. We motor along the shore, around the point, and across the lagoon. Suddenly, it seems, there are whales everywhere. There are other pangas, and even a larger boat, but we are well away from all the others. Front, back, right, left, whales blow and surface. We are stunned to silence for a few minutes; then the shutters start to cliick.

So, with whales left, right and center, how could it get better?  This is how. About an hour into our 1-1/2 hour trip, we are visited by a baby grey whale and his mama. She watches over him closely at the start, but soon relaxes. He surfaces and dives, and surfaces again, often not where you would expect him. It is only a short while before he (or she, maybe?) approaches our panga. Eventually, the baby allows him/herself to be petted. Even Mama Whale gets into the act, pausing underneath and athwart the panga and presenting her mouth to be rubbed.

Almost everyone in the boat gets to pet baby. It feels soft, not rubbery, not furry, just like ... well, a baby whale.

We linger as long as we can, then head north, bumping over the wind-driven swells. We roar past the settlements along the shore, and on and on, finally fetching up on shore at ... the first point to which the vans had delivered us. Well. We are offered lunch - fish or scallops, grilled or with butter and garlic. And, most wondrous, we can even have a cervesa. Boy does that hit the spot.

Lunch over, we bump and rattle over that same nasty road, arriving two hours later at the square in San Ignacio. Here we visit the Kuyima office and pay our bill. Our day's adventure, lunch and beer included, runs about  $75 each. Bills paid, we are delivered to our home-away-from-home at Ignacio Springs. The shower is good, the dinner and wine even better.

Tomorrow we depart for the short trip to Mulege, where we will spend a week. B  and I are hoping to take a kayak up the river in the morning before breakfast. We are told that we won't have to go far before we see many birds.