As our expedition leader echoed in a new day with morning announcements, the skies above Baja California erupted into a glorious sea of red and orange. We had an action-packed day awaiting us intrepid travelers beginning with our second opportunity for whale watching. Our pangueros from Puerto Chale met us aboard National Geographic Sea Lion and brought us deeper in Bahia Almejas to see the gray whales in these protected breeding grounds.

After lunch, naturalist John Pachuta shared an interesting presentation on Charles Scammon, the whaler who discovered the Baja lagoons in the 1850s, and how he became a naturalist to document his gray whale encounters during the 19th century.

Later in the afternoon, we stretched our legs on shore, and guests had multiple options to explore the desert landscape by hiking with our natural history staff and learning how to capture it with a camera.

At the end of the day, we wound down on the beach as our hotel staff prepared an amazing buffet barbecue dinner as the sun set, stars came out and silence fell over the Baja Peninsula. What a wonderful way to end the day!