The National Geographic Sea Bird rocked quietly in the water this morning, near Boca de la Soledad, at the northern tip of Magdalena Bay while a dense fog covered all the air above the sea. We woke up with a sense of mystery created by this common meteorological phenomenon.
After breakfast, guests and naturalist boarded the expedtion landing craft for the last rounds of whale watching. With the GPS and the experienced local “pangueros,” we made it to the Boca and started to find gray whales. The mother-and-calf units were all around us, and it was difficult to choose one to stick with. We had two rounds with the whales, and observed their natural behavior and experienced, again, their friendly approaches. We got the extraordinary chance of touching some of the mothers and their babies right in the middle of the fog, and later, without fog as well! We took times, however, to just drift in the bay without talking at all, enjoying the magic of those moments among the great giants.
The expedition had to be continued, so the ship pulled up anchor and traveled southbound across the canal to get a location for the afternoon activities. On the way down all aboard enjoyed lunch on the deck with magnificent views of water, sand dunes, sky, creatures like seabirds, and a bald eagle perched at the top of a mangrove branch!
In the afternoon we anchored in front of the port San Carlos, but on the Magdalena Island side, to walk over the dunes and get the Pacific side. Here, the beautiful Santa Maria Bay is framed by a long, sandy, and unforgettable beach called Sand Dollar Beach. The name comes from the thousands of “skeletons” of sand dollars, invertebrates related to sea urchins and sea stars that are found on the sand, washed up by the waves. We also walked and played on the sand dunes, or just stayed on top of them and enjoy the vastness and emptiness of this Mars-looking environment. By sunset, we came back to the ship for cocktails and a guest slideshow, which will preserve the memories of our wonderful trip among the gray whales.
