San Jose del Cabo & Gorda Bank
At sunrise, our ship approached the famous granite rocks of Land’s End, at the southernmost tip of the Baja peninsula. Wildlife wakes early; boobies had already gone off fishing for the day, frigatebirds were soaring, and pelicans were standing next to the famous rock arch. A seemingly endless stream of sport fishing boats poured out from Cabo San Lucas.
Shortly after breakfast we arrived at San Jose del Cabo, where birdwatchers walked along an estuary, and found many interesting birds, while others shopped or browsed in art galleries in town. San Jose has many fine silver and craft shops, as well as art galleries in old buildings, and is quite delightful. A small demonstration in front of the government building added a bit of authentic ‘local color’ to the town square today.
We were barely 2 miles outside the harbor when we paused to watch a humpback whale! We continued onwards towards Gorda Bank, and found 4 very active humpbacks. We saw tail-slapping, many breaches, flipper-slapping . . . there was lots of white water and splashing. We were watching a group of males in a ‘surface active group’ and somewhere in the vicinity was most likely a female whale.
In the distance, in all directions, there were many other whale blows. Throughout the afternoon we watched many other groups of humpback whales. Sometimes the whales surprised us and surfaced close by the ship. We spent long, leisurely afternoon hours among humpback whales. It has been a beautiful day.
