The Gulf of California & Isla Danzante

We were greeted by a beautiful sunrise in the Gulf of California on our first morning on the National Geographic Sea Bird. Moments later we heard the call, “Whales!”

And not just any whales. We grabbed our binoculars and cameras and scurried out to the bow to watch one large and one “smaller” blue whale. Our best guess was that these were mother and calf. Blue whales are the largest animals on earth and can reach lengths of 90 to 100 feet long and weigh over 6000 pounds! How fortunate to see these baleen whales right off our bow.

As we were finishing breakfast, we again heard “whales!” We watched from the decks as humpback whales put on quite a show. They alternated between breaching and slapping their flukes or tail lobbing. And if that weren’t enough, Mobula rays were leaping out of the water all around us. These six-foot rays are white on the underside and dark on the top. As they came closer to the ship we observed them gliding through the water close to the surface. Whew, what next?

You guessed it, more whales! Two fin whales, a mother and her calf, surfaced in perfect unison. They stayed near us for some time and we were able to get great photos of the pair. The fin whales are easy to identify because they have a dolphin-like fin and asymmetrical pigmentation on the lower jaw, with black on the left side and white on the right. They are exceeded in size only by the blue whales.

After lunch, we anchored on the north end of Isla Danzante. We hiked up the rocky desert trail to beautiful overlooks, spotting five species of cacti along the way. A wide variety of birds flew overhead, including red tailed hawks, ospreys, and Heerman’s gulls. Back at the beach, many of us donned our wetsuits and explored the world under the sea.

We saw a lot of different colorful fish including the Cortez and king angelfish, barracudas, and puffer fish. Others explored on top of the emerald green bay via kayaks.

What an absolutely marvelous, exciting first day we had here in Bahia de Loreto National Park.