Cape Region
The area around the Baja California peninsula’s southern end is well known for its great abundance of humpback whales. This morning as the first light colored the sky in orange and pink, we sailed through an area called “Boca de Tule.” Several humpbacks could be seen acrobatically jumping out of the water, slapping their pectoral fins at the water’s surface and aggressively hitting the water with their powerful tail flukes. We continued sailing towards San Jose del Cabo and we continued to see more breaching whales and playful humpback calves splashing the water as they followed their mothers.
The afternoon was spent in the town of San Jose del Cabo. Our activities were bird watching and exploring town. An estuary that runs from the Sierra de la Laguna is the place were several species of birds congregate on this dry peninsula. This fresh water ecosystem is home to blue winged teals, American coots, pied billed grebes, a variety of herons and egrets and ospreys among many others. We got really close looks at a beautiful great egret that stood still stalking for small fish, as it stood petrified over the floating vegetation. Some of us witnessed an osprey plunge diving from the blue sky into the water, and taking off with a fish grasped in its talons.
The National Geographic Sea Bird left the port of San Jose del Cabo behind to head towards Land’s End. The Southernmost part of the peninsula of Baja California is a world-known tourist Mecca. Here in Cabo San Lucas, which was once a small fishing village, the ship was skillfully maneuvered to give us great looks at the famous granitic arches. These arches, known as “Land’s End,” are also home to a great number of magnificent frigate birds, brown pelicans and California sea lions. As we left, the sun flashed green as it kissed the ocean “good night” and we headed into the open Pacific leaving the Gulf of California behind.
