Magdalena Bay
We went whale watching on Zodiacs this morning. We saw California gray whales swimming around in the bay called Boca de Soledad at the north end of Magdalena Bay. There were whales spouting, diving, and spy hopping. Several of us saw a mother/calf pair too. We were close enough to see the barnacles and the double blowholes on the whales. We followed one adult for over thirty minutes as she swam in the bay.
In the middle of the day, the National Geographic Sea Bird cruised south through the narrow Hull Canal. We saw many kinds of seabirds amongst the mangroves on both sides of the channel. There were ibises, herons, egrets, pelicans, frigate birds, goose, cormorants, and loons. Once in a while, dolphins would come up to the ship and ride under our bow. The sun was wonderful out on the bow.
We went ashore in the afternoon to walk across the dunes on the narrowest section of Magdalena Island. The dunes had a wonderful assemblage of plants adapted for life in the ever-shifting sand. These include sand verbena, evening primrose, ground spurge, wolfberry, and locoweed, many of which had flowers. On the other side of the island, we walked on the Pacific Ocean beach with huge waves rolling in. We saw hundreds of huge sand dollars, as well as bones of dolphins, sea lions, and large seabirds.
Just as the sun was setting, we gathered in the lounge for a Mexican fiesta. Ceviche and drinks were available for everyone to celebrate such a great week of whale watching. The band, which was composed of the bartender, a naturalist, and a steward, played and sang several well-known Mexican standards such as La Bamba and La Cucaracha. What a fun way to end such a great day!
