El Arco, San Jose del Cabo & Humpback Whales!
This morning just after a neon-green flash at sunrise, we enjoyed the warming rays reflecting and illuminating the famous rocks of Land’s End, El Arco. Echoed and amplified off the granite blocks was the barking of a small colony of California sea lions.
It is so entertaining when juvenile whales get bored, or jealous, or who knows what, but when the end result is exuberant breaching, we’ll take it. A young humpback whale made an earnest attempt at flying, several times. With its giant pectoral fins, it seemed like a possibility, but alas, gravity and bulk repeatedly pulled it back to the sea.
The town of San Jose del Cabo is brightly colored with trimmed bougainvillea hedges lining the roadways, but when grown inside the city amongst the homes and sidewalks, they are allowed to elegantly sprawl themselves across the doorways and patios, creating a welcomed shady respite from the warming morning sun. We wandered the town, and investigated the estuary south of downtown. While shoppers found their souvenirs of local candies and other treasures in the storefronts, others found gems in the estuary; great egrets with silky plumes fluffed out of place by a gentle morning breeze, snowy egrets wearing elegant golden slippers standing in their own reflections, and a slightly out-of-place finding, an adult male white-collared seedeater perched in a palm tree.
The afternoon held more humpback whales and a large pod of common dolphins as well. The dolphins amazed us with their leaping, splashing and overall exuberance for life. The enthusiastic animals exuded a sense of sheer joy in being dolphins. The waters were calm and clear enough for us to see the ghostly blue silhouettes of remoras suckered onto the dolphins’ sides and bellies.
Off the peninsula in an area known as La Fortuna, we found a mini-nursery for humpback whale calves and their doting mothers. In a short span we found at least four pairs; at one point we observed a pair perhaps 50 yards off our portside, while another pair came up 50 yards off our starboard side – what a lovely predicament to be in. The breaching of the morning came to infect a few of these whales and soon we had an entirely different problem, to watch the breaching whale to port, the pectoral slapping whale to starboard, the occasional flipping ray off the bow, or the seemingly sleeping whale beside us.
In total we had another stunningly wonderful day in Baja California, which proved to be inspiring to one of our guests as she wrote a few Haiku to share with everyone.
Baja
Crystal clear waters
Whales, dolphins are everywhere
The best place ever
-Three Haiku by Katie Finnerty, age 11
