Magdalena Bay, Baja California Sur
So imagine yourself in a Zodiac floating along in a calm lagoon just after sunrise. The lighting is soft, pastel and perfect; you are contemplating the meaning of life; you are peaceful and centered….and a two ton baby Gray whales leaps nearly clear of the water about 15 feet away from you and crashes with a huge splash back into her watery home. Such an experience tents to ground you--very, very quickly.
That is the way our early morning went as the early riser whale watchers took to the lagoon on our last day in this extraordinary place. The desert lagoons of Baja California are home to the breeding and calving activities of the eastern North Pacific population of Gray whales who spend their summers feeding 5,000 to 7,000 miles north of here in the Bering, Chuckchi and Beaufort Seas. Surrounded by mangroves, sand dunes and the Magdalena Plain, the Magdalena Bay Lagoon Complex is the southernmost of the calving lagoons along the Baja California coast and, today, in the northern portion there are about 9 mother and baby pairs and 5 single adults swimming and frolicing about. It is late in the season but mothers persist here as they swim their calves against the currents and nurse them with milk that is 53% fat. They are preparing for the long, long trek northward to arctic seas where the calves will be weaned at about twice their birth length (27 feet) and 7 times their birth weight (7 tons). This is the place we find ourselves on this Tuesday morning and whales are the company we are keeping!
After two early rounds of whale watching, the National Geographic Sea Lion weighed anchor and traversed the upper lagoon southward, passed through the circuitous mangrove forest lined Hull Canal, and passed out through the deep water entrance to Magdalena Bay at La Entrada. We had been a bit concerned that the seas in the open Pacific might be uncomfortably large from the past days of strong winds but we were pleasantly surprised by a following wind and sea that only gently rocked us southward along the Baja California coast. A nearly full moon over Isla Santa Margarita, clear skies from horizon to horizon and a spectacular green flash sunset put a close to the day that had opened so spectacularly with our time in the desert lagoons of whales.
So imagine yourself in a Zodiac floating along in a calm lagoon just after sunrise. The lighting is soft, pastel and perfect; you are contemplating the meaning of life; you are peaceful and centered….and a two ton baby Gray whales leaps nearly clear of the water about 15 feet away from you and crashes with a huge splash back into her watery home. Such an experience tents to ground you--very, very quickly.
That is the way our early morning went as the early riser whale watchers took to the lagoon on our last day in this extraordinary place. The desert lagoons of Baja California are home to the breeding and calving activities of the eastern North Pacific population of Gray whales who spend their summers feeding 5,000 to 7,000 miles north of here in the Bering, Chuckchi and Beaufort Seas. Surrounded by mangroves, sand dunes and the Magdalena Plain, the Magdalena Bay Lagoon Complex is the southernmost of the calving lagoons along the Baja California coast and, today, in the northern portion there are about 9 mother and baby pairs and 5 single adults swimming and frolicing about. It is late in the season but mothers persist here as they swim their calves against the currents and nurse them with milk that is 53% fat. They are preparing for the long, long trek northward to arctic seas where the calves will be weaned at about twice their birth length (27 feet) and 7 times their birth weight (7 tons). This is the place we find ourselves on this Tuesday morning and whales are the company we are keeping!
After two early rounds of whale watching, the National Geographic Sea Lion weighed anchor and traversed the upper lagoon southward, passed through the circuitous mangrove forest lined Hull Canal, and passed out through the deep water entrance to Magdalena Bay at La Entrada. We had been a bit concerned that the seas in the open Pacific might be uncomfortably large from the past days of strong winds but we were pleasantly surprised by a following wind and sea that only gently rocked us southward along the Baja California coast. A nearly full moon over Isla Santa Margarita, clear skies from horizon to horizon and a spectacular green flash sunset put a close to the day that had opened so spectacularly with our time in the desert lagoons of whales.
