Magdalena Bay
There must not be many purer forms of happiness than when a group of friendly humans encounter a group of friendly whales. Today, upon a close encounter with whales, the feeling among those of us on Zodiacs and the gray whales here of Magdalena Bay was that of sheer jubilation. Coming to Baja California is a Pilgrimage you didn’t even know you needed to make. Here, where a massive desert sits next to a vaster ocean, you can see how every seed pod, sand granule, water droplet to giant whale is part of this place that we call Earth, floating through the expanse of space and time is our Garden of Eden.
Our day began, as many cultures believe, when the sun sets the night before. For we where witness to the spectacle of a full moon rising; we where reflective as the reflective light bounced off the seemingly white disk of a moon. All around us it illuminated the mammoth sand dunes of Magdalena Island and the main land of Baja California. Just off our ships anchor spot the dark vanes and mangroves were silhouetted against the dunes. Sparsely lit by reflected sparkles off the ocean it seemed as if you could just almost see the blood pumping through them. On our navel vessel swaying gently in the womb of the ocean even amongst all of this light our natural circadian rhythms set at ease. As the whale blows in the glows of the moonlight we too exhale in our bunks as we replenish our souls calmly waiting to inhale the wonders of the next day.
Pondering in our sleep what we have learned the day before from our team of Naturists about the gray whales, our eyes open with the rising sun as if we where newborns looking out at this world for the first time. Through the windows of the dining room we gaze a fountain of whale spouts. Having gained strength through the breast of knowledge, we are ready to take our first steps of the day into the Zodiacs to meet our ocean dwelling brethren perhaps in a more intimate way than we know ourselves.
Almost like walking on water we cruise in our Zodiacs. Within five minutes we are surrounded by whales spouting, fluking, spy hopping and breaching; a panoramic sight more tantalizing than Cirque du Soleil. Those sounds mixed with our screams of joy paramount to Tchaikovsky or Beethoven. Then the calm happens. A cow-calf pair surface near by and slowly float our direction. These whales seem to feel elated the way we do; they pirouette slowly just below the surface, rolling upside down gently nudging our boats revealing their bodies craving for our touch. Some respond timidly at first to the large thirty-ton foreign creature just below them. Then, after the fear slips away it is replaced by the same euphoria being experienced by the whale and we begin to rub, scratch and caress its craving carapace. Their rubbery skin must secrete some sort of pheromone because after just one touch you are in a true deep state of some indefinable love. You don’t care that you can’t explain it. Your new love turns onto its side your eyes lock with just a thin layer of ocean and air between you. The gaze holds for another moment as the whale slips back into the abyss. For one more moment you can almost feel what it is like with it down there slipping a bit beyond your diurnal senses. As fast as it happened it is over.
There must not be many purer forms of happiness than when a group of friendly humans encounter a group of friendly whales. Today, upon a close encounter with whales, the feeling among those of us on Zodiacs and the gray whales here of Magdalena Bay was that of sheer jubilation. Coming to Baja California is a Pilgrimage you didn’t even know you needed to make. Here, where a massive desert sits next to a vaster ocean, you can see how every seed pod, sand granule, water droplet to giant whale is part of this place that we call Earth, floating through the expanse of space and time is our Garden of Eden.
Our day began, as many cultures believe, when the sun sets the night before. For we where witness to the spectacle of a full moon rising; we where reflective as the reflective light bounced off the seemingly white disk of a moon. All around us it illuminated the mammoth sand dunes of Magdalena Island and the main land of Baja California. Just off our ships anchor spot the dark vanes and mangroves were silhouetted against the dunes. Sparsely lit by reflected sparkles off the ocean it seemed as if you could just almost see the blood pumping through them. On our navel vessel swaying gently in the womb of the ocean even amongst all of this light our natural circadian rhythms set at ease. As the whale blows in the glows of the moonlight we too exhale in our bunks as we replenish our souls calmly waiting to inhale the wonders of the next day.
Pondering in our sleep what we have learned the day before from our team of Naturists about the gray whales, our eyes open with the rising sun as if we where newborns looking out at this world for the first time. Through the windows of the dining room we gaze a fountain of whale spouts. Having gained strength through the breast of knowledge, we are ready to take our first steps of the day into the Zodiacs to meet our ocean dwelling brethren perhaps in a more intimate way than we know ourselves.
Almost like walking on water we cruise in our Zodiacs. Within five minutes we are surrounded by whales spouting, fluking, spy hopping and breaching; a panoramic sight more tantalizing than Cirque du Soleil. Those sounds mixed with our screams of joy paramount to Tchaikovsky or Beethoven. Then the calm happens. A cow-calf pair surface near by and slowly float our direction. These whales seem to feel elated the way we do; they pirouette slowly just below the surface, rolling upside down gently nudging our boats revealing their bodies craving for our touch. Some respond timidly at first to the large thirty-ton foreign creature just below them. Then, after the fear slips away it is replaced by the same euphoria being experienced by the whale and we begin to rub, scratch and caress its craving carapace. Their rubbery skin must secrete some sort of pheromone because after just one touch you are in a true deep state of some indefinable love. You don’t care that you can’t explain it. Your new love turns onto its side your eyes lock with just a thin layer of ocean and air between you. The gaze holds for another moment as the whale slips back into the abyss. For one more moment you can almost feel what it is like with it down there slipping a bit beyond your diurnal senses. As fast as it happened it is over.
