Pacific Ocean & Bahía Magdalena
Although the Pacific Ocean didn’t quite live up to its name last night, our ride north to Bahía Magdalena was only a little lumpy and we arrived in perfect time. Early risers and those who ventured on deck after breakfast watched numbers of common dolphins surf the ocean swell coming towards us, and pelagic seabirds like black-vented shearwaters skimming the wave tops. On deck, several young ladies practiced the time-honored tradition of bow-jumping, squealing loudly when they “caught air,” that they “felt like flying.”
Our passage through La Entrada, into the calm water of Bahía Magdalena was marked by the blows of the numerous adult gray whales gathered there to breed, and the small local boats there to watch them. Inside the bay, the scenery quickly changed from open water to a narrow mangrove and sand dune-lined channel. We shouted about approaching bottlenose dolphins and coyotes loping along the shoreline, then about the wonderful birds perched atop nests in the mangroves or probing the mudflats with their perfectly adapted beaks.
But the best was still to come… basking in the sun on the foredeck, with bellies full from a sumptuous ice cream sundae bar, we had our first close looks at the creatures we’d come to see. First, a solitary adult gray whale, then another. Then our first calf. These “dessert whales” surfaced and dove next to us as we inched up the channel, the mist of their blows spinning away like dust devils. Finally, our transit was complete, and we arrived at the tiny fishing community of Puerto Adolfo Lopez Mateos, known locally as simply “Lopez.” We dropped the hook and went ashore, for a late afternoon walk on the sinuous dunes of Isla Magdalena.
Returning at sunset, smiling and sandy, we learned of our next day’s activities and look forward to more time with the ballena gris of Bahía Magdalena.
Although the Pacific Ocean didn’t quite live up to its name last night, our ride north to Bahía Magdalena was only a little lumpy and we arrived in perfect time. Early risers and those who ventured on deck after breakfast watched numbers of common dolphins surf the ocean swell coming towards us, and pelagic seabirds like black-vented shearwaters skimming the wave tops. On deck, several young ladies practiced the time-honored tradition of bow-jumping, squealing loudly when they “caught air,” that they “felt like flying.”
Our passage through La Entrada, into the calm water of Bahía Magdalena was marked by the blows of the numerous adult gray whales gathered there to breed, and the small local boats there to watch them. Inside the bay, the scenery quickly changed from open water to a narrow mangrove and sand dune-lined channel. We shouted about approaching bottlenose dolphins and coyotes loping along the shoreline, then about the wonderful birds perched atop nests in the mangroves or probing the mudflats with their perfectly adapted beaks.
But the best was still to come… basking in the sun on the foredeck, with bellies full from a sumptuous ice cream sundae bar, we had our first close looks at the creatures we’d come to see. First, a solitary adult gray whale, then another. Then our first calf. These “dessert whales” surfaced and dove next to us as we inched up the channel, the mist of their blows spinning away like dust devils. Finally, our transit was complete, and we arrived at the tiny fishing community of Puerto Adolfo Lopez Mateos, known locally as simply “Lopez.” We dropped the hook and went ashore, for a late afternoon walk on the sinuous dunes of Isla Magdalena.
Returning at sunset, smiling and sandy, we learned of our next day’s activities and look forward to more time with the ballena gris of Bahía Magdalena.
