Boca de la Soledad, Magdalena Bay
A dense fog curtain was covering the usually blue-green sea, the ochre dunes, and the grayish-bluish sky around our ship early this morning. The sunlight was filtered throughout the fog as golden rays of immense beauty and mystery. When the fog finally dissipated with the warming of the atmosphere, Zodiac boats were sent for whale seeking.
Out there, in the quietness of the flat surface of the coastal lagoon, we penetrated the private life of the gray whales. They were behaving as they have been doing for perhaps thousands of years. In fact, they involuntarily showed us their sexual excitement and games prior to the vital act of copulation to perpetuate their fabulous species. Spy-hops, rolling over and breeching were part of the natural show of the single adult males and females. In other areas, the mothers, though strongly protective of their calves, allowed them to explore and play around their own giant bodies full of milk. The calves, non suspecting the existence of potential enemies outside the lagoon, breathed and nursed innocently like in a pristine ocean garden. Other whales ignored us and continued diving.
No more paragraphs are needed to describe what we saw and what we experienced with the gray whales. We will always remember “la manchada” or the “white-spotted” whale.
A dense fog curtain was covering the usually blue-green sea, the ochre dunes, and the grayish-bluish sky around our ship early this morning. The sunlight was filtered throughout the fog as golden rays of immense beauty and mystery. When the fog finally dissipated with the warming of the atmosphere, Zodiac boats were sent for whale seeking.
Out there, in the quietness of the flat surface of the coastal lagoon, we penetrated the private life of the gray whales. They were behaving as they have been doing for perhaps thousands of years. In fact, they involuntarily showed us their sexual excitement and games prior to the vital act of copulation to perpetuate their fabulous species. Spy-hops, rolling over and breeching were part of the natural show of the single adult males and females. In other areas, the mothers, though strongly protective of their calves, allowed them to explore and play around their own giant bodies full of milk. The calves, non suspecting the existence of potential enemies outside the lagoon, breathed and nursed innocently like in a pristine ocean garden. Other whales ignored us and continued diving.
No more paragraphs are needed to describe what we saw and what we experienced with the gray whales. We will always remember “la manchada” or the “white-spotted” whale.
