Sea of Cortez
Our day began with, guess what...whales! We saw short-finned pilot whales north of San Jose Island. The whales were in the company of both, common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins.
We observed two pods feeding in the area. We stayed with them for the first two hours of the morning, so we had enough time to verify our sighting. We could easily identify the pilot whales most distinctive features, like the bulbous forehead, their short almost imperceptible beaks, and their prominent dorsal fins. We could even see the light chevron presented behind the blowhole on the neck.
During breakfast we lowered down a Zodiac to take some underwater footage, and Michelle Graves, our underwater specialists, got a few good pictures of adult whales sounding in the deep blue of the sea of Cortez. There were some calves of different sizes in the group. This confirms that they can be born throughout the year, as might be expected in a tropical species not subject to climate extremes. The pilot whales did not have any intention of leaving the area. But eventually, we had to depart, to sail once more through the rich waters of this vermilion sea.
In the afternoon we hiked in Punta Gato, and even though the name of the place means “cat”, we did not see any. Instead we learned about cacti and legume species that populate the eastern flanks of Sierra de la Giganta.
We had a wonderful barbecue dinner among the red volcanic rocks of Punta Gato. We sang around the bonfire, and we learned about ancient stories of Mexican gods from our Mexican naturalist, Adrian Cerda. When the bonfire became the moon, we came back on board to dream about this land colored in the most diverse hues of red.
Our day began with, guess what...whales! We saw short-finned pilot whales north of San Jose Island. The whales were in the company of both, common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins.
We observed two pods feeding in the area. We stayed with them for the first two hours of the morning, so we had enough time to verify our sighting. We could easily identify the pilot whales most distinctive features, like the bulbous forehead, their short almost imperceptible beaks, and their prominent dorsal fins. We could even see the light chevron presented behind the blowhole on the neck.
During breakfast we lowered down a Zodiac to take some underwater footage, and Michelle Graves, our underwater specialists, got a few good pictures of adult whales sounding in the deep blue of the sea of Cortez. There were some calves of different sizes in the group. This confirms that they can be born throughout the year, as might be expected in a tropical species not subject to climate extremes. The pilot whales did not have any intention of leaving the area. But eventually, we had to depart, to sail once more through the rich waters of this vermilion sea.
In the afternoon we hiked in Punta Gato, and even though the name of the place means “cat”, we did not see any. Instead we learned about cacti and legume species that populate the eastern flanks of Sierra de la Giganta.
We had a wonderful barbecue dinner among the red volcanic rocks of Punta Gato. We sang around the bonfire, and we learned about ancient stories of Mexican gods from our Mexican naturalist, Adrian Cerda. When the bonfire became the moon, we came back on board to dream about this land colored in the most diverse hues of red.
