Wednesday morning found the Sea Bird cruising south heading for Cabo San Lucas and the ships first entry into the Gulf of California. Sunrise brought warm rays of golden light onto the Sea Bird as she entered tropical waters! Our vessel was on approach to Friar Rocks, a sentry of granite formations that marks the most southern tip of the Baja peninsula and guards the entry into the resort town of Cabo San Lucas.
This bustling port was once a sleepy village located at the end of a dirt road, looking out to the Gulf of California on the left of the Baja peninsula, and the Pacific Ocean on the right. In 1925 this small fishing community of less than 500 people was visited by a group of Mexican businessmen, interested in finding a location for commerce; a fish processing location to be exact. The factory processing ship named the Calmex was brought into Cabo San Lucas. Thus began a thriving fishing and fish processing business centered in the abundantly rich waters of the Gulf of California. In 1927 a canning plant was built in Cabo, which was the first plant of its kind in Mexico. The plant processed tuna and mackerel, among other species and was a magnet that attracted many Mexican people to the area. This successful fishing business continued through the 1940’s, with most of the product being shipped to San Diego, California. In 1942, things began to change for Cabo San Lucas starting with a massive flood that nearly destroyed the entire town. By the 1950’s sports fishing hit Cabo San Lucas bringing the impact of the first tourists to the local community. These brave hearts traveled south on hundreds of miles of dirt road to fish the fertile waters of the Gulf of California. In the 1970’s the Trans Peninsular Highway was completed and Cabo San Lucas was no longer an exotic and remote tourist destination for sport fishermen, but a new and budding resort town!
Today, we wandered through the crowded streets, of T-shirt shops and tequila bars and found hidden within those streets, inconspicuously small, charming, gallery quality shops that still hold a taste of the old flavor and spirit of Mexico, expressed through its art....It was as if the angels we saw in stone carvings in Cabo San Lucas were watching out over the Sea Bird, bringing us luck for afternoon whale watching. The Sea Bird began her journey through the Gulf of California traveling north-by-north east heading for a rich feeding area called Gorda Banks. There, Humpback whales gather, expressing themselves in some profound acrobatic ways. Through out our afternoon and early evening we moved slowly passing many individual Humpback whales doing the out of water dance called breeching! As the afternoon wind died, and the light took on golden tones yet another graceful leviathan leapt into the air, pectoral flippers swinging, an enormous splash resounding across the water, reminding us of the mystery and the beauty of this unique body of water, on the northwestern edge of mainland Mexico...
