Cabo San Lucas, Gorda Banks…..humpback whales!
Sunrise found the Sea Bird rounding Cabo Falso heading for Friar Rocks, the most southern point of the Baja peninsula. Our nights ride, cruising the prevailing currents south, down the western side of Baja California Sur had been a lovely journey. Sunrise filled the sky with pinks and oranges, as we approached the first civilization we had seen in four days.
We were making our way towards the largest resort community on the Baja peninsula. Cabo San Lucas started out as a sleepy fishing village nearly one hundred years ago. In 1925 this small fishing community of less than 500 people was visited by a group of Mexican businessmen. Their goal was to establish a fishing port, by building a fish processing plant conveniently located on the tip of Baja with access to the productive waters of the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of California. It took until 1927 to built a fish processing plant 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 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 being to change for Cabo San Lucas, starting with a massive flood that nearly destroyed the entire town. By the 1950s sport fishing hit Cabo San Lucas bringing the impact of the first tourists who braved the grueling journey down hundreds of miles of dirt road for sport fishing in the Gulf of California. In the 1970s 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 community!
Our morning would be spent with an early visit to Pelican Rock for our first snorkeling excursion. The rest of the morning, we could wander the crowded streets of T-shirt shops and tequila bars finding rare galleries and quality shops hidden inconspicuously down small side streets….on a search for the old flavor and spirit of Mexico expressed through it’s art….
At approximately 1:00pm, the Sea Bird left her berth in Cabo San Lucas and began a slow cruise past Land’s End and headed northeast for our afternoon destination of Gorda Banks. Our Natural History staff was on the bow on the lookout for Humpback whales known to use the area of Gorda Banks as a mating area. All too soon, our expedition leader made the announcement, “Whales, whales, whales! Pectoral flippers! Breaches!” We were in the playground of one of the worlds most acrobatic of marine mammals!
With continuous commentary from naturalists we spent our afternoon watching a variety of different Humpback whales at play in the waters of the Gulf of California. As sunset approached, the Sea Bird found three whales, one of which was very busy tail-lobbing – lifting nearly half of its girth out of the water and slapping its tail down hard on the water! We continued to speculate on the reasons for this behavior as the Captain of the Sea Bird kept us within good views of all three whales! The sun continued to drop towards the horizon, the shadows lengthening, as we pulled away from Gorda Banks and an afternoon of spectacular whale sightings. While many of us watched from the stern of the vessel, the Sea Bird continued north into the Gulf of California…as the whales continued tail lobbing and slapping the waters surface with their pectoral flippers.
Sunrise found the Sea Bird rounding Cabo Falso heading for Friar Rocks, the most southern point of the Baja peninsula. Our nights ride, cruising the prevailing currents south, down the western side of Baja California Sur had been a lovely journey. Sunrise filled the sky with pinks and oranges, as we approached the first civilization we had seen in four days.
We were making our way towards the largest resort community on the Baja peninsula. Cabo San Lucas started out as a sleepy fishing village nearly one hundred years ago. In 1925 this small fishing community of less than 500 people was visited by a group of Mexican businessmen. Their goal was to establish a fishing port, by building a fish processing plant conveniently located on the tip of Baja with access to the productive waters of the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of California. It took until 1927 to built a fish processing plant 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 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 being to change for Cabo San Lucas, starting with a massive flood that nearly destroyed the entire town. By the 1950s sport fishing hit Cabo San Lucas bringing the impact of the first tourists who braved the grueling journey down hundreds of miles of dirt road for sport fishing in the Gulf of California. In the 1970s 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 community!
Our morning would be spent with an early visit to Pelican Rock for our first snorkeling excursion. The rest of the morning, we could wander the crowded streets of T-shirt shops and tequila bars finding rare galleries and quality shops hidden inconspicuously down small side streets….on a search for the old flavor and spirit of Mexico expressed through it’s art….
At approximately 1:00pm, the Sea Bird left her berth in Cabo San Lucas and began a slow cruise past Land’s End and headed northeast for our afternoon destination of Gorda Banks. Our Natural History staff was on the bow on the lookout for Humpback whales known to use the area of Gorda Banks as a mating area. All too soon, our expedition leader made the announcement, “Whales, whales, whales! Pectoral flippers! Breaches!” We were in the playground of one of the worlds most acrobatic of marine mammals!
With continuous commentary from naturalists we spent our afternoon watching a variety of different Humpback whales at play in the waters of the Gulf of California. As sunset approached, the Sea Bird found three whales, one of which was very busy tail-lobbing – lifting nearly half of its girth out of the water and slapping its tail down hard on the water! We continued to speculate on the reasons for this behavior as the Captain of the Sea Bird kept us within good views of all three whales! The sun continued to drop towards the horizon, the shadows lengthening, as we pulled away from Gorda Banks and an afternoon of spectacular whale sightings. While many of us watched from the stern of the vessel, the Sea Bird continued north into the Gulf of California…as the whales continued tail lobbing and slapping the waters surface with their pectoral flippers.
