Gorda Bank and Cabo San Lucas
The early bird gets its prize, as did those brave whale-watchers that met at the Sea Bird’s bow deck at 6:30 a.m. It wasn’t long when they where gifted by the presence of several humpback whales, including a cow-calf pair, in the waters at Gorda Banks. The whales exhibited many interesting behaviors and gave us with the opportunity to either take a killer photo or blame slow electronics. And all before breakfast!
After spotting many more humpback whales and bottlenose dolphins, we arrived at Cabo San Lucas, where we brave explorers divided into several groups, according to the activity of choice: bird-watching, snorkeling or shopping – the last one reserved for the most adventurous souls. Being curious about the underwater possibilities of the area, those of us that went snorkeling at Chileno’s Beach certainly didn’t regret it. The clear and calm waters and abundant fish offered us the perfect conditions to enjoy and learn about how the Cabo area is considered a separate faunal province by itself in terms of rocky reef fishes. We observed species of more tropical latitudes with exotic names like the moorish idol (see photo), the convict tang or the zebra moray eel are hardly found elsewhere in the Gulf of California but are common here. Bigger and more diverse coral formations are seen in the Cabo area than in the rest of Baja California and provided us with the perfect scenery for our underwater journey.
Back at sea on board the Sea Bird while enjoying a refreshing margarita, several gray whales showed up just after land’s end, welcoming us to the Pacific waters and as if providing a glimpse of our following days at Bahía Magdalena…
The early bird gets its prize, as did those brave whale-watchers that met at the Sea Bird’s bow deck at 6:30 a.m. It wasn’t long when they where gifted by the presence of several humpback whales, including a cow-calf pair, in the waters at Gorda Banks. The whales exhibited many interesting behaviors and gave us with the opportunity to either take a killer photo or blame slow electronics. And all before breakfast!
After spotting many more humpback whales and bottlenose dolphins, we arrived at Cabo San Lucas, where we brave explorers divided into several groups, according to the activity of choice: bird-watching, snorkeling or shopping – the last one reserved for the most adventurous souls. Being curious about the underwater possibilities of the area, those of us that went snorkeling at Chileno’s Beach certainly didn’t regret it. The clear and calm waters and abundant fish offered us the perfect conditions to enjoy and learn about how the Cabo area is considered a separate faunal province by itself in terms of rocky reef fishes. We observed species of more tropical latitudes with exotic names like the moorish idol (see photo), the convict tang or the zebra moray eel are hardly found elsewhere in the Gulf of California but are common here. Bigger and more diverse coral formations are seen in the Cabo area than in the rest of Baja California and provided us with the perfect scenery for our underwater journey.
Back at sea on board the Sea Bird while enjoying a refreshing margarita, several gray whales showed up just after land’s end, welcoming us to the Pacific waters and as if providing a glimpse of our following days at Bahía Magdalena…
