Our Zodiac bobbed with the gentle swell inside the lagoon. Whale blows rose from the sea in almost every direction, like a strange marine geyser field. Then suddenly, and without warning, a gray whale calf approached our boat. Seconds later, the mama whale surfaced beside her one-ton calf, her blow wafting over us like mist from a waterfall.
This was our day inside San Ignacio Lagoon, without a doubt the best place in the world to experience a day in the life of the California gray whales.
And what forgiving creatures they are. Do they remember, somewhere deep in their genes, that mankind slaughtered them to near extinction? Perhaps not, because today all they wanted was to be loved. Mothers proud of their precocious calves, and ready to make the 5,000-mile swim to the Arctic waters, their summer feeding grounds.
Today, we are honored to be in the company of these great marine mammals. We came in peace and were touched by the whales.
