Isla San Marcos and San Marcos Channel, Baja California, Mexico
The day was born into a lovely sky, but still big swells. As we approached San Marcos Island and its open pit gypsum mine (being worked since 1925), we could see the works and a small cloud of gypsum coming off the site. This gypsum is sold to the U.S.A., which brings in good revenue money. The load is giving out, and the company has bought another site, where they plan to transfer all the digging equipment. We then saw various blows of whales, and sailed in that direction, finding a series of fin whales, the second largest whale ever. They coursed back and forth in the plankton rich waters, coming up to blow every few minutes. These animals totally ignored us, not minding our presence. Indeed, they even approached our ship quite near in their feeding frenzy. This photograph was taken without telephoto, and you can appreciate the short distance from the camera to the behemoth.
Lunch was very good, and indeed was interrupted a few times by whales very near the dining room windows. Shortly after this repast we went kayaking near the coast, in calm waters. And after this sport, we again boarded our Zodiacs for an hour’s tour but were completely distracted by whales again not far from the ship, and we zipped in their direction. To our surprise, the boiling water we had seen, together with three contiguous blows happened to be three fin whales, which approached our Zodiacs qutie closely, and again, to our surprise, we noticed a big group (probably 50 animals) of false killer whales, zipping back and forth in search and capture of their prey. They gave us a great opportunity of good photos. What a day!
The day was born into a lovely sky, but still big swells. As we approached San Marcos Island and its open pit gypsum mine (being worked since 1925), we could see the works and a small cloud of gypsum coming off the site. This gypsum is sold to the U.S.A., which brings in good revenue money. The load is giving out, and the company has bought another site, where they plan to transfer all the digging equipment. We then saw various blows of whales, and sailed in that direction, finding a series of fin whales, the second largest whale ever. They coursed back and forth in the plankton rich waters, coming up to blow every few minutes. These animals totally ignored us, not minding our presence. Indeed, they even approached our ship quite near in their feeding frenzy. This photograph was taken without telephoto, and you can appreciate the short distance from the camera to the behemoth.
Lunch was very good, and indeed was interrupted a few times by whales very near the dining room windows. Shortly after this repast we went kayaking near the coast, in calm waters. And after this sport, we again boarded our Zodiacs for an hour’s tour but were completely distracted by whales again not far from the ship, and we zipped in their direction. To our surprise, the boiling water we had seen, together with three contiguous blows happened to be three fin whales, which approached our Zodiacs qutie closely, and again, to our surprise, we noticed a big group (probably 50 animals) of false killer whales, zipping back and forth in search and capture of their prey. They gave us a great opportunity of good photos. What a day!
