Asunto
Our life afloat on a boat
Sailing Trips
Sailing, sailing, sailing That’s why we live the life we do, so that we can untie the lines and explore the world in our own backyard. From Sept 2015-October 2016 we sailed with a 2 year old and a baby from Vancouver to Mexico, across to Hawaii, across to Alaska and then down, Read More
It feels a bit strange to follow a post about swimming with giant whale sharks with touching grey whales but we had a pretty amazing three days. The best part is before the whale sharks we were swimming with sea lions again at Los Ilotas, so really this that been a pretty amazing couple of days.
We had to drive Kolby’s parents to Loreto for their flight home. It is a 4 hour drive from La Paz to Loreto, and their flight left at 2:50. If we left La Paz at 5 am we would have just enough time to stop by the small fishing town of Puerto Adolfo Mateos Lopez to visit the Grey Whales. From January to March these giants come into the protected estuaries on the Pacific side of the Baja to birth and nurse their babies. There are three places on the coast where they are, and from what I read Puerto Adolfo was the quietest of the three.
The entire experience was fantastic, we arrived early, about 10 am and pulled into the parking lot which was mostly empty. We walked up to the first booth and booked a panga for the hour for $1000 pesos (it didn’t matter how many people were going on the panga). We saw the first whales within five minutes. A mama and her baby, cruising along. Sometimes the bay would come up beside its mama, sometime it would come up on her back and roll off. We didn’t think it could get much better until we met Olivia. Olivia is a mama whale who loves to visit boat for pats and rubs, and baby would come up for the rubs too.
Touching a whale in the wild because she was actively seeking the attention was breath taking. She was so big that the boat would rise and fall with her breath. We were all mesmerized.
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- Coming for pats
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- Mama
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- Gentle giant
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- Amazing
By the time we were back in the car the place was filling up. Most of the tourists were Mexican, evident by the music blaring on the speakers. The whale watching industry has brought some jobs and cash to this sleepy little fish town, and they were embracing it. We saw amazing whale murals on the school walls as be left town and continued the journey to Loreto.
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- Front view
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- Trying to keep up
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- Perspective of size
We had hoped to find whale sharks in Bahia Conception, but we were not so lucky. Determined not to miss out we decided to pay the steep fee of $60 USD to swim with thee giants in La Paz on a guided Panga. It was a pretty fantastic, if not slightly chaotic, experience. Whale sharks are huge cartilaginous sharks that filter feed on plankton, using one of two techniques: the lawn mower- where they move through large volumes of water to find enough food, or vertical feed – when the plankton is plentiful the sharks move upright in the water column and effectively swallow huge amounts of plankton and water. The sharks can reach up to 60 feet, but the ones in La Paz are juveniles at only 30 feet. When we went out the sharks were doing their lawn mower technique and boy could they motor with only the smallest flick of their tails. There was also wind and chop on the surface, making it a challenge to keep up with them. Luckily our guide was basically an olympian swimmer who not only could keep up but also retrieve swimmers who had fallen behind and tow them back to the front. Even at 30 feet the shark was so huge it was hard to grasp it’s size. It’s tail fin was the same length as Kolby. Swimming at the tail it’s head would be obscured by the murky water. It was long and skinny and beautiful. The guides had an interesting technique. They would approach the shark, and have the swimmers ready to go, sitting on the rails. Suddenly the driver would throw the shifter into neutral and yell go. Often you would hit the water while the boat was still moving. Then you had to look around for the guide, who was swimming with his arm up to indicate where the whale was. The visibility is quite poor that it could be hard to figure out, one time I almost swam into the shark as I was looking for it and it had changed directions. Then once you find the shark you swim with it for as long as you can before you give up and wait for the boat to come get you. It was a pretty decent workout, especially at 8 months pregnant. Fynn had fun on the boat – naturally she liked the part where she could push us into the water. Good times all around.
We started feelings some cravings for heat and tropical locales so it was time to say good bye to the sea and start heading south. We had some ripping good the sails on route- with winds hitting almost 30 knots and our boat speed getting into the 8s and 9s.
Powered up
We enjoyed a great show from a very busy humpback whale, playing in the bosons chair while sailing with spinnaker, and visiting some of the places we had already seen on the way up. We stopped by Aqua Verde and Fynn made a new friend with her offer buy a juice. We had great weather at Isla San Francisco and loved the ridge hike. We did have as many sea lions play in the water as last time, but Fynn felt like jumping in and swimming on dad’s back which was very cool.
Look I found a goat skull!
Making friends
We stopped at Puerto Ballandra where we went for a safari ride through the mangroves. It was amazing to see the fish hanging out down there! Some were quite big and other just babies.
Mangrove dinghy tour
Inside the mangroves
Puerto Ballandra – all aboard!
Mexi babe
Then we were back in the world of La Paz – familiar yet foreign.
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