After our wonderful happy hour meeting of the group that was going to Magdalena Bay to see the whales we were very touched they invited us to join them. The next day Barbara took us to negotiate with Mar y Adventuras, the tour operator to see if we would be able to join the expedition.
Fortunately, Mary, the owner of the Mar y Adventura was willing to let us join at such a short notice after making sure the group was willing to have us join them. This company does a very good job of trying to make sure everything is done to have a fun and safe time. There are two guides that go along, one for each boat to answer questions people might have.
On the morning we were to set off, we had a group meeting with Miguel who was the leader for Mar y Adventura. He told us a little of what we wsre to expect and where we were heading. Then loading everything on top of the vans and we were off!
The road to the town of San Carlos where we set off from is quite windy and narrow. We stopped at a place along the way to have a mid morning snack. Just as our group arrived they ran out of propane. Not to worry, they had a fire going outside and were able to heat up the tortillas and serve us these delicous tortillas with this fantastic hot sauce. One word about the tortillas in this part of Mexico-----they are the best. They are crepe thin and we couldn't get enough of them!
We got to the town of San Carlos and were loaded from the vans to the boats called . They were called pangas, were covered to protect from sun, and the good news was that we were blessed with four days of beautiful calm seas. It took us about 30 minutes to get across to the camp. The camp is set up on a temporary basis during the whale season. They have white tents set up for the guests. Each of the tents comes with two cots and two tables complete with candles. They also have two tent toilets, a shower tent and the eating/cooking tents. One of the group said they looked like M.A.S.H. tents!
Once we got there, everyone got settled in, we set up our tent and we were called to lunch. One of the nice things about this operation is that the meals are very nice and mainly local cuisine. The operation was run by four guys Chuy, Manelo, Alejandro, and ooops, I forgot. Lunch was guacamole, coldcuts, vegetable soup and salad. One thing can be said about the food, it was great and plentiful! After lunch we went on our first whale expedition. We didn't go all the way out into the open sea but stayed inside the bay. Pretty soon we started seeing the spouts! We got to see quite a few whales moving around. We didn't any real close but it was very enjoyable.
Over the next several days when we went out we had a wonderful time watching the whales. They are so graceful for something that size. More about size when I get some real facts. One thing Marcos told us was the tail is about 12 foot across! We did have the whales come up and rub the bottom of the boat which was quite a rush! They would also swim quite close and do what was called "spy hopping", sticking their head out of the water! Terah had brought two scrub brushes because she had been told they loved the feel of the brush. When a whale was sighted, the boats would move in, and put engine on idle and see what happened. We had some great experiences watching them! It is also beautiful to see them dive down with a flip of the tail!
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