Boca de Soledad
We are up with the sun for our second and last morning at Boca de Soledad in Magdalena Bay. There are light clouds that intensify the sunrise throwing warm colors across the sky, chasing the full moon below the horizon, but the air is still chilly as memories of the long desert night linger.
There is a light, but steady wind blowing from the north from the direction of a strong incoming tide, excellent conditions for cavorting with the numerous calf/cow grey whale pairs that have been spotted to the south by our local Pongeras in protected waters deep within the bay.
Moms seem to be forcing their babies to exercise, slowly swimming them against the tide, which is lots of effort for a baby with little real movement over ground. Baby needs to become strong fast for the long migration to the Arctic, the home she has never seen.
Lots of blows. Each Zodiac picks their own calf/cow pair, slowly following it at a respectful distance to one side, between the low morning sun and the whales. Most of the calves are a month or more old and they are very curious. When the pair rises to breathe the calves often climb up their mother’s back to get their head and eyes above the water to catch a glimpse of those strange, smiling creatures in the Zodiacs, to hear their gasps, laughs and cheers.
Then something happens, you can feel it, time stops for a moment and so do the whales. Mom and baby slow down, come to the surface and approach the boats. They are very slow, even when under water they are close to the surface and for the first time we can really see their size. Baby is half the length of a Zodiac; mom is almost twice as large as the boat. Baby’s head pops out of the water, staying very near to mom as she gently nudges the boat with her snout. They go under the boat and rub themselves against the bottom, close enough to touch and so it goes, time and time again.
By lunchtime we are all on the Sea Bird heading back down the Hull Canal, the same passage we made two days ago in the other direction. Then we were full of anticipation, now we have memories, too many to digest all at once.
Mid-afternoon and there is time for one last hike, across sand dunes to the Pacific Ocean, to one of the most beautiful places in Baja California, Sand Dollar Beach. A contemplative place, wide, wild and yet peaceful too. Our tracks on the sand, so well defined, so sharp and easy to read, but soon to fill up with the constantly moving sand and disappear, like this morning, like yesterday and all the days before. But we will remember, we made those tracks and they will be a part of us always.
We are up with the sun for our second and last morning at Boca de Soledad in Magdalena Bay. There are light clouds that intensify the sunrise throwing warm colors across the sky, chasing the full moon below the horizon, but the air is still chilly as memories of the long desert night linger.
There is a light, but steady wind blowing from the north from the direction of a strong incoming tide, excellent conditions for cavorting with the numerous calf/cow grey whale pairs that have been spotted to the south by our local Pongeras in protected waters deep within the bay.
Moms seem to be forcing their babies to exercise, slowly swimming them against the tide, which is lots of effort for a baby with little real movement over ground. Baby needs to become strong fast for the long migration to the Arctic, the home she has never seen.
Lots of blows. Each Zodiac picks their own calf/cow pair, slowly following it at a respectful distance to one side, between the low morning sun and the whales. Most of the calves are a month or more old and they are very curious. When the pair rises to breathe the calves often climb up their mother’s back to get their head and eyes above the water to catch a glimpse of those strange, smiling creatures in the Zodiacs, to hear their gasps, laughs and cheers.
Then something happens, you can feel it, time stops for a moment and so do the whales. Mom and baby slow down, come to the surface and approach the boats. They are very slow, even when under water they are close to the surface and for the first time we can really see their size. Baby is half the length of a Zodiac; mom is almost twice as large as the boat. Baby’s head pops out of the water, staying very near to mom as she gently nudges the boat with her snout. They go under the boat and rub themselves against the bottom, close enough to touch and so it goes, time and time again.
By lunchtime we are all on the Sea Bird heading back down the Hull Canal, the same passage we made two days ago in the other direction. Then we were full of anticipation, now we have memories, too many to digest all at once.
Mid-afternoon and there is time for one last hike, across sand dunes to the Pacific Ocean, to one of the most beautiful places in Baja California, Sand Dollar Beach. A contemplative place, wide, wild and yet peaceful too. Our tracks on the sand, so well defined, so sharp and easy to read, but soon to fill up with the constantly moving sand and disappear, like this morning, like yesterday and all the days before. But we will remember, we made those tracks and they will be a part of us always.
