Bahia Magdalena Redux - Day 10

DAY TEN

[Feb. 11, 2015]

After a sound night’s sleep (even though the cots were a little bit saggy), and a scrumptious hot breakfast, we head back to the pongas and out into the Bay for our morning's adventure. This one was even more invigorating!  We came upon a mother who was teaching her young one how to breach.  This is when the whale propels the bulk of its body up out of the water and falls back with a stupendous splash!  They did this behavior over and over again, thrilling to watch.

When they tired of this, they came alongside us to get acquainted, and once again it was the awe-some experience of enjoying these magnificent creatures up close.  It is a stirring highlight and memory of a life-time, to have the privilege and opportunity to intimately gaze into a whale’s eye, and to be invited to communicate with them through touch, these enormous beings.

We returned to camp, and, full to the brim with a good lunch and our experiences, packed up and headed back over the winding mountain road, back to our hotel in Loreto where we all had long, hot showers to wash off the sand, salt spray and whale snot, and then wandered into the square for dinner.  Randy and I had a fabulous sea bass and tasty paella, under the twinkling tree lights in the open air garden restaurant. 

After dinner, some of the guests elected to walk down to the waterfront for the opening festivities of Carnival, an exhuberant Lenten festival that goes on for a week.  They reported much loud music, gaily dressed people, costumes, dancing, and fireworks, and got back to the hotel well after mid-night.  Randy and I elected to go straight back to our spacious room and go right to sleep.