Whale Watching - Loading the boat

Sorry my friends that its been so long to get this current whale watching blog posted.....there has been alot going on here and an unexpected trip back to the states has really screwed up our time lines....we're back to normal now......or as normal as we can get....OK folks here we go............................

Coming into the panguereo camp.....Pretty desolate place....

One of those buildings is the communal bathroom.....

All the amenities.......

Huge Osprey having lunch....

This place is totally off the grid...water is periodically brought out here by government trucks.....

Nice little restaurant..... two things on the menu....fried fish or broiled fish....if you don't like fish......well, you know!!!

Getting our PFD's on ....getting ready to go out....the whales are in a smaller bay about 30 minutes away.

A little Laguna San Ignacio hottie....

The orientation poster that we all go over with the guide before disembarking.....the reference points on the drawing of the whale are areas that you DO NOT TOUCH when they come up to the boat.....

a. aletas are fins

b. gibas means do not touch, bother, or annoy

c. espiracules is the whales blow hole

d. surcos gulares are the folds and furrows around the whales mouth

e. 14 mts. long equals about 46 feet

f. 31.5 metric tons equals about 69,500 pounds

g. the whales migrate from the Bering Sea to Mexico to have their babies each year in the spring.....16,000 km is 9941 miles....the travel time is 5 - 8 semanas (weeks)

Tana and two of our boat mates......Sunshine in the middle and Moonglow on the right

Walking out to the pangas.....remember to shuffle your feet to scare the sting rays away.....actually the water was very clear and you could hopefully see them before stepping on one!!! I hoped..

We'd have about a 30 minute boat ride out to the whales....its a beautiful calm day on the water so far...!

OK guys....next time we will finally see some awesome whales...the next blog WILL be up and posted in a couple days...

until then

stay cool, hug the ones you love, and don't drink cheap beer..

Peace to you all my friends..

Whale Watching Part 5....Desolation Row...

We left the hotel in San Ignacio early and headed for one of the Baja's spring time habitats of the Eastern Pacific Gray Whale Laguna San Ignacio......the Laguna is only about 40 miles away but the trip takes almost 2 hours because the roads are so bad or in some cases non-existent...

The quick change and in the scenery and in the climate was remarkable.....   

Our guide told us that this is one of the most remote places on earth and the population density here is less than in the Sahara Desert!!!

I thought that West Texas was desolate....!! Remember the beautiful oasis that we were in about 45 minutes ago???

Our roadbed is slightly elevated from the surrounding terrain and runs east and west....we are heading west and are looking towards the south or left hand side of the road heading to the Laguna. Why is this important you ask? Take a gander at the next couple of pics..

This is a view of the north side of the road.....whats the white stuff you wonder.....its salt....OK whats the big deal??? keep reading my friends.............

Looking north again....hey look at the water...wait a minute!! It doesn't rain much here and hasn't for months...whats the deal??

Again our guide came to the rescue to solve the mystery of the source of this water.....it seems that when there are exceptionally high Pacific Ocean tides specially coupled with a storm event, the ocean water will flood this portion of the Baja with salt water.

Oh!! we exclaimed...."interesting" ...."how far is the Pacific from here" I asked. "About 40 miles" said the guide!!!! 40 miles my friends....

Another example of Mother Earth's incredible feats...

After about 2 hours or so we arrived at the Laguna.......

Our first view of the home base for the pangueros who will take us out to interact with the whales.....next time we'll hit the water...

until then...peace to us all

Whale Watching Part 4....San Ignacio

Mid afternoon came around and all 14 of us piled into a 12 person van and took off on our 50 mile road trip to San Ignacio where we would spend the next coupla days.... 

Hasta luego Santa Rosalia.....

It's about a 1 1/2 - 2 hour drive because of the mountains that we have to drive through to get from one side of the Baja to the other....the roads were excellent all the way and traffic was almost non-existent but the grades were steep and the blind curves were peligroso, dangerous. 

Good road....beautiful views...not much of a shoulder though..!

Kinda blurry...but will give you an idea of the grade and curves..!

Gorgeous panorama views going through the mountains...!

Pretty cool view....don't ya think???

Down in the desert again.....

San Ignacio is a desert oasis so we knew we were getting close when we started seeing the palm trees....

The palms indicate that we're gettin' close to our destination

Can you believe we are surrounded by a ginormous desert??

This is what a desert oasis looks like if you've ever wondered...!!

Desert?  What Desert??   Blows your mind....doesn't it... wait until you see whats coming in the next installment.... but I'm not done here yet.....cmon' my friends I've got a little more for you today.

 A fire rolled through here a few years ago and burned alot of palms....no one is sure as to what started it....?

While out tromping around we came upon this little shrine or chapel or tomb or something...we never did find out what it is but you've got to admit ....it's pretty cool! 

I guess it's time to end ZW for today but before we adjourn, I wanted to give you a peek at our hotel set amid the palms in this spectacular desert oasis....until next time.....

.......peace to you all my friends....don't forget to hug your loved ones today....seeya

Whale Watching...Part 3...Santa Rosalia's 2nd claim to fame

Everything in the Baja is constructed of concrete....why? you ask...
simple answer....no lumber grade trees. Even today lumber is difficult to find and expensive when you do locate it. The lumber department of our local Home Depot has a few warpy 2x4x8's and a few 4x4x8's and a sparse collection of assorted pieces of plywood and osb and that's it!! 

As I mentioned in the post right before this one, the French built Santa Rosalia and they didn't like concrete structures. They wanted what they had in France.....homes and structures constructed from wood!!! So they had structural lumber shipped in from Oregon and built a town of wood!! The only one in the Baja and hereto lies Santa Rosalia's second claim to fame.....the town constructed of wood....

This hardware store building is over 100 years old......!

Some of the buildings are a little ramshackle...!!

Local neighborhood restaurant .....

A coat of paint and good as new....!!

Penthouse apartment in the middle of town....!!

Scenic street in the downtown area.....

Don'tcha just love that Bougainvillea ....?

Tana in the town square.....

A quiet neighborhood side street......

The fancy neighborhood up on a hill overlooking the town....

Another hilltop swanky-enda.........

The Regional Public Library of Mahatma Gandhi and we presume there are at least 735 of them....! I haven't seen an Indian person since I've been here..??? Go figure!!!

This is the old French Hotel that we stayed at on the return trip back home from our whale watching expedition. It's constructed of, you guessed it, wood!!

We had a cervaza or two or three sitting here overlooking the scenery and the Sea of Cortez.....

View from our room........

Front desk.....incredibly termites are a big problem in Baja and in our home state of Sonora as well. The wood in these structures is oiled every few weeks with a special concoction that wards off the little critters.....that's why the wood is so dark in the interior views..

The lobby oozes Victorian Europe......

Sitting area in dining room for having tea....

Well, that's pretty much our trip to Santa Rosalia. When we meet again I'll take you guys across the Baja Peninsula from the Sea of Cortez on the east to the Pacific Coast on the west and to our final destination San Ignacio and the Laguna San Ignacio which is the home of the mighty Eastern Pacific Gray Whales and their babies for a part of the year......which is now!!!! 

You're gonna like the trip...seeya soon...peace to you all my friends