Oh Baby!

Baby (left) and Mom. Look at the difference in the size of their dorsals.

It was probably 15 (or more) years ago that I was in Mexico on a kayaking vacation in the Sea of Cortez. I remember getting a lot of flack from friends like, "How can paddling a kayak for a week be considered a vacation?" But it was, in fact, the best vacation I ever took. The thing I had anticipated most about such a trip was a chance to see whales- moms and their babies to be exact. But after a week of paddling from one island to the next, I had counted zero whales. Our naturalist guide said it was too late in the season (the second week of April) to see whales in the Sea of Cortez. Bummer. When would I have such a chance again?

Well, my friends, the chance has come again and THIS time...wait for it... we've seen them! Yesterday, the boat was resting comfortably in Santiago Bay which is just around the corner from Manzanillo. It was a pretty lazy day on board. Since temperatures are reasonable, I was baking chocolate chip cookies, which takes all morning because the oven and consequently the cookie sheet are so small, I can only bake 9 cookies at a time. In between batches I was reading a book, Chris was reading a book up in the cockpit, and Sandy was reading in the aft cabin. Around noon, Chris noticed a humpback whale in the bay, which appeared to be resting at the surface. So we all came up to inspect. The longer we watched, it became clear that there was more going on than just a resting whale. We began to see snatches of another whale, who was a bit more frisky and much smaller. We realized then that it was a mom and her calf. We got to watch them for two hours as the baby frolicked - never far from Mom's side. (Although my viewing was interrupted by multiple trips up and down to deal with batches of cookies.)

Dingys from two other boats went out to get a better look, but the mom remained at the surface. A ponga pulling an inflated "banana ride" full of tourists even pulled up and stopped to watch a while and she still stayed where we could see her and was actually moving closer to our boat. Every once in a while, she would roll on her side a bit, which we think was for the baby to nurse. We were snapping pictures like crazy! Since the mom was just lying at the surface, she was easy. But we never knew where that kid was going to pop up, and therein lay the challenge.

It wasn't until two clowns on a jet ski went zooming by at full speed, oblivious of the whales, that she decided she'd had enough, and headed out to sea, swimming so close alongside one of the dingys on her way out, that the occupants could nearly touch her. Boy, those people's eyes were wide open as they headed over to our boat to compare notes!

At happy hour last night at The Oasis restaurant on the beach (What else would it be called, right?) the whales were a big topic of conversation. Apparently they'd been in the bay the day before too, so we'll be looking for them again today. All in all, a very rewarding experience... the reason I came to Mexico!