Day 10: Submit Your Lolwhalez Entry Here
Saturday, April 11th
We woke up to cold, howling wind.
Two hours on the ocean in a panga in gale-force winds was not an option, so we waited a couple hours before giving up and packing the bikes up in disappointment. But just as we were preparing to leave, the weather calmed!
Fortunately I had charged my (waterproof) camera from the camp's wind generator. Fifteen minutes after stepping on to the boat, we were surrounded by whales!
This curious baby got pretty close:
...and then got closer:
....and then got CLOSER!
It swam up to us several times and we actually petted a baby whale! It felt blubbery. Go figure.
Eventually we moved around to a different pair of whales, this time two very friendly adult females:
I mean REALLY FRIENDLY! They practically tried to jump in the boat.
I will never again be able to enjoy regular whale watching on a big boat with binoculars. I can't believe we nearly missed this experience - if the wind had kept up for another 15 minutes, we would have lost out.
Packed up and back on semi-dry land, we headed south along the coastal mud flats.
It really does just go on and on like that. It wasn't entirely dry, either. Here's the evidence of Jon nearly learning how hard it is to push a bike in mud:
Of course, we're still in Baja, not on the moon, so there is the federal mandatory minimum of abandoned cars:
The road eventually turned inland, and ran over these hard-packed dunes. It was the smoothest, most pleasant surface I have yet ridden over in Baja:
We landed in San Juanico, a small surf town, and called it an early day.
We ate good food, drank beer, did laundry, and - most importantly - found the local vendor of barrel gas.
Home!
We woke up to cold, howling wind.
Two hours on the ocean in a panga in gale-force winds was not an option, so we waited a couple hours before giving up and packing the bikes up in disappointment. But just as we were preparing to leave, the weather calmed!
Fortunately I had charged my (waterproof) camera from the camp's wind generator. Fifteen minutes after stepping on to the boat, we were surrounded by whales!
This curious baby got pretty close:
...and then got closer:
....and then got CLOSER!
It swam up to us several times and we actually petted a baby whale! It felt blubbery. Go figure.
Eventually we moved around to a different pair of whales, this time two very friendly adult females:
I mean REALLY FRIENDLY! They practically tried to jump in the boat.
I will never again be able to enjoy regular whale watching on a big boat with binoculars. I can't believe we nearly missed this experience - if the wind had kept up for another 15 minutes, we would have lost out.
Packed up and back on semi-dry land, we headed south along the coastal mud flats.
It really does just go on and on like that. It wasn't entirely dry, either. Here's the evidence of Jon nearly learning how hard it is to push a bike in mud:
Of course, we're still in Baja, not on the moon, so there is the federal mandatory minimum of abandoned cars:
The road eventually turned inland, and ran over these hard-packed dunes. It was the smoothest, most pleasant surface I have yet ridden over in Baja:
We landed in San Juanico, a small surf town, and called it an early day.
We ate good food, drank beer, did laundry, and - most importantly - found the local vendor of barrel gas.
Home!