Boca de Soledad and Hull Canal
Sipping hot coffee on the bow, watching a soft, misty sunrise unfold while the low booming sounds of Pacific breakers provides a dramatic background... The occasional deep, hollow blow of whale breath punctuates the scene until expedition leader Jim Kelley announces that indeed it is “Another Beautiful Day in Baja California.” The dark head of a baby California gray whale pops above the water’s surface – perhaps to marvel, as we are, at the pink and blue landscape.
We take to the boats before breakfast, skating across a calm sea alongside golden dunes that look as though they were painted as a backdrop across the space where the blue sky and blue sea meet. Our last morning at Boca de Soledad is graced with California gray whale mothers and their curious youngsters. Quiet observation is celebrated by moments of boundless excitement as mom and calf whales approach or swim under the Zodiacs. We consider how fortuitous it is that in this remote place of sea and sand, we and these desert whales have connected in some special, mysterious way. The mouth of solitude called Boca de Soledad, and these gentle remarkable animals will long remain in a small special pocket with our most treasured memories.
A late afternoon walk across the dunes to Bahia Santa Maria gave us all a chance to contemplate our presence in this starkly beautiful landscape. Our travels and shared adventures around the Baja California peninsula have been wonderful – great whales and giant cactus, stories under the stars, rocks sculpted into fantastic shapes. As John Steinbeck wrote in his Log from the Sea of Cortez, “The very air here is miraculous and the outlines of reality change with the moment.”
