Off the Southern Cape
The Baja sunrise was tangerine, make that mango, no, papaya colored, that's it. Smear that palate across a turquoise sky and add a ‘green flash’ from the rising sun, and the image is perfect. The calm seas danced in our wake and like a funhouse mirror, reflected a truly vibrant sight. Humpback whales appeared as if on cue at breakfast time. Should we eat or should we stay on deck and watch these leviathans slowly rise, exhale 20-foot columns of steam, slip through the mirrored sea, arch their backs deeply into the air and raise their magnificent flukes high and then down to slice the sea with hardly a ripple? It is always amazing to watch these giants ply the waters with such ease and barely leave more than a tantalizing ripple on the surface.
The underwater seamounts of Gorda Banks were marked by drifting pelagic crabs. These red crustaceans spend their wholes lives at sea and are preyed upon by a myriad of animals. A passing Bonaparte’s gull dove in and gobbled one up right before our eyes. The waters just offshore drop to over seven thousand feet deep. Enormous upwellings of nutrient rich waters rise to create the perfect recipe for plankton food, a fundamental life form, from tiny crabs to 30-ton whales.
In the afternoon it was “Cabo time.” Some of us went snorkeling, some went birding, and the rest decided to spend the time wandering the shop-lined promenades.
The birding was super. The trail wound through undisturbed native vegetation. Species are varied: lazuli bunting, Scott’s oriole, lark sparrows, Costa’s hummingbirds, black-throated sparrows and to top off our list, a determined crested caracara streamed by.
The afternoon ended with a grand finale. Not only are we at “land’s end,” the southernmost tip of the peninsula with its famous arch, but also the scene is highlighted by a group of breaching humpback whales. A 20-foot youngster, perhaps only a month old, leapt incessantly before us, as if physically calling its mom over by leaping about with gay abandon. Eventually, mom did arrive, and both sounded deeply and left us to continue our journey.
The Baja sunrise was tangerine, make that mango, no, papaya colored, that's it. Smear that palate across a turquoise sky and add a ‘green flash’ from the rising sun, and the image is perfect. The calm seas danced in our wake and like a funhouse mirror, reflected a truly vibrant sight. Humpback whales appeared as if on cue at breakfast time. Should we eat or should we stay on deck and watch these leviathans slowly rise, exhale 20-foot columns of steam, slip through the mirrored sea, arch their backs deeply into the air and raise their magnificent flukes high and then down to slice the sea with hardly a ripple? It is always amazing to watch these giants ply the waters with such ease and barely leave more than a tantalizing ripple on the surface.
The underwater seamounts of Gorda Banks were marked by drifting pelagic crabs. These red crustaceans spend their wholes lives at sea and are preyed upon by a myriad of animals. A passing Bonaparte’s gull dove in and gobbled one up right before our eyes. The waters just offshore drop to over seven thousand feet deep. Enormous upwellings of nutrient rich waters rise to create the perfect recipe for plankton food, a fundamental life form, from tiny crabs to 30-ton whales.
In the afternoon it was “Cabo time.” Some of us went snorkeling, some went birding, and the rest decided to spend the time wandering the shop-lined promenades.
The birding was super. The trail wound through undisturbed native vegetation. Species are varied: lazuli bunting, Scott’s oriole, lark sparrows, Costa’s hummingbirds, black-throated sparrows and to top off our list, a determined crested caracara streamed by.
The afternoon ended with a grand finale. Not only are we at “land’s end,” the southernmost tip of the peninsula with its famous arch, but also the scene is highlighted by a group of breaching humpback whales. A 20-foot youngster, perhaps only a month old, leapt incessantly before us, as if physically calling its mom over by leaping about with gay abandon. Eventually, mom did arrive, and both sounded deeply and left us to continue our journey.
