MS National Geographic Sea Bird
Santa Rosalía, San Ignacio, and Laguna San Ignacio
Thursday, March 18, 2010

    Remember back to the beginning of this expedition? We started in Bahía Magdalena in hopes to have a close encounter with the gray whales. Unfortunately, this year the whales left Magdalena early. Our scouts have reported that the gray whales are still in Laguna San Ignacio, so that is where we headed today.

    We began the day arriving early this morning at the dock in Santa Rosalía on the Sea of Cortez side of Baja. We had an early breakfast and then piled into eight vans for the cross-county trip to the Pacific side of the peninsula. The first part of the trip was on the two-lane paved Mexico highway 1 to the little town of San Igancio situated in the center of the peninsula. This is a picturesque little town a little over an hour’s drive from Santa Rosalía. We stretched our legs and snacked on date pastries and freshly baked date nut bread.

    We then re-boarded our vans for the second half of the journey to the Pacific. This “half”, though, is 70 km of washboard dirt road through some very pretty desert environments. The desert in Baja is very healthy right now; very lush and green with the lushness accentuated by the dark rocky volcanic soil. After 70 km of kidney-smashing, teeth rattling travel, we arrive at Laguna San Ignacio where we had another bathroom break and a small snack to tide us over until our scheduled 2:30 pm lunch.

    We climbed aboard pangas, six passengers per boat and sped out into the lagoon. Very soon, we were among the gray whales with juveniles. Laguna San Ignacio is the location where the gray whales first exhibited the behavior of parents gently nudging their offspring up to meet and greet humans in boats. It is a fabulous experience to be able to reach out, tough, and greet these magnificent fellow mammals. We were treated to many encounters and there was much excitement watching the whales play and spy-hop right near our little motor boats.

    Our time with the whales was over far too soon, but we needed to get back to shore for a quick lunch and the three and a half hours of driving back to the ship still docked on the other side of Baja. We made another short stop in San Ignacio to enjoy fresh guacamole, salsa, and chips and some more of the sweet treats from the morning. It was all washed down with a little Corona. While we were there, we saw a funeral of a prominent rancher from the area. The whole town was there, of course, with horses and a procession from the church.

    On the dirt road from Laguna San Ignacio, the last van suffered from the beating of the road and lost its brakes. They managed to get to San Ignacio by grearing down on the downhill slopes and using the emergency brake. It was decided to leave that vehicle in San Ignacio and we crammed the passengers into the other seven vans. We made it safely back to the ship in time for dinner and a departure back into the Sea of Cortez to begin our cruise back south toward La Paz. Everyone was quite exhausted from the day, but also very happy. Tomorrow, we plan to be watching for wildlife in the water and plan a shore leave on one of the islands in the gulf. We don’t know which island, yet, since it will depend on wind and currents, and how far we can travel south tonight.