Whale Watch!
Trip Start
Dec 22, 2006
1
18
97
Trip End
Feb 10, 2008
Mulege,
Mexico
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
We awoke to an alarm clock for the first time in a long time. From what we had read, it was better to get to the dock early and speak with random boatmen to haggle out a price for whale watching. The posted rate for one person to reserve a spot on a boat was $50 USD. At that rate, we had already agreed that only one of us would go. It seemed only fair that Geraldine would go, as Michael has seen grey whales before off the coast of Ucluelet, British Columbia. Just before 8:00am, Geraldine anxiously hopped and skipped her way down to the dock. There were only two other people at the dock for whale watching and they had reservations. Geraldine asked numerous boatmen if they spoke English, however she did not receive any positive replies. After taking a very deep breath to calm herself and sort out the Spanish words in her head into sentences, Geraldine began her mission to get on a whale watching boat for a cheap, cheap price. She was able to convey to one boatman that she was on a limited budget and was willing to pay $25 USD. She was turned down and told to head to the office to haggle. Funny thing, the night before, the office staff told us to haggle with the boatmen. It seemed as though the whole outfit was playing a nice ol' fashioned game of "the run around". Sullen, Geraldine walked toward the office. To her surprise she heard footsteps on the dock behind her and looked back to see one of the boatmen following her. All of a sudden he was able to string English sentences together rather nicely. After a little small talk, he was sympathetic and escorted her to the office to help haggle a cheap price. Geraldine was not willing to go higher than $30, but the man in charge was not willing to go lower than $40 USD. Thanks in part to the helpful boatman, the boss finally agreed to take both Geraldine and Michael out for the $40. Correct us if we are wrong, but is that not $20 per person? And Geraldine started at $25?! Don't look a gift horse in the mouth! She was told the deal was only good for two minutes as by this time it was 8am and they wanted to get the show on the road. Not expecting to be going out on the water, Michael had already prepared himself for two hours of fixing the sink (which for some unknown reason stopped draining the night before). He was quick to get ready and we both headed down to the dock. Apparently we must have dawdled along the way because when we got to the dock they had already pulled the boat out about 25 feet. So, off went the shoes and up went the pant legs. The water was cold, but at least we didn't have to swim....as Geraldine does not possess those skills. Now of course Geraldine was thrilled to have her trusty man there beside her. Not necessarily so they could enjoy this wonderful day together....but more so because is she fell overboard, he would most likely be the only one to jump in after and save the poor non-swimmer from certain death.
The lagoon we were in ('Laguna Ojo de Liebre' - 'Eye of the Jack Rabbit') was super calm in the morning and it did not take long for us to happen upon some whales. Grey whales migrate here to breed every year. Unfotunately by the 1900's there were only 2,000 grey whales were in existence as man had been exploiting theses mammals for their oil. As a result of international treaties and the Mexican governments efforts, the grey whale population is now over 20,000 and the lagoon is now a restricted sanctuary for marine mammals and migratory birds. We were hoping for a close encounter of the whale kind, but government regulations also state that you must remain 10 meters away, so we were okay with that.
Out on the water, Geraldine's eyes could not have gotten any larger. It was then surprising to see that her eyes actually did get larger when a dolphin swan beside the boat. Oh what joy $40 can bring! We were also fortunate to see several Mama whales with their calves. The two hour tour went by in no time at all and it was a sad moment when we headed back to shore. All good things must come to an end.
Once we returned to the van, Michael decided to have a look at the sink issue while Geraldine was using the restroom. Unfortunately he pulled out a pipe that he probably shouldn't have and grey water started gushing out all over the place. So now we were forced to make a minor mend and find out where the real issue lay in the meantime. It appeared that our off-roading excursion to find the beach had ruptured the sinks down-pipe. Fixing this will require some supplies from a hardware store....so for now we have a new sink set-up which consists of a bucket and a drip tray.
From there we traveled across the desert (Desierto de Vizcaino) and reached the lush little town of San Ignacio. San Ignacio is described as a desert oasis given that it is filled with massive palm trees and banana plants, truly different from the rocks, sand and cacti of the desert. The purpose of this stop was to check out a historic church that was built between 1728 and 1786. Nearly 60 years of construction culminated into on of Baja's most beautiful churches. Given that there is nothing more than a courtyard and an orchard around it, it appears to be a deceivingly large structure. The building was constructed with lava block and the walls are over a metre thick.
Once the self-guided church tour was complete, we went on the hunt for 'los banos' (the bathrooms). Spotting a large sign over a small doorway, we entered in and were surprised to find a quaint corner store with an elderly man behind the counter. We asked where the bathrooms were and rather than answer us, the man muttered something to his little dog, opened a door at the back of the shop and said "Follow the doggy". After receiving his instructions, the dog took off through a small courtyard in the back. He made a right, a left and then another right before he stopped beside the bathrooms and looked up at us as if to say 'I got you here, the rest is up to you'. After the bathroom break we went back outside and were informed by some locals that San Ignacio is also a checkpoint for the Baja 1000, which would explain the wealth of campsites around the town. As gorgeous as the sites were, we figured this was not the right time of year to stop off, as all the sites were empty.....so we pushed on down the highway.
Next stop - Santa Rosalia. On the way into town we noticed a lot of decrepit old buildings, rusted train tracks and abandoned shops. This was obviously a booming town back in its day. We did some reading up on it and discovered that Santa Rosalia was once populated by French copper barons. The French influence was evident with the pre-fabricated church designed by Alexandre Eiffel and Panaderia (Bakery) which sells the only baguettes available in the Baja. The pre-fabricated church was intriguing, so we made that our first point of interest. This church was designed and built in Paris in 1889 for the Worlds Fair and named Iglesia Santa Barbara. After the Worlds Fair it was stored in Brussels until one of the French copper barons in Santa Rosalia had it sent over in 1895. We were amazed that they built pre-fabricated buildings such a long time ago and the church certainly did not hide its basic structure. The walls and the roof inside the church have exposed metal framing, which does not make it the most attractive looking structure, however it was certainly functional lasting over 100 years with little visible damage. Way to go Eiffel!
The town of Santa Rosalia is very well laid out. A number of narrow one way streets make up the main core of town. The streets are lined with little specialty shops, which did not seem to be focused on the tourism industry. It was like being sent back in time. The most interesting place was the bakery. It was started in 1901 and according to all our reading, a baguette was a must have. We purchased a baguette along with a few samples of Mexican sweet bread. This was by far the best bread we have ever consumed. The baguette melted in your mouth leaving an aftertaste of roasted sesame seeds and the sweet breads were moist with a slight doughnut texture and flavour. I guess living on dehydrated food and jars of preserves can really let your taste buds know what they are missing.
That night we splurged on a nice campsite at Cuesta Real just outside of Mulege (or Muleje, depending on which map or road sign you wish to follow). The splurge was to have the convenience of wireless internet from the comforts of our sofa / bed. Hope you enjoyed your $20 worth of updates ;) To make the most out of spending money, we ended staying at Cuesta Real until mid-afternoon the following day before heading off to find some free beach camping.
Photos: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingReg.jsp?Uc=16xvaj2z.21ch39cv&Uy=ajrllo&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=198250316582_811784810207
