Graceful Gray Giants

  Ensenada, Mexico
Sunday, April 1, 2007

Imagine giving birth to a one ton baby! Grotesque as this may seem to us, for the female gray whale it's not even worth batting an eyelash. Although most of the male grays had already left on their great migration to the north, we were extremely fortunate to be in time to carouse with the mothers and babies still frolicking in the warm waters of the Ojo de Liebre lagoon near Guerrero Negro. And what an unforgettable experience it was!

Every year in December, some 1,500 gray whales leave the frigid waters of Siberia and Alaska, making their way along eight to ten thousand km of coastline until they reach Baja California. The Laguna Ojo de Liebre, along with Laguna San Ignacio and Magdalena Bay provides warm, shallow and protected waters - perfect conditions for mating and birthing. More than nine hundred whale calves are born here each winter, and although their parents have been to the Arctic and back since mating, the calves can all claim authentic Mexican citizenship!

02 Pass the salt please

Making our way from Guerrero Negro to the lagoon, we passed dozens of man-made salt evaporation pools. We were surprised to learn that the Exportadora de Sal company is the largest salt production facility in the world, making approximately 25,000 tons per day, and contributing some 20 percent of the world's supply. What on first glance appeared to be giant white sand dunes were simply mountains of that finger-licking seasoning.

Together with two young couples from Sweden and Germany, we transferred to a small fibreglass panga and passed several huge barges laden with salt before reaching the open lagoon. Almost immediately we spotted two dark shapes just visible in the water not far away. Rather than approaching the whales, our guide switched off the motor and waited for them to come to us. And come they did - thus beginning their hour of playtime, interacting with the humans. Big mamma and her overgrown baby were obviously having a whale of a time, scratching themselves on the underside of our boat,

09 Hey, she drenched me!

drenching us as they spouted water out of their twin blowholes, and gently nudging each other as they went slippy-sliding alongside our skiff. But for us, nothing could match the excitement of actually reaching out and scratching their noses. The slimy, yet blubbery feel against our palms as they lifted their snouts in seeming admiration was absolutely awesome. A magic touch indeed!

Unlike the humpback whales with their magnificent acrobatic antics, the grays might more aptly be described as extremely graceful and placid - quite a feat for a seventeen metre long mammal weighing 35 to 45 tons. The love that the mothers have for their young is highly apparent as they teach them to swim, and later remain continually at their sides, protecting them from any harm. The young reach sexual maturity within eight to nine years, but don't become physically mature until the age of thirty.

In 1933, it appeared that the gray whale had become extinct through the remorseless hunting by man. Fortunately, twenty of them were sighted years later and have since been protected by the International Whaling Commission, created in 1948. Mexico, one of the sixty-six member countries of this commission, set up a gray whale sanctuary in the Ojo de Liebre lagoon in 1972 - an area that now boasts the greatest numbers of gray whales in the world.

12 Just a little goodbye kiss

All around us in the lagoon we could see mothers with their young, recognizable by their characteristic spoutings, and occasional graceful lifting of their noses out of the water. Our own adopted mother and baby eventually lost interest and glided away with tails saluting. Perhaps they coveted some quiet time on their own, or possibly the time had come to embark on the long trek to the frozen north. We were left in awe to contemplate another astounding miracle of migration - whether it be the minute monarch butterflies fluttering overhead, or the giant gray whales gliding along the ocean currents, it is simply phenomenal!

Driving the Transpeninsular Highway north from Guerrero Negro to Ensenada took our minds back to the harsh and rugged desert landscape.

14 Boojum trees or inverted carrots?

Although we were again met with high winds and more than a few challenging drivers, we took solace in our off-road diversions to appreciate the beauty of the seemingly barren wasteland: the huge cardón cactus often seen with a crested caracara perched on its uppermost spines; the boojum tree looking as if someone had plucked a carrot out of the ground, inverted it, and let it grow to sixty feet or so; and the multitude of smaller wrinkled cacti with twisted stems, calling out to be recognized for their own virtue. Progressing steadily northwards a melancholy mood settled over us as we realized that leaving Mexico would mark another significant step closer to the end of our journey. Are we really prepared for the reality of life back in Canada?