We had an outstanding first day on National Geographic Venture. We woke up to a gorgeous sunrise and calm, lake-like conditions — then we spotted gray whale spouts in the distance right away. We boarded pangas and headed out to spend all morning with these breathtaking mammals, where our guests saw more whales than we could count and even had a few friendlies that interacted with us. After a pozole lunch and ice cream sundaes on the Sun Deck, we landed ashore to walk across the dunes to Sand Dollar Beach. We wrapped up our day with a classic Baja sunset and a delicious locally-sourced dinner.
2/27/2025
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National Geographic Venture
Cabo Pulmo and Los Frailes
There is nothing quite like waking up to the sunrise on the waters of the Gulf of California. Today we had the opportunity to cruise around Cabo Pulmo, one of the better managed marine reserves in Mexico, declared in 1995 and promising some of the greatest recovery in fish biomass in any marine reserve worldwide. We cruised around with the local guides on board their pangas – small skiffs – where we encountered a large group of grey whales that got curious among our presence. The whales came close and spy hopped around our boats for several hours. On our way back to National Geographic Venture , we were also greeted by some humpback whale mommas and their calves, and a pretty big pod of dolphins. During the afternoon, we went ashore to explore the coast of Los Frailes Bay where we got to experience some of the local vegetation and bird life. There is an arroyo that contains remains of a lake in the dry season but continues to have a lot of greenery and life. For those that were especially adventurous, we had the chance to rock scramble along some hills and walk among the stunning dunes.
