As the texters say, OMG!
What a morning with the gray whales in San Ignacio Lagoon! Of course, any time spent in San Ignacio Lagoon is awesome, but this morning was especially special.
First off, the weather was perfect and second, the whales were numerous, curious and just plain beautiful. Looking toward the lagoon from our anchorage outside the sandbars looks like it would be impossible to enter with waves breaking over these bars across the entire entrance. However, there are places in the breakers where the swells just roll over the bar and we are able to make our way into this magic kingdom of the gray whale.
Once inside, it just looks like a huge lake surrounded by a magical desert landscape. But once we stop and begin to focus on the water, gray whales seem to mysteriously emerge from the rich green waters like the creatures from another world that they are…the world of the ocean. In every case this morning, mother gray whales with their young calves came up to our Zodiacs and wanted to ‘play.’ We were like floatie toys in their lagoon bathtub. The grace and ease of the 40-ton mothers and their two-ton offspring coming to our Zodiacs, sometimes nudging us and sometimes soliciting petting and even kisses from these alien human visitors was incredible.
This curious or friendly behavior began in 1974 right here in Laguna San Ignacio with one whale that we called “Big George” and has spread so that there are now over 200 whales, known by identifying photographs, that come to visit humans and seek this intimate interaction. And each year a whole batch of new calves are introduced to the humans and are learning to steal our hearts and win over our minds so that, perhaps, we can learn to live in more harmony with our non-human neighbors. It is certainly true that anyone who has had the experience of petting or kissing a whale in the wild will be changed and will probably be more likely to make better decisions about his or her relationship with this amazing planet that we are privileged to co-inhabit. There was not one among us after our morning outings that didn’t have a big smile, an opened heart and a beautiful story of this magic whale time to take home and to share.
