Laguna de San Ignacio & San Ignacio
An almost full orange moon graced the horizon, amidst an early morning fog. Dawn was announced early along the eastern horizon, with a splash of reds, yellows, pinks and peaches. As soon as the sun was out we had breakfast, and then boarded the pangas or big fiberglass boats, taking off at full speed again, towards the west, where we were going to watch gray whales.
The day was perfect for whale watching: no waves, barely a wind. And soon we spied our first whale, a mom and her calf. We approached warily, slowly, and were able to see her quite near, together with her young calf, still showing its fetal folds. The little one cavorted on the back of the mother, and came up to breathe more often than mom.
Bottlenose dolphins were also seen also quite often, slowly swimming by. We observed a large number of seabirds, among them pelicans, cormorants, gulls and terns. During a good part of the morning we enjoyed these behemoths, but soon it came time to return. But not before William showed us a large scorpion he found near the camp… later it was bathed in UV light, and we saw how these very old animals glow in the dark with that kind of light.
A good lunch awaited us, and immediately after we set out in our vans to return to the town of San Ignacio, with its old mission. There we again enjoyed the hospitality of the locals, with different drinks and totopos of corn, with refried beans and a delicious salsa!
And on we went, diminishing the distance between us and Santa Rosalia, where our ship was docked. Here we had the opportunity of visiting this old French copper mining town, which at one time was the largest city on the whole peninsula. Principal among its interest points were the old iron church, presumably built by Gustave Eiffel, and the old French bakery, where many of us purchased some of the delicious bread. Immediately after dark, we set sail, off into the Gulf of California again.
