La Fortuna, Gorda Banks & San Jose del Cabo
Good weather greeted us this morning as we sailed south towards the Baja California Cape. A beautiful sunrise was the prelude to our last day in the Gulf of California.
The areas near La Fortuna and Gorda Banks are popular wintering grounds for the magnificent humpback whales. As we cruised through these waters, many whales were seen. This is where males and females mate, and also where females are commonly seen with very young calves. And today we got to see both. Competitive groups of males, which presumably fight for a female, result in spectacular underwater battles.
We witnessed some of this behavior as the scar-covered males thrust their heads out of the water as they broke the surface. Suddenly, a mother and calf were seen splashing the water’s surface. As we approached, they were both throwing their tails out, and hitting the water with their long pectoral fins. The show went on for several minutes. Then, they started to get more and more active, till they reached the point where they were both breaching over and over again, getting closer and closer to our ship. This was one of the most spectacular shows that can be experienced while whale watching.
Later in the afternoon, we docked at San José del Cabo. Here, we went for a bird watching walk along the San José River. We had interesting sightings, like three young red-tail hawk fledglings feeding on a fresh kill that one of their parents had recently provided to them. Other birds, like common moorhens, sora, ospreys, black-necked stilts and a number of duck species were also seen. Some of us decided to go to town for a relaxing moment, and to visit the numerous art galleries and stores.
