August 24th, 2015
I’m picked up promptly from The Point Hostel in Mancora at 6:40 am in a car this time and then we quickly zoom off along the coastal highway towards Los Organos where another day of whale watching with Pacifico Adventures awaits It’s pricey at 120 soles but after yesterday’s incredible show I’ve no doubt it’s worth the price.
Today there’s only two boats going so we meet our two Chilean Marine Biologists and zoom out past the bird infested pier and head immediately towards an abandoned oil platform out in the middle of the pacific covered in birds and sea lions. The latter don’t appear to have moved much in that past 24 hours. I even spot a rare red breasted frigate bird atop the mast of one of the fishing vessels.
We eventually leave the platform before in search of the main attraction, humpback whales. Today it takes a while but we do eventually get a call from one of the observers on table hill and zoom back in towards the shore. We catch just a distant glimpse before this lone whale dives down underwater, not surfacing for a full 15 minutes, giving us one more series of distant glimpses before disappearing for good.
We spend a long time searching for it and waiting for it to resurface but alas its not to be, luckily our captain spots a sign of something and again guns the engine as we speed across comparatively calm seas from yesterday towards whatever he saw. He kills the engine and we drift for a few tense moments before just a short distance off we catch a glimmer of silver surfacing in the water, surely not big enough to be a whale.
Except it is. It’s a humpback whale, just a baby one, tiny at least for a whale at under 4 meters in length and very very young. the guides chatter full of excitement as this is the first time this baby whale has been observed. After watching it surface a few times always edging closer they estimate it to be about 2 months old.
There’s no sign of the mother which is strange, considering baby humpbacks spend the first year of their life with their parents. The Marine biologists are even starting to worry, when mum suddenly arrives in spectacular fashion.
She surfaces just a few meters from the boat as the baby approaches the boat curiously wondering what on earth we might be. It’s incredible to be a part of the babies first experience with gawking humans.
We stay with them as long as the company allows as they surface regularly, mum often pushing the baby up, teaching it how to swim in breathe. Sadly we’re probably a few months to early to see it learning to jump which would have truly been a spectacle.
Eventually we decide we have to leave them so as not to bother the mother with her very young baby and they seem to sense this, swimming away from the boat for the first time, as we slowly putter back towards shore.
The whale watching done I climb out onto the pier and pull out my snorkel, giving my bag to the guides to bring up to the museum for me, before jumping off the pier onto the beach and hurrying into the water. The collection of turtles are out by the pier and I swim out fast as I can to get up close and personal with these amazing prehistoric looking creatures.
Sadly my go pro case broke just the night before so there’s no footage of this but the giant turtles curiously inspect me while feasting on fish scraps, swimming incredibly close and bringing me back to the galapagos islands all over again. A perfect way to wrap up a second and final day of whale watching, which may not have been equal to the first but did provide an incredible and different side to the wales. More tranquil, but not less impressive. Here’s some shots from the way in including a seagull riding a dead sea lion.
