2/7 - 2/13 Gonzaga, LA Bay, San Francisquito, GN Whales

We headed south on February 7th and entered through Mexicali. Uneventful trip south and stayed the night in Gonzaga Bay at Alfonsina's. The place has made some improvements and they have updated the rooms. We stayed in room #1 and it was much nicer than it used to be. The bathroom had been redone and was really clean.


At Rancho Grande in Gonzaga

The next day we headed south and visited Coco and had a beer with him. Lots of traffic coming and going through Coco's Corner! Business was good for him...

We arrived in LA Bay and had lunch at Costa Del Sol:


We headed south after lunch to San Francisquito. The road was in really bad shape - worst than usual. Enjoyed a couple days relaxing there and then headed over to Guerrero Negro to see the whales. We stayed at Malarrimo's and our room was just so-so. Not the best room I've had there.

I spoke with a guy at the front desk there about seeing the whales and he was really pushing the tour through Malarrimo's. I told him we were just going to drive out south of town to where the boats go out, and he said that it is hit or miss and that you might just find some fishermen there. He also said it is not safe. I had just spoke with a guy that went there and this did not add up with what he told me. We drove south out of GN a few miles and then headed west toward the lagoon where the whale sign is. We arrived and found it to be very nice! No worries at all about safety and lots of friendly people!






We booked a boat ($45.00 usd per person). We headed out with several other people and there were hundreds of whales! We were checked by the park guard panga for our wristbands and one of them spoke english very well. He told us that they just finished doing a whale count and that there were over 700 whales counted by their boat alone! He said they were 1 of 2 boats counting...



Seeing all the whales up close and personal was pretty amazing. It was neat to see the mother whales actually push their babies up to the boat. Highly recommended excursion!!! I have some great underwater footage of the whales as well, but need to edit it all. Hopefully I'll get some video up later...

We then headed north back through Gonzaga and stayed the night in San Felipe at El Cortez. San Felipe was a ghost town and really slow. Sad to see it like that. Crossed the border the next day and the line was slow moving at the eastern crossing. But, we finally made it!



Time to start planning the next trip south!

I love it when people try to sell their services based on either running the competition down or with fear. Glad you decided to take the "risk" and go for it. It is an interesting drive and as the people selling their tour know, the well organized ejido are always there and ready to take people out. Unless you really don't like driving, and/ or you just feel comfortable with an organized group, there is little reason to not just drive out there and enjoy the company of new people and the whales. Looking forward to your underwater pictures!

Looks and sounds like a very good trip. Just a suggestion for next time, you might try San Ignacio for whale watching. It is a great drive out there. It is just a different experience --- then, the next time, try San Carlos or Lopez Mateos--- another different experience.

Great pictures and look forward to more! Oh, check your U2U