BajaNews
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My own private Mexico
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/05/07/Travel/My_own_private_Mexi...
On a vessel with just 22 passengers traveling through the Sea of Cortez, personal attention is eclipsed only by the rich variety of sea life,
literally at cruisers' fingertips.
By YVETTE CARDOZO and BILL HIRSCH
May 7, 2006
SEA OF CORTEZ, Mexico -- Dinner awaited: medium-rare steak and lobster tails dripping with butter.
And then: "I hate to do this to you just before this dinner, but there's a mammoth pod of dolphins off our bow."
The announcement on the ship's loudspeaker sounded was apologetic. This was, after all, our grand finale dinner in a week of spectacular food.
In the water, hardly yards from our keel, were hundreds of saddleback dolphins, splashing and leaping and twisting in the golden sunset light. You've
heard the phrase, "The water was alive." Well, yes it was, frothing, churning and bubbling with activity for a good 20 minutes.
After the dolphin show, we headed back to dinner and were settling bottoms into chairs when Capt. Shawnda Gallup's voice interrupted again. "Uh.
Folks. We've got rays. Dozens of them."
Sure enough, large shadows glided just below the surface. Seven-foot-wide shadows. And every so often, a set of wing tips would break the surface. One
of the beasts actually jumped. Since when do rays jump?
Back to dinner. This time, the hot rolls actually made it to the table.
"Er, you really don't want to miss this. It's a blue whale."
A hundred feet of body slid alongside our boat. Good grief, the creature was only 20 feet shorter than our 120-foot vessel. And it came up barely 5
yards from our starboard side. We could see its dorsal fin nearly filling the lounge window.
Blue whales are the largest in the ocean. A family of six humans could sit for dinner on its tongue, we were told. A small child could swim through
its arteries. And it was just feet from our railing. It surfaced not once but three times before the light faded completely.
Welcome to the Sea of Cortez, American Safari Cruises style.
Most tourists to this part of Mexico settle in Cabo San Lucas, at the southern tip of Baja California. If you want to see the rest of this stark and
beautiful landscape, it usually involves driving, often down the length of the peninsula.
Or you could take a yacht with only 22 passengers and nine crew members. The personal attention quotient is high.
The Sea of Cortez was actually formed by a fracture on the San Andreas fault that runs along the coast of California. Cortez is 25-million years old,
making it an infant as seas go. And thanks to a rich stew of plankton, it's swarming with life: nearly 900 species of fish, half a dozen whales,
including those mammoth blues, plus dolphins, sea lions, manta rays and sharks.
Above water, the desert comes right down to the sea, resulting in a surreal mix of sand dunes, cactus and mangrove. Expedition leader Kevin Martin
explained that the landscape and what grows on it is a result of the cool water pulling moisture out of the clouds before it can reach land.
The high point of our first few days was a swim with sea lions near Los Islotes, north of La Paz. From a skiff, we slipped into the water and were
instantly surrounded by slick black heads and twitching whiskers. The sea lions moved with lightning speed, darting and swooping, doing barrel rolls
and folding their bodies like gymnasts.
The smallest pups were the most curious. One, hardly bigger than a dog, surfaced in the middle of us, floated on its back so just his nose and chin
were out of the water and slowly backstroked around us.
In addition to what we saw, it was the service aboard the Safari Quest that separated this trip from most others. The food was not only top-notch, it
could be custom-tailored. One woman, who had recently dropped 75 pounds, was able to stick to her diet. It was amazing what the chef could do with egg
whites. Meanwhile, the wheelhouse supplied her husband with the latest NCAA basketball rankings.
As for us, the staff quickly cued into our love of mojitos by the hot tub and made sure one showed up every day when we hit the water.
Each day brought something different. One morning, we landed at the foot of a cardon cactus forest. It was a wall of huge cactus fingers set so close,
a cat would have trouble squeezing through.
Another day, we kayaked near a looming cliff where the sandstone had weathered into graceful round pillars that formed thin caves at water level. And
one other morning, we cracked open red rocks to find the most amazing batch of crystal-lined geodes, which we got to keep.
Day five was the mule ride, courtesy of a local man named Alejo. Alejo's mules graze free on the landscape, which isn't easy in a place that hasn't
seen rain in two years. The animals are sleek and healthy-looking, most assuredly because they own amazing digestive tracts. They eat it all: thorns,
dead palm fronds, scraggly scrub.
From the beach at Agua Verde, we rode up a trail, over a ridge and into a vast valley that looked like Arizona: long lines of pastel pink hills, scrub
desert sand and thirsty-looking bushes. Then it was over to a palm oasis, up a ridge and back down to the beach and the boat.
We had just settled in after lunch when leader Kevin spotted fin whales off the bow. We hopped into the skiff and took off.
"These are the world's second-largest whales. But what's really interesting is how they use the oxygen they breathe," Kevin said. "Eighty percent is
stored for later use, letting them stay submerged to look for food."
But that whale show was only an appetizer for the next day, when we drove across the Baja peninsula to the Pacific side for gray whale watching at
Bahia Magdalena. From the local skiffs called pangas, we watched a baby breach, pushing its head and even one flipper clear out of the water - not
once but more than a dozen times.
Our guide explained that gray whales go south each year from Alaska to mate and give birth in the long, shallow bay. Here, safe from orcas, the babies
drink so much super-rich milk a day, they can gain 70 pounds in 24 hours.
The lecture abruptly ended with a fountain of spray. Mom and baby surfaced yards from our boat, blowing a geyser straight into our faces. The baby
headed straight for us, slipping cleanly under our boat and trailing its white tail within inches of our fingers.
Our last day, we visited Isla Coyote, the only island in the Sea of Cortez with permanent residents. From a distance, it looks like one of those rocks
you see poking out of the Aegean Sea. But on shore, it's distinctly Mexican.
Men were gutting monkfish that would be packed in salt and exported to Asia. The manta rays at another table were destined for La Paz to be served in
seafood tortillas. Three families live here, hauling fresh water from outside or bartering fish for it. The houses are simple, but they do have
electricity, thanks to generators, and satellite TV.
And finally, our last night.
Dolphins and rays and that blue whale.
And steak and lobster and creme brulee.
And to top it off, bioluminescent-glowing fish in the water, burning stars above and one last mojito in the hot tub.
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bajabound2005
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2760
Registered: 10-15-2005
Location: Punta Banda, BCN
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Sounds so intriguing but obviously the sptimes paid for the trip! Muy caro! But we'd still LOVE to do it. They also do the Pacific Northwest,
Alaska and the Columbia & Snake Rivers - all on private yachts. We checked out their website and every trip sounds divine -- but at a cost of at
least $3000 per person. We can spend A LOT of time in Baja for that dough!
Friends don't let friends drink white zinfandel.
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