Mexico Whales & Birds Trip Report
March 6-12, 2025
By Dianne Benham, Trip Organizer
Seventeen PAS members have returned from a most amazing adventure, traveling down the Baja California peninsula to see, pet, and even KISS the magnificent Gray Whales in the lagoons of Guerrero Negro and San Ignacio!
We used the Mexican travel agency, Andiamo Travel for this trip, which included six nights and seven days of transportation, lodging, meals, and lively, guided excursions with our wonderful guide, Jazz Mariscal. Not only did she take us to the birding locations and out to interact with the whales, but also on multiple nature walks out in the beautiful desert, to the house of a local woman who taught us how to make tortillas, and visits to the open-air markets in two different towns. We thank our friend, Randi Feinberg, for telling us about this about this opportunity, thus making it a reality for PAS to have this experience.
Because we are a birding group, arrangements were made for birding along the way, and at all the locations where we stopped for the night. We were so fortunate that Gail DeLalla agreed to keep the eBird lists from every location! This was no easy task, especially in the areas where we had no internet service! Thank you, Gail; we are deeply grateful! The group birded at 16 locations, finding a total of 78 different species. Highlights were Crested Caracara, Yellow-footed Gull, loads of Little Blue Herons and Yellow-crowned Night-Herons, White Ibis and Cocos Booby. Hal Benham and Jack Peterson had scopes, so we were able to get some nice views of more distant birds. An interesting sighting was a dolphin, swimming in a channel pretty far out in a marsh near Guerrero Negro, spotted by Perren Yang.
The thrill of getting up close and personal with the whales is almost indescribable with words alone! On three different days, we took three, three-hour boat rides in two different lagoons to take part in the whale experience. In two of the three outings, the whales came right up to our boat, time after time, to be touched and petted and yes, even KISSED by some of us!! The 50-foot-long mammals liked to swim under our boat to scratch their barnacles, sometimes lifting the boat up out of the water a little bit. Was it scary? No, not at all. At first encounter, we immediately knew that these magnificent creatures were friendly and gentle. Our boat captain and our guide had experienced this hundreds of times without incident, so we were all able to relax and enjoy. We all agreed it was nothing short of magical!
