Baja Magic

Well, yesterday and today clinched Juncalito Beach as both Steve`s and my favorite place on the Baja. Monday the wind died down, and we awoke to a calm, glassy sea. We took the kayak out and had a great time kayaking over to a little island and doing some snorkeling. Not as many fish as I`d hoped, but lots and lots of starfish in all sizes, colors, and configurations. My favorite was a white one with orange dots, studded with clove-like black bumps. I also saw a rockfish ( ? ). Very ugly in a very cool way, camoflauged and blnding almost perfectly with the rocks he was hudled up against. So yesterday, we decided to go out again and explore farther along the coast. As we got out a little ways past the island, we started seeing whale spouts, then whale backs, and decided to kayak out closer to them. There were three or four other boats out there, just driftng, motors off, watching the whales as well. These were blue whales and finback whales, and they made the grey whales we`d seen look like pipsqueaks. One got pretty close--30 or 40 yards from us--and then surfaced and rubbed against one of the other boats nearby. One of them was so long that we thought at first it was two whales, not one--it had to be a city block long. Blue whales are the largest creatures on earth. To sit out there in our kayak, surrounded by water and silence, except for the breathing of the whales, is a feeling beynd descripton. Magical. Humbling. Magnificent. I felt honored to be in their presence, corny as that sounds.

Then, this morning, after we had packed up and we were standing on the beach saying our goodbys to Len and Betty Kerr, our friends from B.C. whom we keep running into), there was a flurry in the water just offshore. We looked to see what the commotion was abut, and saw five or six dolphins, including a mother and baby swimming together. We must have watched them for ten minutes before they slowly swam away, looking for fish and followed by a flotilla of pelicans hoping to get in on the action.

We are now back in beautiful Lareto and will staay for two nights. I`m trying to get a dive in tomorrow, but it`s only a maybe. I`m having a hard time hooking up with a dive shop that has a tour going out tomorrow. One guy is supposed to get back to me, so I`m keping my fingers crossed. If it dosn{t work out, my last chance will be Mulage, where we`re headed after this.