In 1997, I wrote my first goal list. Happily, by 2023, I’d achieved the majority of the goals on that list except one. “Touch a whale.” This is a very difficult goal to achieve because, well, you need the cooperation of a whale. I’m not sure where the idea came from since, in 1997, I wasn’t the whale nerd that I am now. Someone had asked me why I wanted to touch a whale, and I had no response past, “I dunno.” I just did. Yes, I’d touched a dead whale on the beach. Doesn’t count. And, no, a whale in captivity doesn’t count.
About eight years ago, I was in Cabo and signed up for a touch-a-whale trip to Magdalena Bay. After four hours of driving each way and two hours on the water, I had not touched a whale much less gotten remotely close to one.
Last year, I made another attempt, this time with a tour group that had us, *gasp*, camp for days. I work so that I can sleep inside at night, so that tells you how badly I wanted to achieve this goal. Sadly, this trip was the worst whale watching of my life. I think we saw two whales that were far away, and the whales were not remotely interested in us.
You can imagine my skepticism when, once again, I signed up for another touch-a-whale trip, this time to a different lagoon. These Baja lagoons are all remote with a capital R. Our accommodations were rustic with a capital R, but it wasn’t camping, so I felt that I was coming out ahead.
Before I get into the story, let me tell you why the gray whales are in these lagoons. All summer long, the gray whales gorge themselves in their feeding grounds located in the Bering and Chukchi Seas. They’re mammals, like us, so they must come up for air and, when it gets cold and freezes over, they obviously can’t, so that’s one of the reasons they leave the buffet and head south. When I say “south,” I mean they travel about 6,000 miles south to the lagoons of Mexico, where they will mate and have their babies. After about three months, when the babies are strong enough, they swim 6,000 miles back to their feeding grounds. Pretty amazing, huh? It’s one of the longest migrations of any mammal, and we in Orange County get to witness it! Now, back to the story.
FYI, in these lagoons, you can’t just show up with your boat and go hang out with whales. The lagoons are heavily regulated by the Mexican government with a limited number of boats going out for limited amounts of time. Thank goodness because I’d hate to see this sanctuary ruined by humans.
At 7:50 a.m. on the first morning, we left the motel and drove about 20 minutes to the lagoon. It was a beautiful day, and everyone was excited. Me? I was skeptical, sure I was about to be disappointed yet again.
As the panga boat with its seven passengers and captain left the dock, we passed gorgeous white sand dunes and giant orange buoys topped with sunbathing sea lions before arriving in the large part of the lagoon.
Cruising through gentle waves, we would slow and then stop near any whales we came across. Although they didn’t seem to mind our presence, no whales approached our panga. On we went.
A little more background. Today, gray whales are called “The friendly whales;” however, during the whaling era, they were called Devil Fish. Pretty big contrast in names, huh? Just like pretty much every bad guy, the gray whales were misunderstood. When the mean ol’ whalers discovered the whales in these lagoons, it’s said that there were so many whales that the whalers could cross the lagoons stepping on whale backs. This is a big lagoon, more like a very large lake, so you can imagine how many were there. Of course, for the whalers, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Although they weren’t really interested in the baby whales, they would harpoon them and haul them to shore, hoping to lure the mother closer to shore so they could get her. Much to their surprise, the mothers would become so distraught over their injured babies, that they would destroy the ships. That’s why the whalers called them devil fish. Huh. Kinda seems like the mean ol’ whalers had it coming, but that’s just me.
To know what these animals once endured compared to how they interact with humans today is nothing short of amazing. And to imagine anyone hurting these sweet animals, much less harpooning the playful babies hurts me to my core.
Back to present day. Our boat slowly made its way across the bay until we saw a whale turn and head straight toward us. If nothing else, within minutes, this was the best whale watching of my life – and I’m on a whale-watching boat nearly every weekend! Yahtzee!
Although the whale, soon joined by another, circled our boat, checking us out as we dangled our hands in the water and called out sweet-talk to them, they didn’t get within arm’s reach. On we went.
Finally, we came upon three whales getting frisky. No sooner did we stop our boat than the whales headed over to us. We all rolled up our sleeves, called to them, and made gentle splashes in the water. This was behavior that was suggested by our leader, and, although the sweet-talk was a little uncomfortable at first, that soon changed.
Within minutes, a giant gray whale poked its head out of the water right next to the boat, and I was gently stroking its rostrum (nose) as I spoke sweet-nothings. Soon, the second whale tried to squeeze in and get some affection, and our passengers were more than happy to accommodate. Nearby, we watched as a panga boat was gently pushed around by a playful whale as if the boat were nothing more than a rubber ducky.
So what does a whale feel like? Rubbery and kinda squishy. Their skin is very smooth where there are no barnacles or whale lice. Yup, they get lice. Kinda gross, right? The lice eat off the dead skin, which you can see very large chunks of when you’re up close. It’s also believed that they help wounds heal by doing this. Our tour leader wasn’t so sure about that, but that’s what we’re taught in ACS-OC, so that’s what I go with. Below is a photo of me touching an exhaling baby whale.
Many people ask how we get the whales to approach the boats. Do we trap them? Do we feed them? Nooo. These are wild animals who really don’t eat during their approximately 12,000-mile-round-trip migration, hence losing about one-third of their body weight. The thing that’s so magical is that these wild animals choose to interact with humans on their own volition. And not all of them do. Some poo-poo us and swim away, and that’s okay. But curious others will line up for affection and the chance of a close-up look at a human. Kinda makes you wonder who’s watching who.
Needless to say, Day 1 was a magical dream come true. After I pet 12 different whales, I lost count. Yes, I was counting. We were out for two hours, went back to the dock for a forty-five-minute lunch break, and went back out for another two hours. At the end of Day 1, after 26 years of dreaming about touching a whale, I finally checked it off my goal list! Woot!
On Day 2, we were driven to another side of the lagoon where the whales are supposed to be more “chill” and there are more babies. Again, they did not disappoint! At one point, we were surrounded by seven whales lined up to see us! It was raining, so we were one of two boats out in the whole lagoon, so we were very popular that morning! Below is a photo of my favorite baby because it’s speckled. Yes, it let me pet it. My melting heart! See its eye?
On whale watching trips to Monterey and Mo’orea, I’d noticed that a mother whale would often tell their babies to go play with the humans for a while so she could rest. The mom would log (float) or go to the bottom and chill while the babies would breach for the delighted humans or show off other tricks. Today was no exception. We had one little show-off doing headstands and rolls and nudging the bottom of our motionless boat as mom took a rest or nap just feet away from us. It was amazing. So amazing that we chose to skip the lunch/bathroom break after two hours and just stay out with the whales for the next two hours. I’ve never gone so long without a bathroom break in my life, but I was so busy petting whales and telling them how beautiful they were that I didn’t even have time to drink any water! The whales on this side were definitely more playful and spent a lot of time under our boat, nudging or pushing it and bringing about our squeals of delight.
I think the high point of my trip was when a baby whale was on its side next to the boat, and I kissed it. My mom had warned me about barnacles, and my aunt had warned me about some disease you get from touching a whale, but I was willing to risk it. Yep, I kissed a whale, and I liked it! Where do you go from there? Whale watching will never be the same again! I’ll post the video on my Facebook author page along with a few of my nearly thirty videos from the trip that I can’t stop rewatching.
By the way, up close, barnacles are super gross. When the whale comes out of the water, there’s this flagellum coming out of the center of the barnacle about a half inch or more. When my hand approached, it would pull inside. Ew!!! See photo below of barnacles and the pink whale lice.
Now that I’ve told you the high point of the trip, I need to tell you the low point. When a whale was leaning against the boat, some of the whale lice must have gotten knocked loose because, as I was petting the whale, I felt something pinching my fingertip. Looking down, I saw a little tannish thing on my fingertip that looked like a tiny pile of tannish-white grass. I didn’t have my glasses on, so I just thought, “Huh,” and tried to rinse it off in the salt water. Didn’t come off. “Huh.” So I tried to grab it, but my fingers were waterlogged and not gripping well. “Huh.” I tried rubbing it off on my jeans, hard, and it didn’t budge. Then I freaked out. This thing was stuck onto my fingertip like you wouldn’t believe! I ran to the tour operator on the boat, and he said it was one of the whale lice! Eeeek! He had to pull it off for me. Did I mention, Eeeeeek!? I don’t know how the whales can stand to have the lice on them because the pinching feeling that is probably biting is not pleasant. Imagine a thousand or more of those little buggers on you biting away. Eeeeeek!
Needless to say, the whale lice didn’t serve as a deterrent, and I was back petting both baby and adult whales seconds later. Some of the females were incredibly huge! In the baleen whale family, the females grow larger than the males. There’s some more whale trivia for you. Below is a photo of a mother gray whale with her calf in front of it.
At the end of the second day, we were all a little sad to leave these animals and begin the 11-hour drive home the next morning. The interspecies connection is just so amazing that I can’t find sufficient adjectives to describe it. Looking into the eye of a whale…even more amazing. Would I go back and do it again? Yes. I want to live there for the three months a year that the whales are there. I want to spend endless days just floating next to a giant whale, a hand resting on it as I whisper sweet-nothings into the water telling it how perfect and beautiful and majestic and gentle and breathtaking it is. I want to pause the world around me and stay in that moment of connection that I’d chased for 26 years. The tour leaders and boat captains are truly the lucky ones because they get to escape to this little piece of Heaven every day for three months. Speaking of Heaven, I sure hope they have whales in Heaven. That would give me eternity with them, and that’s the only way my time with them will ever be enough.
After achieving this difficult-to-attain goal, how do I feel? I kinda feel like, if I can do this, there isn’t anything I can’t do!
I’ll post some of the many videos from the trip on my Facebook author page (it’s public). And, now, on to the next goal!
In case you haven’t heard, The Tunnels 2: Secrets is out and available on Amazon in both paperback and e-book formats!
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