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BAJA WHALE WATCHING: |
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Baja California, a 800 mile-long peninsula bordered by seas of
the most brilliant blue, dangles from America's west coast like
a pendant. Its jewels are the villages at the water's edge that
resemble California's coastal towns in the 1950s. To some visitors
Baja is the glitzy development at its very tip, Cabo; to some it's
the long rollercoaster down its virtual spine, the famed "drive
it if you dare" Mexico Highway 1. But to others it's a land
to be opened up the easy way, the way it was discovered -- on the
very seas themselves.
Many cruise lines offer such journeys. You can scratch the surface
with, for example, Carnival Cruise Lines or Princess Cruises who
both make trips to the Mexican Riviera, touching Cabo San Lucas
for the day. Or you can go deep into this almost mystical place,
arguably the best way, by exploring it with a smaller ship. Choices
there include American
Safari Voyages, Cruise
West, and Lindblad
Expeditions. We cruised with Lindblad when his company was called
Special Expeditions. At that time the cruise was 14 days out of
San Diego but today's passengers want shorter cruises so now Lindblad
Expeditions flies its passengers from Los Angeles to Los Cabos and
start its sailings from La Paz. |
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 None of the ships has Las Vegas-style shows, multiple boutiques or complicated shore excursions; all offer a sense of adventure. They do have small libraries. They also have naturalists aboard who describe and identify the birds overhead and explain the wild life around the ship -- in those back-to-nature cruises where a blowing whistle means whales have just breached before the ship. Those ships are small which is why it's not too early to book next year's cruise especially if you want to go whale watching in January through March. |
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| And what will you see around Baja? Let's
look at the ship's log.
"There are three possible emergencies at sea," says the captain. "Fire, abandon ship and man overboard. In the first two we'll tell you what to do. For the third you don't have to do anything" -- he grins at his passengers -- "unless you happen to be the man overboard." |
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| This breaks the ice; the passengers laugh.
Then the ship rolls slightly. It has a shallow 7.5-foot draft, which
allows it to sail close to any coastline. However, this feature sometimes
gives a greater sense of motion than passengers experience on larger
cruise ships. The ship rolls again.
"I like passengers to take their seasickness medication early, before they get into trouble," says the captain. "I'm going to take mine now." The audience laughs for a moment then moves fast. Over the intercom
comes the call, "Whales sighted directly ahead!" Our cruise
line has done it again: whale sightings within an hour of leaving
port. We are already in the world of the gentle giants, the most
magnificent animals created by God. |
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