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February
7 - 17 and February 8 - 16 |
2011
Combination Blue Whale and Gray Whale trips
Our newest trip: The World's Greatest Whale Watching Trip
11 Action filled days
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Baja
Jones Home page
Gray
whale watching page
Blue
whale watching page
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What's
a Combo trip all about? We have combined what we consider
to be the two best whale watching trips anywhere into one exciting
adventure
package. The gray whale portion of the trip takes place in Laguna
Ojo de Liebre, on the Pacific West Coast of the Baja Peninsula.
The
Blue whale portion takes place in the Sea of Cortez, offshore of
Loreto on the east coast of the peninsula. Either
trip all by itself is exciting and is guaranteed to give
you memories that will be with
you for a lifetime. Doing the two together allows you to experience
the deep emotions and feeling of connectivity that can only
come from getting up close and seeing a 40 foot whale eyeball to
eyeball . Then join the Blue whale quest and feel the rush as a
huge 80 foot whale surfaces just a few yards off the bow,
and the blow drifts across our small 24 foot motorboat. We
introduced this trip in 2003. It has proved to be far more
popular than we ever visualized it
would be.
At
the bottom of this page you will find some guide trips logs from
a past season. These logs are typical and represent our expectations
for the Blue Whale watching portion of the tour. |
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| The combination
trip is now our most popular whale watching trip. There are
many reasons for this. First of course is the opportunity to
see and probably get close to the largest animal on Earth. Second
is the great interaction and close encounters we experience with
the gray whales. Third is that the longer trip gives you a
chance to see both sides of the Baja Peninsula. For birders
this is a great opportunity because there are many different birds
between the two sides of the Peninsula. The Sea of
Cortez is usually warm, but may be cool at this time of year. So the fourth
reason people choose this trip is that they also quite likely will have the chance
to snorkel during the lunch stops when on the blue whale search. No guarantee
about that because weather and whale action dictate where and when we stop for
lunch. But usually you have the chance for a 30 minute snorkel session
during the lunch
stop |
Detailed
itinerary for 11 day trip Feb. 7 to 17, 2011 - Price $3,395
US
This trip gives you the best of both types of whale watching in one week.
February 7, Day #1: We meet you at the Loreto airport.
Transfer to a local hotel for the evening.
February 8, Day #2: Whale watching off
the coast of Loreto. We expect to see Blue whales, Finback whales
and Humpback whales.
Feb. 9, Day #3: Transfer to Guerrero Negro and
Laguna Ojo de Liebre. Along the way we will explore a small segment
of
the peninsula. Lunch will most likely take place in the town
of San Ignacio where and old mission church is the highlight.
Feb 10, Day 4: We meet for breakfast and then head
out to the newest observation area located in the center of the Lagoon,
Area 3.Here we can even watch whales playing and jumping while we
eat lunch. This is a quiet and undeveloped area of the lagoon. Two
whale
watching
boat trips are planned for today. One in the morning and one following
lunch.
Feb 11, Day #5, This morning the World's Greatest
Whale Watching Trip will do a morning whale watch at the Back Bay
area #2 of Laguna Ojo de Liebre (Scammon's Lagoon) before driving
to San Ignacio where you will overnight in a local motel.
Feb. 12, Day #6, Today the group has two whale watch
boat trips planned at San Ignacio Lagoon. Lunch will be eaten at
the lagoon and dinner in the town of San Ignacio.
Feb. 13, Day #7 Today we leave San Ignacio Lagoon
and return to Loreto. If time allows we will stop for lunch in the
pretty town of Mulege.
Feb 14, Day #8: We do the second of three planned
Blue Whale trips on the Sea of Cortez. Breakfast 7 AM, depart from
the dock 8 AM.
Feb 15, Day #9 : This morning we leave early and
drive to Magdalena Bay where you will do another day of Gray Whale
Watching. The largest location, but most southerly of the whale nursery
lagoons, this location is outside the Biosphere Reserve and less
regulated.
Feb 13, Day #10: Today we complete the
third and final blue whale boat trip out onto the Sea of Cortez.
Feb 14, Day #11: Today is departure day. The
group will enjoy breakfast together before heading out to the airport
to fly home. |
Detailed
itinerary for 9 day trip Feb. 8 to 16, 2011 - Price $2,795
US
This trip gives you the best of both types of whale watching in one
week.
February 8, Day #1: We meet you at the Loreto airport.
Transfer to a local hotel for the evening.
February 9,10 & 11Day #2,
3 & 4: Whale watching off the coast of Loreto. We expect
to see Blue whales, Finback whales and Humpback whales.
Feb 12, Day #5: Transfer to Guerrero Negro and Laguna
Ojo de Liebre. Along the way we will explore a small segment of the
peninsula. Lunch will most likely take place in the town of
San Ignacio where and old mission church is the highlight.
Feb 13 Day 6: We meet for breakfast and then head
out to the newest observation area located in the center of the Lagoon.
Here
we can even watch whales playing and jumping while we eat lunch.
This is a quiet and undeveloped area of the lagoon. Two whale watching
boat trips are planned for today. One in the morning and one following
lunch.
Feb 14, Day
#7, March 1: Another round of all day whale watching same
as yesterday.
Feb 15, Day #8, March 2: Following breakfast there
will be time for a morning whale watching trip at area #2, the Back
Bay
area. Following the whale watching you will
transfer
back to Loreto for the evening.
Feb 16, Day #9 :
Today is departure day. The group will enjoy breakfast together before
heading out to the airport to fly home.
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Blue
whale sightings – guide reports---
Location: Loreto Marine Park These day trip logs were done by one
of my guides leading whale watching on the Sea of Cortez side for
our blue whale trips and our combination blue whale and gray whale
trips. These logs are typical and representative of what we expect
on any day when we go out on the Sea of Cortez at Loreto. The
following guide log was compiled by Amy Mackay who was the boat guide
for these trips. I have transcribed her field notes from her notebook.
All dive times were rounded to the nearest minute, although Amy kept
track of seconds. We believe that this log gives you a good representation
of the type of whale watching activity you can expect when coming
along on one of our Blue whale to Loreto trips.
Amy’s log book was much more detailed and included daily maps
showing where the various sightings took place. Send us an email
and we can provide additional guide logs for the Blue Whale trips. |
Date:
February 20
Weather: Sunny, warm, moderate morning wind, slight chop to 2 feet.
Depart dock 9:10 AM
Return to dock 4:30 PM
Whale species observed and first contact time:
9:30 AM 1 blue whale: dive times 8 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes,
2 minutes & 2 minutes
10:10 AM 1 fin whale: dive times 7 minutes & 7 minutes
10:45 AM 1 humpback: We never saw it resurface
12:10 PM noon 2 blue whales: dive times 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 3
minutes, several other dives averaging 2 to 3 minutes.
4:15 PM 1 fin whale: dive times 3 minutes & 9 minutes
also at the same time
4:20 PM 1 blue whale: dive time 3 minutes
Please note that some of these
trip logs show very late return times. Our normal time
back to the dock is around 2:00 to 3:00 PM, but it may be earlier
if there is a
strong wind blowing. |
Date:
February 21
Weather: Sunny, warm, no morning wind, smooth water.
Depart from dock at 8:20 AM
Return to dock at 3:00 PM
Whale species observed and first contact time:
8:45 AM 1 humpback whale: dive times 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes,
5 minutes, 4 minutes, 4 minutes, 2 minutes, 2 minutes and 5 at 1 minute
each.
9:55 AM 1 blue whale: dive times 6 minutes, 7 minutes & 8 minutes.
10:24 AM unidentified whale : dived and didn’t reappear.
10:35 AM 1 Bryde’s whale: dive times 2 minutes, 8 minutes &
3 minutes
10:56 AM 1 humpback whale: dive time 6 minutes
12:30 PM Several blue whales: These whales were in the same general
area and between dives we would spot another blue whale and then follow
it. So we were probably observing 3 different blue whales during a
period of about 2 1/2 hours. Dive times 9 minutes, 6 minutes, 5 minutes,
5 minutes, 4 minutes, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes,
3 minutes, 8 minutes. |
Date:
February 22
Weather: Sunny, cool in the morning warming at noon, no morning wind,
small choppy water.
Depart from the dock 8:30 AM
Return to dock 6:00 PM
Whale species observed and first contact time:
9:00 AM blue whale: dive times 13 minutes, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 11
minutes, 11 minutes & 2 minutes
10:10 AM 1 humpback whale took 8 breaths then dived and stayed down
3:30.
10:12 AM 1 blue whale showed up while the humpback was down, so we
followed it. Dive times 1 minute, 4 minutes & 17 minutes.
10:15 AM 1 blue whale: We saw this whale, but stayed with the first
blue whale.
11:45 AM 1 humpback whale: This whale breached for us. Dive times
4 minutes, 5 minutes & 7 minutes.
We stopped at an offshore island for lunch and did some snorkeling
along the sandy/rocky shoreline.
3:00 PM 2 blue whales: We observed surface feeding behavior that included
rolling on their backs and their sides. Very exciting to see this.
4:15 PM 1 blue whale arrives as we are leaving the area |
Date:
February 27
Weather: Sunny, a little wind, small choppy water AM more choppy PM.
Depart from dock 9:00 AM
Return to dock 5:00 PM
Whale species observed and first contact time:
9:15 AM Common dolphins: we observed a large group of from 100 to
200 animals.
10:00 AM 2 blue whales: dive times 3 minutes, 4 minutes, 6 minutes
7 minutes & 5 minutes.
10:50 AM 2 blue whale adults plus mother and baby: Mother had white
on dorsal fin. Dive times 4 minutes, 8 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes
& 9 minutes.
2:00 PM 1 blue whale: Dive times 6 minutes & 9 minutes
3:50 PM 1 blue whale: dive times 8 minutes & 6 minutes.
3:55 PM 1 mother and baby pair appeared: dive times 3 minutes &
2 minutes. |
Gray whales,
Tigers, Elephants, Giant Panda Bears, Blue whales, Whale sharks, Narwhals
China, Canada, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Philippine Islands, Mexico,
Arctic Circle
copyright 2007, Keith Jones
No images may be used without written permission of copyright holder
California registered seller of travel #2055660-50
Unique vacations normally involving animals, culture and adventure
keith@greywhale.com or rowman1998@yahoo.com
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