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2008
Combination Blue Whale and Gray Whale trips |
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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. This year we have three different combination trips for
you to choose from. Each has features unique to that particular
trip. |
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2006
Combo Trip dates:
February 8 - 18, $3,395
per person
February 17 - 24, $2,595 P/P
February 29 - March 9, $3,195 |
Detailed
itinerary for 11 day February 8 to 18
This trip gives you our traditional 3 days of whale watching at each
of the two locations. Plus you will visit a remote sea lion rookery.
2/8: Arrive in Loreto, we meet you at the airport
and stay the night in Loreto
.
2/9: Drive to Guerrero Negro crossing the Baja
Peninsula.
2/10, 2/11 & 2/12 : : Gray whale watching at Laguna Ojo
de Liebre, the World’s Greatest whale watching location
2/13: We take a day off from whale watching
and visit a small estuary north of town. There is a sea lion rookery
here and if the sea lions are present and the tide is right we can
get very close to them. There is also a long standing fish camp at
Laguna Manuela where shark, sea bass, corbina and more are brought
in fresh every day.
2/14: Drive back across
the Peninsula to Loreto
2/15, 16 & 17:
Blue Whale watching in the Sea of Cortez off the coast of Loreto
2/18: Departure day. We’ll have breakfast
and then get the group to the airport. |
Detailed
itinerary for 8 day trip Feb. 17 to 24
This trip gives you the best of both types of whale watching in one
week.
2/17 : We meet you at the Loreto airport.
Transfer to a local hotel for the evening.
Day #2,
3 & 4: Whale watching off the coast of Loreto. We expect
to see Blue whales, Finback whales and Humpback whales.
Day #5: Transfer to Guerrero Negro and Laguna Ojo
de Liebre. We should arrive at the Lagoon around noon, just in time
to enjoy an afternoon of whale watching. You will experience the fun
and excitement of getting really close to a 40’ whale.
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.
Day
#7: Following breakfast there will be time for a morning
whale watching trip. Following the whale watching you will transfer
back to Loreto for the evening.
Day #8:
Today is departure day. The group will enjoy breakfast together before
heading out to the airport to fly home. |
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February 29 - March 9, Ten day itinerary
This trip gives you our traditional 3 days of whale watching at
each of the two locations. Plus you will visit a remote sea lion
rookery.
2/29: Arrive in Loreto, we meet you at the airport
and stay the night in Loreto
.
3/1, 3/2 & 3/3 : Blue Whale watching in the
Sea of Cortez off the coast of Loreto
3/4: Drive to Guerrero Negro crossing the Baja
Peninsula.
3/5, 6 & 7: : Gray whale watching at Laguna Ojo de
Liebre, the World’s Greatest whale watching location
3/8 : Drive back across the Peninsula to Loreto.
Time for sight seeing along the way.
3/9: Departure day. We’ll have breakfast
and then get the group to the airport. |
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 each day
during the lunch stops. 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
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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. |
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 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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