I Kissed a Whale
Yesterday, we arrived in the town of Guerro Negro in Baja California Sur (south), which is the southern half of Baja California. As we get further south, the roads get rougher, with long stretches of potholes. This made for a challenging drive, though we had no problems since our motorhome is the most rugged RV in the caravan. The traffic on Mexico Highway 1 has been relatively light, suggesting that domestic freight is primarily shipped by sea, not land, unlike the US or Europe. The nice way to describe our campground is to say it's "a bit rustic". On the positive side, it is the first campground in Mexico where the water is fresh, not brackish. So Greg ran the water purifier last night and refilled our fresh tank. The water purifier seems to do the job well, as we feel fine a day after drinking the water.
Early this morning, we went whale watching. During the orientation, we learned that gray whales come to the lagoon in Guerro Negro in winter because the extra salty water keeps predators away. The land around the lagoon has large salt deposits, which support a large mining company. We were told that most of this salt is unsuitable for food; it is used for industrial applications like rock salt to clear snow on the roads. After a long drive, we boarded small boats with a capacity of about 12, which sped us out to the lagoons.
It was intimidating to be on such small boats next to such large creatures. However, we learned that gray whales are generally docile.
We've never seen so many whales before. Often, there were up to 5 or 6 within a few boat lengths. They would swim around and underneath our boats. Barnacles attach to gray whales but don't seem to affect them, apart from bleaching their skin white.
We were allowed to touch the whales, so long as you stay away from the mouth, eyes, blowhole or fins. Some people took this a bit far; the man who kissed the whale eventually fell into the lagoon.
As we drove back, we stopped at a mountain of salt, which was as blindingly white in the sunlight as winter snow. We weren't allowed to climb it, partly for fear of avalanches.
Remember to follow our progress on the live map at https://travel.glockners.net/current-map!