When I was a kid growing up in San Jose, the big tourist attraction there was the Winchester Mystery House. I think I was 18 before I went to see it. It was even worse with Alcatraz. Here's this historic tourist spot mere minutes from where I lived most of my life, yet I didn't visit Alcatraz until three years ago. Older, and wiser, I have decided to no longer procrastinate on those things I want to do ... just get out and do it.
So, with that in mind, last week, I went on a whale watching excursion here in the Banderas Bay. Whale season here starts in early December and runs into spring, and right now is really the peak of the activity here for the humpbacks. In fact, several days last week, we could see them from our balcony, some within a few hundred yards of the shore.
Wednesday morning, we, along with eight others, boarded a small boat operated by Ocean Friendly Tours (oceanfriendly.com) for the four hour tour. While there are several whale watching tour operators, we selected Ocean Friendly mainly because of its reputation for being conscientious about protecting the whales and not harassing them. Some of the other operators that we saw when we were in the bay were nothing more than whale watch booze cruises where the boats literally chase the whales while those on board are hooping and hollering. Our experience was a bit different.
Our guide, Oscar Frey, has been working in the bay for more than 10 years, and is part of the team of marine experts who track the migration of the whales and identify them. His sense as to where they would be and where they would be going was amazing, and most of the time, the other boats would follow ours because they knew Oscar could find the whales (and dolphins, too).
We saw dozens of whales, some in pods, some alone, some babies .. it was fascinating. And they put on a truly amazing show.I took the video camera and captured part of our day, edited it down to two minutes, with some awesome pictures of the whales doing whale stuff. Click HERE if you'd like to see it. And if going on a whale watching excursion is one of those things you've wanted to do ... one question ... what are you waiting for? Remember, just get out and do it!
