Day 44

Hola

Today was one  of the highlight days of the Caravan as most everyone had been anticipating getting to see the gray whales that have migrated down from the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean beginning in December to give birth to their young and then migrating back to their original location at the end of March and first of April.  

Watch This

  We had a beautiful day beginning at 7:30am when our guide gave us a briefing on the whales' activities.  We boarded a bus and they drove us out to the boat docks and we loaded onto 2 twelve passenger boats and we and went out into the Ojo de Liebre Scammon Bay which is where the young are birthed.  We saw numerous whales from a distance at the start  then it was as if they had been playing tease with us for awhile.  They began appearing very close to the boats and even touching the boats and we could reach out and touch the whales.  They felt like a wet ruber boot and they had gray spots on their skin.


  

Keep Watching



Can You Do This?





A Perfect Ten!

What started out as a whale watching tour ended up being a "human watching" expedition by the whales.  They seemed to enjoy our presence and we got to see them sticking their noses up out of the water for a few seconds and also they breached several times for us and rolled on their side and waved to us with one of their flippers.  

Scratch Right There




A Little To The Left



THANKS!



Bye

We also saw some occupied osprey nests and several seals which had climbed atop a channel buoy and were playing and making a terrible fuss.


Singing Out Of Harmony



Ospray Nest


 

Ken & Sandra


  

  

Salt Works Tour   

We reconvened at our tour bus at 2:00pm for another trip through town on our way to visit the Guerrero Negro Salt works plant. What an operation!! There were acres upon acres of shallow saltwater ponds, all in various stages of the evaporation process. As we drove out onto the salt it looked like a winter wonderland. It was deceiving. We were in our shorts and it was hot!

Three Gondola Cars

One piece of machinery was something like a combine, harvesting corn, only it was harvesting sea salt! Another special monster truck had three gondola cars that carried 360 tons of sea salt at a time. They harvest 2,000 tons per hour! It was truly unbelievable! And they never stop, working around the clock, 24/7.

The salt is offloaded at the plant where is gets washed as it moves along conveyor belts that carry it up to be dumped onto 

Salt Mountian

 a salt mountain, it’s not really a mountain but it sure looks like one. There it awaits its turn to be transported in 6,500 ton barges pulled behind powerful tug boats out to the Isla de Cedros for transferring to tankers that can’t get into the shallow bay.  
A few of us were able to experience the thrill of getting up close and personal with the big monster machinery!  One more adventure to cross off the bucket list!

Yes We Can

I Can Operate This Grader

We were all fortunate enough to dig into that mountain of sea salt, filling our little baggies and containers with wonderful sea salt. Some of us even brought their sand toys to play with! (You know who you are!)    

I will never think of salt the same way again. 

By late afternoon the winds picked up to a mighty roar covering the town and our RV’s in a cloud of dust. The town’s people seemed to take it with a grain of salt!

For the shell enthusiast’s in the group, I didn’t want to forget to tell you that our RV park roads and spaces were paved with thousands of the most beautiful Mexican scallop shells! It was truly amazing.

 As I sit here writing this blog a big bright beautiful full moon is rising over the enchanting desert! The wind has died down and it is a little chilly outside. Reminding me of home and a favorite book I would read to my granddaughters when they were young “The moon come too”. What a way to end one of the most memorable days of our lives! I will never forget being kissed by a baby gray whale, and feeling their adorable little baby whiskers!!

If there was one day on the wild adventure that I would wish to share with my family and friends at home this would be that day!!!   Wish you were here!!     

Paul & Eileen

Adios me amigos