Mexico Adventure: Part Eleven: Whale Watching!!!: Episode A

Today I am going to show you the fabulous WHALES

that come into the Los Cabos area every February!

It was one of the one things I wanted to do on this vacation...and besides the gorgeous rocks

at Land's End...the reason I wanted to go there.

A few years ago, we went to Puerto Vallarta and got to see whales too, but this time

we got to see so many more and much, much more up close....

When I was looking on line to plan our trip they advertised several different ways to go whale watching, and some combined riding around the rocks of Land's End...

PERFECT! (I thought)....I can go out on one of those nice yachts cruising and take my camera and maybe a dinner cruise and do everything I dreamed of...

So,when we got to the resort we met with the FunJet representatives to learn about the various tours they offered.

We almost did the sunset cruise with dinner...but then I was thinking of the lighting....as beautiful as the prospect was of photographing whales and the rocks at sunset was...I had noticed that the sunset was way the wrong direction for good Land's End photos from all sides of the rocks...and the dinners at the resort were already paid for and really good...so we looked into a non-meal boat trip out instead.

They had a reasonably priced trip going out for over two hours that included a close up trip all around the rocks as well as whale watching...and the guys left it up to ME as to booking it.

I did.

 

THIS is the boat I thought we'd be going out in:

(Fantastic! A top deck where I could get good shots from 360 degrees!)





So....after a lovely ride into the town of Los Cabos, we arrived at the pier.

I was very surprised to see that Los Cabos was a quaint, smaller town...it was once just a small fishing village of about 300+ people, and due to tourism, now it has grown.

The pier area was a small little bay.

When I got there, I did not see that lovely yacht.

Hmmm....I wondered.

Our friendly boat guide men (all TWO of them) gathered us up together (about 8 or 10 of us)

and walked us down the pier to OUR boat.

See those TINY, yellow banana type boats in the middle of the photo above?

YUP. You guessed it...

THOSE were OUR whale watching boats....

I began to get a BIT scared.....

I mean...do you SEE the size of the boat?

Do you KNOW the size of a whale???

We commenced to get into the boat.

They literally had SADDLE seats with one bar in front of each seat to HANG ON TO.

(Did I mention I planned to take PHOTOS???)

(Did I also mention yet that it had TWO hundred horse boat motors on the end of the boat?)

We leisurely cruised out through the pier, taking in the sights....

Then we got to open ocean.

They OPENED up both motors to full blast.....

And????

WHOOOOOOO-HAAAAAAA....!!!!!

It was like an amusement ride!

Slapping against the huge ocean waves, off we went looking for whales......

(They did slow down when we went around the rocks later, much slower....thank goodness!)

Anyway...to make my long story even longer....thank goodness ONE of our boat guides also took photos as I was bumping to and fro and did NOT get very many whale pictures of my own!)

In fact, I had to guard the camera from getting soaked and not crashing into the hang-on bar...and I had my phone with me too because I had planned to take a video with my phone when we saw whales...

(yeah, right...silly girl!!)

But at the end of the tour, they offered a CD of our whale watching tour for sale....

and I bought one.

So most of the pictures below were taken by our boat guide.

When I got the CD many of the photos had crooked horizons (no kidding..he took them on the fly!) so I have now straightened them and adjusted a little lighting in them to make them nicer so I could show you.....but he did a wonderful job capturing what we saw on the tour and I am very grateful he did.

I did NOT enhance the size of the whales you are about to see or how close they were to us...I left as much of the whale photos as natural as I could....

That being said...

Hang on....(just like I did!) because

HERE WE GO>>>>>>>>>

(yes, the lady you see is in OUR boat. That is how close the whale was!) (the lady is not me)

THIS is me (blondie) and my husband behind me.

Our traveling companion (didn't you know I ALWAYS have two men with me at all times? LOL)

is the man right behind my husband. 

He used to be my boss....(although he says I used to be HIS boss). (Giggle). Now? I am retired and he always says he envies that.....However now, I am his volunteer travel planner.



Every whale we saw was a separate thrill for me.

And when they blew out air!!! It was FANTASTIC!:

OH my GOSH....I see his NOSE!!:

Gorgeous!!!

Stay tuned, as I have MORE whale pictures to show you next time....

And? The end sighting of the tour was the BEST surprise....

Mexico Adventure: Part Eleven: Beach Vendors and Goods

One of the things I love most about vacationing in Mexico

is shopping at the local outdoor markets and/or bartering with the beach vendors.

Some people find the vendors pesky. I find that if you are polite and fair,

and tell them (when you don't want to buy) that you are not interested, they are gracious and leave you alone.  They are just trying to make a living and work hard in hot weather to haul all their wares, and I appreciate that.

If you DO want to buy you can have fun making offers back and forth until you arrive

at a price that you both can live with.

I LOVE silver jewelry and so that is always on my wish list when we go.

Also, I have collected Imperial Topaz for years and the only place I can find it

is in Mexico. The stones are a gorgeous pumpkin orange color and I am addicted to it.

So, of course, I checked out the beach vendors wares to see if they had any.

I came back with a ring and a smile. I will have to post a photo of it sometime.

But, I digress....

Today, I have pictures of some of the vendors and their stuff for you to see.

This is the first place we have stayed where alot of  the men all wore crisp white clothes, which I thought was pretty dapper! (Dapper? Did I just say dapper? I never use that word...hmmm...now I really feel old. LOL)

I was tempted to get one of these nice purses. But I resisted.



 

Most of the vendors walked MILES back and forth on the beach, approaching people

about their stuff for sale.

I watched this man for the whole time we were at the resort.

He came every day and spent the entire day resting on the pile of his pretty sundresses for sale.

I loved it.

I thought most American businessmen and women should take lessons from him.

Think how our stress would go down.

He figured: if you wanted to see the dresses, you'd come up and ask.

And?

People did.

His sales did not seem to suffer by his laisser faire attitude.

Maybe I will embrace this attitude about making dinner.

I will just lay around the kitchen and only cook

if someone asks.

Oh.

Wait....

They ALWAYS ask.

 That won't work.

 Sigh.

I felt sorry for most of the vendors. They walked in hot hot sun up and down the beach...some of them hauling really heavy stuff.

Hat anyone?

Wait! is that SILVER I see?:

I wondered if they were looking at the huge yacht in the ocean by them

or the gorgeous woman in the bikini.

What would YOUR guess be?:

 

They had a rope running the length of the beach which they were not allowed to cross

so if you were laying out on the beach, you had to go up to their side of the rope to see their stuff.

I liked that.

Of course, if you wanted to walk from the beach to put your body into the ocean

you were fair game to be approached.

But, if you said no, they left you alone....

 

 

I loved the brightly glazed plates and dishes...but when you go on a plane where your suitcases are weighed...you have no room:

 

 

 

NOW you're TALKING!!!

My specialty!!:

Let's just say I helped the Mexican economy a wee bit....

and sent a few vendors home with a smile or two.

But I behaved...I only got one bracelet, one ring and one sundress.

Pretty good for a silverholic.

Mexico Adventure: Part TEN: birds and flowers

Since retiring and especially since getting into photography,

I have become a birdwatcher.

It doesn't stop when you go on vacation.

In fact, I get even MORE excited to see birds elsewhere...

but I am never sure if the birds there are the same breed as what I know. 

But,

I still take photos of them if I find them.

Same with flowers. I NEVER know the names of flowers elsewhere.

Sometimes I ask the locals, sometimes I can't find out.

So,

if you know the names of any of these birds or flowers for certain, leave it in a comment

for us, will you?

This LOOKED like a Baltimore Oriole:

I told him I wondered where he flew south...and that his secret was safe with me.

One of the locals told us this bush and flowers was called a Flamboyant plant.

Here is a closeup of the flowers!:

A pelican!:

More Flamboyant flowers:

These looked like Azaleas?:

I was so thrilled to see Hummingbirds in February!:

With nearly everyone getting an "early" spring this  year...

I hope you are getting your spring birds at your doorstep

and that your flowers are sprouting.

It has been incredible here in the U.P.!

We NEVER have had this warm of a spring for my entire life. In fact, we often say it is common to get a St. Patrick's Day blizzard and one or two snowfalls in April yet...

but we have been blessed with 70's and even a few days in the 80's F. degree temps.!

Unreal!

But, by the time you read this, we are expected to drop more down into the normal temps. for us this time of year...which is 40's and 50's. We are all betting that we will again see white snowflakes before REAL spring arrives...I hope we are wrong!

Mexico Adventure: Part NINE: More Land's End rock formations

Today?

More photos of those gorgeous Land's End

rock formations sticking out into the Pacific ocean

from the

Baja Peninsula by Los Cabos, Mexico...

I SO wanted to get off the boat and go exploring

that CAVE!:

A Cormorant bird on the rocks:

Many, many Cormorants on the rocks:

"Divorce Beach".

Looks kinda lonely...

but also a place to explore.

I was surprised there weren't more people on it, looking around...

but...

if you look really close...there is one beach umbrella with a few people there.....

Hope they had a ride back to the mainland as we didn't see a "parked" boat...

And it was a long, long ways from a McDonalds!!!!

Mexico Adventure: Part EIGHT: Rock Formations at Land's End

One of the MAIN reasons I wanted to visit

Los Cabos, Mexico

was to see the

wonderful rock outcroppings and formations at the end of this

Baja peninsula.

They are frequently photographed...

and by professional photographers as well as amateurs.

The area is called;
Land's End.

I did not want to take my expensive DSLR equipment and lens with me

on the plane to Mexico

so I only had my point and shoot Panasonic Lumix.

But my little panasonic did me proud and worked pretty good...it has an 18X zoom and has
always been a good camera to take along.

In addition, the majority of these photos were taken while I was sitting in small, bobbing boats

in a swelling ocean on breezy days.

But it was a blast and I felt so blessed to be able to get so close to these beauties of nature.

There will be more blogposts coming of these rocks for you, but here is the first one:

They looked like a mountain ridge sticking out in the middle of the ocean:

Doesn't that look like a man on that rock looking at the big rocky cliff and beach?

Seagulls, taking in the scenes and looking at the other tourist boat!:

The beach you see with the cave straight ahead

is called: "Honeymoon Beach", or Lover's Beach...

And?

In case you are wondering....

If you drive the boat around the end of the Land's End rocks

to the opposite side?

There is another beach. It is called: "Divorce Beach".

(I found that amusing!)

Mexico Adventure: Part Seven! : Horses on the Beach!

One day when we arrived at the beach, I saw

a wonderful thing!

Someone had brought horses to the resort for people to ride.

I do not horse ride.

Never have...(too scared I think?)

But I think they are beautiful animals.

A few of them there looked a little older, but they had people

take them for leisurely strolls on the beach and they didn't look stressed....

This looked like a happy family!:

Here was one of the cuties, up close:

One had BLUE eyes! Be still my heart!:

The owner had a dog along too!:

A man and his horse....

Ready for service!:

(Don't pay attention to the shadow of that mis-shapen photographer...

I swear it was the angle of the sun,  people, the angle!!)

Good Boy!:

Ahhhhhhh....

the beach, the ocean, the rocks...

and a horse ride with a dog companion....

What more could a tourist want?:

I hope you find things to bring you joy in your day today, too!

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