"Eye of the Whale"

Baja's Ballenas Gris. by Ted Stratton

This is the (almost) 2000 mile journey that we took last week of February 2008, to Laguna San Ignacio – midway down the Baja peninsula on the Pacific side. Our friend (Fast) Eddie Scates had been there before over the years and, listening to him tell his stories about seeing the Grey Whales up close and personal, we decided to make the trek. Luckily he opted to come along one more time and be our guide.

After finding a RV rental company in the west valley that would allow us to take the beast across the border (only $90/day!) we took off last Friday and camped out in a really nice little campground near Jacumba…just a few miles from the border town of Tecate. The next day we crossed over, got our visas officially filled out (but not stamped…that has to be done on a weekday at a Mexican bank…of which there are NONE to be found!) and headed down the coast thru Ensenada and plenty of other dumpy little villages and towns.

We watched the sun set at a great little beach campground near San Quintin. It was so nice that we decided to stay an extra day there on the way back.

Sunday was the long haul thru a bizarre desert in central Baja California. I had heard about the unusual cacti there but was really taken back when I finally saw the ENORMOUS Cardon cacti – sorta like a Saguaro on steroids. They were surrounded by the Cieros – a cousin to the freaky Boojum Tree. The desert flowers were the best icing on this cake.

Over the course of the trip we had taken turns driving the two different cars – the Tioga RV and the VW camper. While John was with me as I was driving Eddies VW, we got to witness one of the rear tires on the RV blow up right in front of us as we were merrily barreling down the road at 60. Glad it didn’t happen on one of the crazy, narrow curvey roads that we had just passed thru! Tire was changed in a record 35 minutes…that’s good considering that we were doing it in the sand next to the highway and that the hydraulic jack that the rental company provided didn’t have enough fluid in it to pump the axle up more than a couple of inches.

We finally pulled into the austere little campground in San Ignacio at dusk and had dinner in the little café that smelled like a plugged up urinal. The food was pretty good as long as you could hold your breath.

Next day we prepared to jump onto the dirt road that would take us to the lagoon. It’s only about 30 or 40 miles long but the road is sooo rutted and washboard-y that we were lucky to get the RV much over 10mph. It reminded me of the starship enterprise in warp 9 when everything was falling apart and Scotty was shouting that “she can’t take it any more Captain!”…only we weren’t going nearly that fast. Hell…rabbits and butterflies were passing us and laughing. One by one the screws in every cabinet and door and seam in the RV started coming loose. Hinges came off and had to be duck-taped…in fact duck tape became our best friend on this road.

Oh yeah…at the beginning of this journey the townspeople told us that the road was under construction and that we had to detour thru the town dump to get to it. Of course Eddie ignored that and jumped right on the newly paved section while we, in the beasty RV, followed orders and got the “scenic” and smelly tour. Now we were paralleling the new paved road as we rolled on slowly down the dirt, all the while longing to be where Eddie was on the new asphalt. Finally, Rick and I jumped out and moved a few boulders and an old rusty refrigerator to clear a path to the new road while the Mexican workers were yelling at us from far off. Tuff, I say!

That new road only lasted a few miles before we all had to succumb to the old dirt again. When we returned this way the next day I jumped out and kissed the asphalt when we finally got to it, imaging how Magellan felt when he discovered terra firma after being tossed around in choppy seas.

The campground at the lagoon was great and the people that are running the place really made us feel at home. The food was good and the beer was cold…but the WIND! Oh man…when the sun started to set someone thru the “fan” switch to HIGH and it stayed that way all night long. Next morning everything was fine again around 9AM. Weird.

We all got to ride out on the last boat when we arrived. It takes about 15 minutes to get to the heart of the lagoon but we spotted Greys everywhere along the way. The rules are that there can be no more than 2 boats near any whale and that no boat can “intercept” a whale. We were also supposed to stay about 60 feet away from the whales and not chase them. But…if the boat is idle and a Grey Whale (or two) come up to you than…no problem. That’s what happened several times – a mother and her calf would come over and “observe” us as we checked them out. There is nothing like the sensation of staring into the eyes (well…eye) of such an enormous and intelligent animal. We’ll never forget it…and the fact that we got to reach out and touch them several times was mind-blowing!

Members traveling:

Ted Stratton, Sue Myers, Beverly Malmberg, Rick Heffernon, Nancy Malmberg and John Peel guided by Eddie Scates

Enjoy the pix!