Loreto, Baja California Sur, Mexico

After spending several days in the touristy city of Cabo San Lucas it was a nice change of scenery to spend some time in the quieter township of Loreto. The municipality of Loreto has a whole different vibe to it, having picturesque towns and villages that are decorated with the most beautiful historic churches and cathedrals. I was particularly lucky to be included in an unplanned side visit to San Javier village, which is a tiny settlement built against the backdrop of the Sierra de la Giganta mountains. After visiting the village we went on a hike through a valley in these mountains. The walk started by passing through an orchard of all sorts of citrus tress, many that I have never heard of. Then it snacked through the dry desert valley of rugged terrain where I had my first close up encounter with cacti in Mexico. Not a bad way to spend the day when you aren't able to get out on the water to watch whales.

         

San Javier village, Loreto

Hiking in the "Sierra de la Giganta" mountain range 

There's nothing like a sunset in Mexico

My best blue whale day ever

I've seen blue whales in the Azores, but all my encounters there don't even come close to the blue whale experience I had in the sea of Cortez in Mexico (also known as the Gulf of California). It didn't take too much time out on the water for me to realise it's arguably the best blue whale watching location in the world. Ok I still have some hotspots to visit, but so far it's up there. I feel extremely lucky and honoured that I was invited to join blue whale researchers from the Great whale Conservancy for the first day of their 19th Baja blue whale research season. A much better experience than joining a tourist excursion, especially for a biologist like me. As soon as we got to the the area we started seeing the tall unmistakable blows of blue whales in all directions.  We spent the next hours going from whale to whale, spending just enough time with each one to get good quality ID photos. By the end of the day we counted 12 different individuals that we managed to photograph! The most memorable was by far the first whale. This whale was named "White eyes", due to the white marks on the underside of his tail (see the photo below). White eyes is one of the most recognisable blue whales in the world and one of the most sighted whales in the past quarter century in Mexican waters. White eyes is known to be an adult male and he has also been observed to spend a lot of time off upper California. I've read that this individual has been encountered since, and I hope that he is still doing well out there in the big blue

 

The unmistakable big blow of a blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus)

Such a massive and powerful tail!

A well known blue whale named "White eyes"

Rainblow!

We can distinguish between individual blue whales by the unique pattern of blotches on their skin