In the lagoon San Ignacio, a magical place in the middle of the Pacific coast of Baja Peninsula, Mexico, whales regularly pop up from the sea to touch and be touched by people.
In one of the most spectacular annual migrations that nature offers, Pacific gray whales make the 8000-mile journey from the cold Arctic waters to the safety warm shallow waters of the Baja Peninsula, Mexico, where they live and raise their young whales.
Whale watching in Baja, Mexico
Several thousand whales visit San Ignacio each winter and sometimes collect up to 400 at the same time in the lagoon. Las amistosas (the friendly) is the local nickname of whales that regularly approach the small fishing boats panga to be tapped and touched with admiration of the fans of whales in a gesture of sociability that has puzzled scientists for more than twenty years since the first one has been registered.
Brought almost to extinction in the 19th and 20th century, gray whales are returning today massive every year and are deleted from the list of endangered species in 1994. The Pacific lagoons and fifty uninhabited islands off Baja, often called the Galapagos Islands of Mexico, are noted exceptional diversity of marine fauna and birds.
Hundreds of dolphins accompanied gray whales, while humpback whales, fin whales and a Bryde’s whales also regularly appear together with the blue whale, largest animal on the planet.
Where can we go whale watching?
San Ignacio Lagoon, Baja, Mexico.
The best time to go is the late January-Mart.
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