February 14, 2019

February 14, 2019

San Ignacio, Mexico is a very small town in the central Baja surrounded by the World Heritage El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve. The village is a palm oasis in the desert. Probably a low point where water collects. We made the short walk to the main town square and had a tour of the old Mission built in the 18th century. While similar to the missions of Arizona it has some interesting statues. One of Jesus with a walking stick, and another of a saint holding a broom.

From the town square we loaded onto a van shuttle that drove us to the nearby lagoon of San Ignacio. This Pacific inlet is also famous as a Gray Whale breeding ground. It took 1.5 hours to go the 30 miles, mostly because the last few miles over the tidal plains were not paved and extremely washboarded.

At the lagoon we loaded onto small Panga boats and motored out towards the mouth. We saw some occasional whales, but far fewer than yesterday and none were interested in approaching the boat. They just swam past oblivious to our presence. Very disappointing compared to yesterday. Personally I can’t blame them. Gray Whales reacted violently to being slaughtered en masse in this bay, attacking and smashing the whaling boats. They earned the nickname of Devilfish.


About a half hour before we needed to return to shore, a mother and calf approached our boat looking for attention. They stayed and let everybody get a chance to interact. It was awesome, especially because the boats here ride lower in the water making it easier to pet the baby. Every day this one-ton infant guzzles 50-gallons of rich milk, containing 53% fat, with the consistency of toothpaste.

I have to wonder why mother and calf would approach the boat. Most moms with newborns are very protective. One explanation is the mom is so proud she just wants to show her off. The other maybe is she is taking her newborn to the zoo to visit some odd mammals without fins locked in a wooden cage floating on the sea. We may be as fascinating to them as they are to us.

Back on the beach I had a lunch of locally caught Scallops. They were enormous but tough as shoe leather. My first poor meal of the trip. I should have gone for the fish as Aimee did. We then made the bumpy drive back to San Ignacio. After showering, we walked into town. Since it is Valentines Day I took Aimee to a class on making tortillas. The dough is manually worked into a disk and slapped between your hands to thin it out. The tortillas are then pan-fried. We taste tested Aimee’s work as tacos with refried beans, Mexican cheese and hot salsa. Afterwards we walked to a nearby restaurant for oversize margaritas, chips and salsa.