From June to
October, there is whale watching in and around Salinas.
Uwe and I
had been wanting to go on one of the many whale watching boat excursions since
I arrived back from Canada. One thing or another always seemed to prevent us
making plans- I know, hard to believe when we are retired but you’ve got to be
there to understand how busy life gets in retirement- LOL
Twice we did
actually book and pay for a trip with our friend Edison and twice it was
cancelled.
We finally
approached Ben, our local whale expert, to take us. On a Saturday, we first
went to his restaurant for an excellent lunch.
While there
we had a chat with Ben and then went to his whale museum, a place I had always
wanted to check out. It and the restaurant are located on the far eastern block of 2nd Av.
Here is Ban
standing in front of his most interesting exhibit.
A must see
if you are in the Salinas area.
We had
decided with him to try for this whale watching trip on either the following
Thursday or Friday and we were to check if any of our friends wanted to come
along. We could bring no more than a couple because we would be using a very
small boat- OMG!!!
Thursday was
to be the big day. Our alarm woke us up at 5AM- horrors- and after coffee and a
small breakfast we were off to take the local bus at 6:30AM. We were picking
Ben up on the way and then the three of us would meet our friend Randy near the
mall. Randy has a car and had offered to drive us to the little fishing village
of Ayangue approximately an hour north of Salinas where our boat and captain
were waiting.
The very
deserted beach in Ayangue
My amiga
Randy and I waiting for our trip
Our boat- I
did mention it was small!
This morning
was a bit more blustery than most mornings and there were waves. Uwe gets a bit
of sea sickness but he had fortified himself with drugs before we left home and
had additional doses with him.
Our capitan
Cruising
through the waves out into the ocean
First we
went to a small island a few kilometers out where there were nesting sites of
Blue Footed Boobies and some rare terns that Ben was hoping to see. We did see
lots of cormorants, pelicans and our blue footed friends but no Inca Terns.
Then off to the sea!
After
approximately the first hour, Uwe spotted our first whale. There were possibly
two who were swimming maybe 100 meters ahead of us surfacing once in a while.
These were not Humpback whales who are much more active so we saw no breaching,
tails or those other interesting sights. OK, so off we went further out to sea
to find our quarry. Another couple of hours passed before we finally saw
several Humpback whales ahead. And wow, were these active. We were so busy
ooing and aaaing that I got few pictures. It was very difficult to hold the
camera in a moving boat, with moving whales, and unsteady hands balancing while
bouncing over the waves. We were all thrilled to catch such wonderful sights.
Whales in
the ocean playing and obviously enjoying themselves.
We were out
in the ocean for more than four hours and got back to shore in time for lunch.
Our capitan also owned one of the local beach restaurants. After a satisfying
almuerzo consisting of juice, soup and breaded fish, rice, plantains &
salad all for $3, we returned to Salinas very satisfied with our trip.
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