2017 Tour #5 Gorda Bank/Los Frailes
Hello Whalewatchers!
We had a great morning! It started with a rare sighting of Orcas (aka killer whales) off Cabo. It always something we look forward to seeing, but haven’t in recent years – so this sighting was super exciting! The pair of whales, one female and one male, were traveling southwest. We spent a little time following them, but eventually lost track of them.
We arrived in the Gorda Banks area, and it didn’t take too long before we located a trio of humpbacks. We spent close to 2 hours with these whales and they provided us with all the behaviors we hope to see with humpbacks, such as: fluking, lob tailing, pectoral flipper flapping and breaching. It was spectacular viewing!
After leaving our new humpback friends, we came across some sea turtles on the surface and a red billed tropic bird too! 
If that wasn’t enough excitement already, we then came across a cow, calf and escort trio of humpbacks. They were very active with the calf breaching repeatedly and the cow lob tailing over and over again! The calf and the escort were thrashing their tails around as well. That sighting was perhaps even more spectacular than the first trio we saw.
We continued the day heading north to Bahia Los Frailes for a walk and a snorkel session, however the winds out of the south prevented us from 
getting to Bahia Los Frailes. Deciding to continue north in hopes of more whale sightings, we were rewarded with another pair of humpbacks that breached repeatedly for over an hour. Sometimes both whales at once. We don’t get see that very often. The power of these whales is remarkable.
Headed to La Paz bay for Whales sharks tomorrow.
Team Searcher
for a long time! It was a medium size blue whale that stayed in the same area, we assume feeding as there was lots of life on the sounder and sonar. The blue whale is what many of our whale watchers are anxious to see on the trip, so this sighting was certainly was a delight for many on the boat! The photo is a blue whale at the surface close to the bow.
had their fill! We also took a quick trip to the beach to view the whale bones and shells. It is always great to be on a beach where your footprints are the only ones.
Our 2 pangas arrived and we sent them out for our first whale watching excursion. While out in the lagoon, everyone had a close encounter with a whale – not bad for the first outing. Capt. Art and Celia went out together, and reminisce about how long they’ve been taking trips together to this magical place. Capt. Art has been coming here since 1976 and Celia has been coming here since 1985 – more than 30 years together, sharing Baja California and Laguna San Ignacio with their guests on the Searcher.
different locations around the island. The wild flowers are still in bloom and the agave’s are on the verge of blooming too. All the usual bird sightings with Osprey’s on the nest, horned larks on the plateaus and ravens.
well. We also saw a peregrine falcon on the highest peak and a few black oyster catchers. We left the island headed and headed south with hopes of some wildlife sightings today.
dolphins in the group! Continuing south we saw lots of shearwaters, bonapartes gulls, royal terns, phalropes, loons, and a black-footed albatross.
