Slow Baja - Shari Bondy Sharing The Magic Of Whale Watching

Episode Date: September 24, 2020

Shari Bondy has been studying whales for more than thirty years. At eighteen-years-old, she moved to Vancouver Island, British Colombia, from Ontario, Canada. She wanted to get close to whales and Tofino, was the place to be with a population of Grey Whales, Humpbacks, and Killer Whales to study. Following the whale migration South, Bondy found herself in Laguna Ojo de Liebre in Baja. Instantly, she fell in love with the place and moved there to begin a new chapter in her research. In my opinion, Bondy is the Jane Goodall of the whale world. Like Goodall, she’s mostly self-trained and has spent decades in the field, watching generations of whales birth and raise their calves. She’s photographically identified scores of individual whales and learned their personality, character, and behaviors. To continue her research, she began Whale Magic Tours and has been instrumental in developing whale-watching in the region. From January through March, you’ll find her in her new private whale camp (glamp) in Guerrero Negro. You’ll find her in her home and boutique hotel La Bufadora Inn the rest of the year in Bahía Asunción. In this conversation, Bondy gets personal about how whales changed (and possibly saved) her life. She’s quick to acknowledge her spiritual connection to these majestic mammals. Her approach and her whale watching excursions are a deep-dive into the intimacies of whale behavior. And over the decades -she’s witnessed a phenomenal change in that behavior. Her approach has built a trust level with whales that often have mothers pushing their calves right up to touch the boats. If you are lucky, a whale may come close enough for a kiss! In addition to whale-watching, the region has excellent fishing, surfing, and kayaking year-round. Shari is happy to help book tours and activities, including diving, beachcombing, mountain biking, fossil hunting, and horseback excursions to see cave paintings with local rancheros. Visit the Bahía Asunción website. Visit La Bufadora Inn on Facebook Follow Shari Bondy on Facebook Follow Shari Bondy on Instagram

Hey, this is Michael Emery. Thanks for tuning into the Slow Baja. This podcast is powered by Tequila Fortaleza, handmade in small batches, and hands down, my favorite tequila. Flo Baja is brought to you by the Baja XL rally. The Baja XL is the largest and longest amateur off-road rally on the Baja Peninsula.

It's 10 epic days. L.A. to Cabo to L.A. Check it out at BajaXL.org. Hey, it's Michael Emery on Slow Baja, and I am delighted to be talking via Zoom with Sherry Bondi today. And Sherry, you are in Bahia Asuncione, correct? That's right. Buenos Aires from beautiful Bahia Asuncione. Wow, well, it's really a delight. I've followed you quite a while on the magic of the internet through Facebook and whatnot.

and my good friend Ted Donovan and I have talked about you often. And it's just, again, just a delight to have you on the line. So I'd love to know about you and your story a little bit. I know you're from Canada originally, correct? I am. I'm from Canada. And I've been in the Baja 30 years now. And I came here originally to study gray whale behavior in Guerrero Negro.

That's where I first lived for 10 years in Gereiro. out of Negro, and that was before commercial whale watching started. And I was, I was studying and ran a whale watching company in Tafino, British Columbia in Canada before that. And I heard about the gray whale lagoon down here, so I came down to check it out, and of course, fell in love with it. Now, I read that you're originally from Ontario, which doesn't usually have whale population, correct? That's right. I was born in Ontario, but moved to BC when I was 18. And then I lived on Vancouver Island where there are lots of whales. And I started researching killer whales actually with Jim Darling originally.

And then I started a whale watching company to fund my own research in Tafino. And then things progressed from there. Are you willing to jump into how I've heard you say whales saved your life? Oh boy, that's a really long. It's kind of a campfire story. It's a really long story. And it was when I was in my early 20s and I was on a sailboat offshore. And we had survived a hurricane.

But I think it's too last kind of a whole show dedicated to that. Yeah, more of a campfire story, long story. Do you tell that one at all on site when you're hosting guests in Bahia and Sistio? Ascantione? I do. You know, it's a, it's a very personal story and it's not for everybody. People that aren't open to understanding or have an open mind for those kind of things. I don't bother because they would say, oh, she's crazy.

She's making that up, which if I heard the story, I might tend to think that too. But since it happened to me, I know it's a true story. But, you know, kind of a long story is that long story short is that, yes, two fin whales saved my life by, I was unconscious and it was holding the boat steady and a hurricane swells. And then they telepathized with me and told me everything was going to be okay and that things are going to be all right. So that's when I learned that we can communicate with animals. And to this day, gray whales, if you have an open mind to it,

gray whales can put some interesting thoughts into your brain and help you answer questions as well, which is, I guess that's why my tours, whale magic tours, is the name of my company. and it's magic that happens out there if you're open to it and if you have a little understanding of what's going to happen. You know, a lot of people just come and tick it off their bucket list. Oh, been there, done that, saw a whale, took a picture. My trips are in-depth. We have small intimate groups of people and we talk a lot about whales before we even get out on the boat. So I want people to be prepared for what could happen and how to look at whales in a different way rather than just taking a picture.

sure. So I offer something a little bit different than most guides. Yeah. And I think that's what really makes it also interesting and maybe to a high degree more special. That magic is part of your world and you've spent 30 years with these whales. And you have, in my estimation, you're sort of the Jane Goodall of gray whales. I mean, Jane really developed connections. with individual chimpanzees that she studied. And I think that you have identified and studied these whales long enough that I think you're in the same realm. Thank you. That's an honor to be compared to Jane Goodall.

And she is my heroine. She has certainly been an inspiration to me to be able to, I mean, connecting is one thing, but bringing it to the world as another. It's tough. You know, when you do things like that, a lot of people don't believe it. and they consider you crazy. And it's tough. So Jane has done that with her work with the guerrillas.

And I am certainly continuing to do that with my work with gray whales. And making one-on-one connections is what it's all about for me. Because I've been there 30 years in the same place with the same whales. I know these individuals. I do photo ID. And I know a lot of them personally. And the whales that I know, they have personal stories. And that's what I share with people is.

each whale that approaches us. I don't know all the whales, but often the whales that approach us and kind of communicate with me have a really interesting story. And that it just adds another dimension to whale watching. Yeah. And so I've read your accounts and you do believe that the whales are very perceptive. And when people have things going on in their lives or their young children on board. Sometimes the whales pick the people on the panga that are going to get the most interaction. Can you talk a little bit about that? Absolutely. They do. And, you know, my filming shows it after a day when I get home, I review the film when I have time, and I see that the whales circling and choosing, sometimes as guides, the boat driver and I,

it's kind of a challenge. Who do you think the whale's going to go to? Oh, definitely her or him or something like that. It's kind of fun for us to do that. But I always say there's a whale for every person. You know, different whales have different personalities and characters, and they're attracted to like similar characters and personalities, like a shy whale, maybe attracted to a shy person, and a crazy boisterous, fun whale will be attracted to those really fun people.

You know, sometimes people want a person on boat that's making a lot of noise. They're like, could you tell that guy to be quiet? And I'm like, actually, he's probably attracting a fun whale. So let's just go with it. And we can't judge anybody's personality. It's up to the whale to judge. And we just go in amongst the whales and put our motor in neutral. And the whales come to us, depending on who's in our boat, what the whales are doing.

For example, when the whales are in swimming school on their whale workout, they're not allowed to come to the boat. They're busy. They're on a schedule. They have to build up muscle tissue. in order to swim that long migration back up north. So certain times of day, and you just never know. Each day is different. Each trip, each hour is different, which makes it really exciting.

You just never know what's going to happen. It's a lot of fun. Yeah, and you've been at this a long enough period that, well, you were doing it before this interaction even occurred. So what's your take on that? I mean, when you started this, you were able to see the whales, there was none of the interaction. Yes, I've been fortunate to have been in a lagoon from the very beginning before whale watching

became a thing. And so I was able to do baseline data and be with whales. When we first went to the lagoon, whales were terrified of boats because Charles Scammon was a whale hunter and they killed lots of whales in that lagoon. That lagoon ran red with whale blood. So when we first started out, it was very difficult. to approach a whale. Luckily, I'd had experience in British Columbia on how to approach a whale successfully, carefully, patiently, and I was able to teach the boat drivers in the lagoon how to do that,

not just race up to a whale. So, you know, over the first five years was really difficult. We gained their trust day by day, getting a teeny bit closer, teeny bit closer, putting out that message and vibes that we're here to watch you and appreciate you. We're not here to hurt you. And then the whales started being curious about us. Like, wow, they don't seem to be killers. They seem to be nice. And they started coming around the boats and underneath the boats. But, you know, for the first 10, almost 15 years, nobody had touched a whale.

We never, the thought never occurred to us to touch a whale. The whales would be there doing their thing and appreciating us and being with us and right at the boat. But it never occurred to us to put our hand in the water to touch them. And those were beautiful times. we just appreciated looking eye to eye with the whale and gazing at them. It wasn't all this frantic frenzy of leaning over and touching them. Well, watching is way different now than it was in, I can say, the good old days. You know, it's nice to touch a whale for sure, but a lot of people come to expect to touch a whale, and if they don't touch a whale, they're disappointed,

they don't think it was valuable, their experience, and that's kind of sad for me. Is that whale watching in the Instagram times? Is that what's happened? People need to do what they've seen others do on social media to say they've done it too. Exactly. Like they want instant gratification. How long people come into the office and say, how much to pet a whale? I was like, wow, that's not the attitude to take.

We're in their nursery. We're in their natural environment where they're raising their babies. We're just there to appreciate them. If a whale wants contact and chooses to grace us with its presence, they will. But, you know, it often repels whales. Those people that, I got to touch a whale, I got to touch a whale, I got to touch a whale. That energy repels whales. And I have to let them know, you know what, you better just chill out and not have high expectations because it might not happen for you. And it's the people that just sit back and are loving and appreciative. They have

really good contact with whales, not the ones that expect and have to touch a whale. I mean, now it's not even good enough to touch a whale. You have to kiss a whale. What's next, really? And have a photographer standing by to make the picture. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, it's really, I appreciate, I think it's really important to have a guide on board to kind of guide the people in their experience so that they have a more positive, meaningful experience, not just, I got to touch a whale.

I have to touch a whale. You know, so they appreciate the animal and the history of them and their biology and what they do and how they're raising their young. And what I can do is I provide a commentary. of what they're doing. Oh, she went away. Sometimes if a whale's with you and it goes away, people are like, oh my God, it didn't like us. They're going away. Well, no, they just have to go feed their baby because their breasts are full of milk and they have to dump their milk. So they go away for five or ten minutes to feed and then they come back again. So people know what's going on, like play-by-play description of their daily activities. And they have daily activities like

swimming school. They teach, you know, they teach their calves on a daily basis what they're going to need to survive in the wild. They use our boats as teaching tools. They push the babies into the motor to cut them so that they know that propellers and boats can be dangerous. And it's, it's really interesting to watch how they raise their young. Yeah. And your theory is that having the babies interacting with the people on your boats gives mom some time to rest. which is much needed. That's a pretty new phenomenon. I mean, there is no other animal in the wild that brings their babies to humans

so that the humans engage and play with the baby while the mom has a nap. That's just unheard of. And that's recent in the last, I guess, three or four years, the moms have been comfortable enough with us to get some much needed rest, which just always fascinates me. Amazing. Hey, let's pivot here and tell me a little bit about where Scammon's Lagoon is. Laguna Ojo de Libre is the correct current name.

Am I right on that? Yeah, that is not just the current name, but that's the original name. A lot of places in, well, all over the world are named for. Scamund's Lagoon is the slang name. That's an American phenomenon. Somebody put it on a map once. And I remember when I first went to the lagoon and I was telling the guys, do you know what they call it? And I told them that people call it Scammon's Lagoon and they were just mortified.

They couldn't believe it. Why would anyone call a beautiful place like Ojo de Leverre after, you know, whale hunting and killing? It was really sad. So, yeah, no, it's Ojo de Lievre, and it means I, the Jack Rabbit. And it's named after a freshwater spring. A lot of places were named after water sources, which are really important in Baja or sources of water. And it's near Guerrero Negro. Gereiro, the village of Geredo, the town of Gereiro is on the lagoon.

And it originally was set up there because of the world's largest salt mine, saltworks, that is all throughout the lagoon. And that's where it is. There are three viewing areas of the lagoon. There's the inner lagoon where the Aheado has a campground and a restaurant and an interpretive center. That's right at the end of the lagoon. and then the mouth of the lagoon is obviously right at the mouth a little bit rougher weather and that's where most of the boats from town go you know you pay it's about 50 or between 50 and 60 dollars and you go out for an hour and a half and that's it and you go out

and you come back and there aren't any guides on board and then the middle lagoon which is where I've set up my new whale camp is phenomenal because it's the most narrow part of the lagoon. So whales congregate there. More whales congregate in a narrow place in the lagoon. And there's a couple of canals and we can see whales right off our whale camp. So there's three different viewing areas. Ojo de Liebre is the principal calving lagoon. It's the biggest lagoon in the world. It's where most of the calves are born. The other lagoon, San Ignacio and Meg Bay, they call overflow parking because we kind of fill up first in Ojo de Liebra. And there can be up to 2,000. We've had over 2,000 whales in there in a season. So there's a, we call it whale soup. You just can barely move because there's so many whales

going, but even the whales are kind of like, oh, after you, after you, there's so many whales there. So it's a beautiful place. And the nice thing about three different viewing areas that splits up the boats. So there's only a very small number of boats in each area and they're separate. There are also areas of a lagoon that is off limits to boats. So if whales don't want to go near boats or if they're tired of boats or if they've had bad experience with boats, they can go to an area where there are no boats. So that really means that it's up to the whale if it wants to approach you. Wow, that's that's an amazing you've painted an amazing picture there. So I'm looking at the map right now on my computer of the bay and it looks like that narrows that you're talking about.

So are all your tours leaving from Guerrero Negro or do you come in from, what would that be the south there, from Bahia, Sunseon? No, I moved to Guerrero Negro. into the lagoon in January, and I'm there from January till the end of March. Because I do one or two trips a day, so I can't come back and forth. Yeah, that's right. Gotcha. And all of our tours, all the tours leave from Geredo Negro. Some, you know, for example, where we are, it's a restricted area.

The public isn't allowed in there. So we take you out in our van to the area, and we take you after, like usually at breakfast, I do a whale talk for an hour and a half and let people know what we're going to see and what to expect and how to behave and all that. Jump in the van. I kind of do a guided tour on the way out to the, it's a beautiful trip. The drive is beautiful.

You see coyotes and burrowing owls and there's dead whales on the beach. There are all kinds of things to look at on the way. And then we jump in the panga and I do extended tours. I just think an hour and a half is not enough. You're barely getting warmed up. So I do two to two and a half hour trips. And then we come back to our whale camp

and we kind of decompress and talk about what we've seen and, you know, kind of, that's really nice because you're pretty shocked, you know, especially if it's your first time. People are pretty blown away and they haven't quite processed what went on. So we kind of talk about it. We have a seafood lunch at our camp and then we come back to town. Gotcha. And if people are staying with you and your properties, what's the, what's the drive time to Guerrero Negro? Is it possible or is it, do you need to stay in Guerrero Negro? Yeah, you know, we're two, Bahia Asuncione is two hours. Often what people do, if they're driving down in their own vehicle,

they stop and get out of Negro for the night, come whale watching with me the next day, and then some continue on to Asuncione because it is so beautiful here. And there's also neat things to do, sports fishing, and there's a great island tour where you see whales and sea lions and dolphins and turtles. It's pretty cool. So people often, because they're in the area, they want to spend more time here so they can do that. The other thing, you know, it depends.

I always tell people it's a good idea to give yourself a couple days, two or three days, because if the weather's bad and if you decide you want to go out again, you know, like give yourself a couple days. So I have packages with, you can do an overnighter if that's what you need to do or two nights, three nights. And then our whale camp is a whole other ballgame. You come in and spend the night and get out. and then we take you up to camp and spend two or three nights out in camp. And for folks who aren't all that familiar with Baja, Guerrero Negro is about halfway down. And there's not, it's a charter.

If you're flying in, you're chartering from someplace. Would you say most of the folks that you're enjoying whales with you are driving down? Yes, most people drive down. They usually stay in San Quentin or Elrosario the first night. You can make it all the way to grow if you, If you do that, also some people come on the bus, which makes it easy because you don't need a vehicle once you're here. Some people fly in. There are flights from Aido Calafia and Aero Servicios Guerrero Negro. There are three flights a week, three Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I believe.

Sometimes they put an extra flight on on Saturday for whale season. But you have to fly from Hermosillo or Guaymas. Like there aren't any flights from T.J. It's tough to get there. You have to want to get there. It's not easy. And I think that must also be why there's less development, at least where you are in Bahia Sancion, it's still rugged Baja. It's still low-key. It's still, as I say, slow Baja, which is my true fascination. It is. It's like stepping back in time 50 years when you come into Bayes-encion. It's so amazing. And it's in that, I like that time period when everybody knows everybody. Everybody's super friendly. and helpful. We don't lock our doors. There's no bars on the windows. It's just really like old Baja and the hospitality of old Baja as well. It's beautiful. And the reason is because we're not close to an airport. Anything close to an airport has been just overdeveloped or developed. And we have not, which is the people that live here love it for that, that it's just not overrun

with people from other countries. It's still real Mexican feel to it. And again, for those who aren't totally familiar, you're on a beautiful point, surrounded by water, what, on three sides, a little bit like San Francisco here. That's right. But much smaller, obviously. And there's surfing, beaches, water sport, snorkeling, diving, and obviously whale watching. Yeah, outstanding fishing. It's a real fishy place. We have kayaks here to loan people and people bring their own kayaks.

Yeah, boogie boarding. Fishing is very popular. We do charters out of here as well. And right now we're catching tuna, Yellowtail, Dorado, Whitefish, halibut from the beaches. A shore fishing is exceptional because there's so many beaches. Yeah, it's a fishy place as well. And beautiful for any water sports and hiking. And we have a single-track mountain bike trail that is second to none. It's really nice. And can you tell me a little bit about Juan? He's a fisherman, yeah. He is a fisherman, that's right. He's born and raised in San Roque here, which it was the town that was here before Assonzion, actually. So he's generations family here.

That's right. And he's bilingual and good guy. Happy to take anybody out and show them where to fish, how to fish, what to do, what have you. Absolutely. And we also do island tours as well, snorkeling with sea lions and seeing. the island. We have two islands, Isla Asuncuncione and San Rocque Island. And they're both. It's just a beautiful nature trip. And again, for rookies, do you have fishing equipment there for use or for rent? We do. Okay. So people don't have to bring down their own gear. You know, it's always better if they

bring their own gear. But if they don't, we do have gear here for them. And of course, Juan and his deckhand help you catch a fish. If you haven't fished before, they kind of help you do that, get it on, hand you the rod. And I imagine like most of Baja, once you've caught something, you can have somebody at a local restaurant cook it for you three ways and make a meal out of it. Absolutely. When people get back from fishing, I whip up a sashimi platter and some seared fish of whatever they've caught.

So we have a little snack there. And then we take our fish to one of the restaurants here, and he does a beautiful job. luncheery, Mari, Thomas, and Anna Berta, do you a fantastic job of cooking up your fish. And Sherry, if somebody was going to come and spend a week with you, talk about the range of activities in your area. Yeah, a week's a good idea because not only will you see what's around. And, you know, within 15 minutes, there's five different beaches you can go to and other, because we're in central Baja, there are a lot of places you can see, like you could do a day

going to San Ignacio and see the mission. You can do a day. We have a really fun trip going to a ranch. You can either spend the night at the ranch or just make it a day trip and you go to the missions. So we see the missions, the cave paintings, the ranches, maybe do some horseback riding. There's so much to see in this central area. You could go to Turtle Bay. A lot of people use this as their base and do day trips to places as well.

Yeah, so that Vicaro culture, the ranchero culture, it's right there with you as well. And you've got cave paintings that you can bring people to as well. Yes, all the ranches that we visit also have cave paintings. For example, and you know what's really funny is the boat drivers, our lanceros, many of them are from ranches. So in the off season, we go visit them at their ranch. are the guides that take you to the missions like Santa Hertrude's mission is just beautiful. In the cave paintings, there's big horn sheep that can be seen right from their ranch.

And they cook you up local, all the things that they raise on the ranch, their beef, their lamb, their goats, the food that they serve are, and also the vegetables that they grow, organic vegetables are served right there as well. There's three ranches that we take people to, and it's really a spectacular day. Here at Slow Baja, we can't wait to drive our old land cruisers south of the border. When we go, we'll be going with Baja Bound Insurance. The website's fast and easy to use. Check them out at Bajabound.com.

That's Bajaubound.com, serving Mexico travelers since 1994. Hey, Baja tourism is picking up, and our friends at the Animal Pad and TAP Act want to remind you when you're crossing the border, just say no to puppy peddlers. I know they're cute, but the sooner we can end the demand, we can end the supply. For more information, check out theanimalpad.org and tap act on Instagram and Facebook. What would you make of your 30 years?

I mean, making the leap to come down from Canada and start this business, teach locals how to approach whales as a gringa from Canada. That must have been an experience. And then just your drive to share the business that you've built. with the people that are that are near to you, that you're not trying to hog every, every person and every dollar that comes from away. You're trying to push it out into your local area. Break that down for me. I guess, I don't know, I guess it comes from indigenous roots of share and share alike and make sure that it takes a village and make sure the village is healthy.

If the village is healthy, if you're healthy and can help the village, everyone's going to be healthy. Yeah, there's a lot of businesses that they just want it all. You know, people say, oh, you should put a restaurant here. Well, what I like is people come to visit me. I take them around to the restaurants. We try and go to several different restaurants when they're here. So everybody gets a little bit. We go to several stores. You know, I suggest they can, you know, spread the money around. If everyone is doing well, everybody's happy. And there's not this competition for just everything and come with me, me, me. I mean, I really do like to spread it around. And for example, going to the ranches. I mean, those guys suffer that they're not on the highway

as we are not either. So if I can help them, and they're my friends, you know, they treat me really well. And they treat me like royalty and I like to treat them with that same respect. And if I can help them by bringing a few more dollars, but you know, it's not just that. it's the tourists and the visitors that come here. If I can enrich their life with something that I've learned here, I'm happy to do that. And I just want to see everybody doing well and happy. Wow.

Well, I think we should cut right to where people can find you. And if you could recap, I don't think you've actually told us about your number of offerings, but if you could tell us a little bit about what people can find and where they can find it if they're going to come to Bahia Sonsione and find you and go whale watching with you and whale season next year. How soon they need to book that. Okay. First of all, for Bahia Asuncione, they can come here any time of year.

I don't recommend April, May, and into June because that's our windy months in the spring. And it's really great on the Sea of Cortez side, on the Gulf side, is great during those months. You can find all the information you need on my website, and it's really easy. www.baha'i-A-A-A-A-S-U-N-C-I-N-C-I-N-C-O-N.com. And that has everything on there for Bahia Ascension and surrounding areas. And then when I changed to my whale hat in January, February, March, you can see what I do there at www. Whale Magic Tours with an S, Tours with an S, whalemagic tours.com. And, you know, you can just got my contact phone numbers. You can call me, or I can call you back.

You can email me. You can message me. I'm on social media. Also on Facebook, La Bufodora Inn is where I live, and it's the little hotel, a little boutique inn that sits out on a rock looking over the blowhole. Buffadora means blowhole. That's why it's called that. So La Bufadora in. I, on Facebook or just Sherry Bondi on Facebook as well. And Whale Magic Tours also is on Facebook. Right. And how many rooms? Tell us about your empire there.

It's a boutique. It's a boutique in. Six rooms. So we can accommodate about 15 people, depending on if there's kids involved and who shares beds and all that. And we get a lot of motorcycle groups and family groups come in. And we've got a beach right

here at our place, right below our inn and the blowhole in front. tide pools and you can fish off the rocks. You can, a couple days ago, a guy got here. And within an hour, he jumped into his, in his wet suit and he speared a grouper right off right in front of our end here and cooked it up for dinner. Wow. Sounds like a great time.

So, Sherry, I really appreciate you and finding some time for the slow Baja. And I'm glad our internet connection only dropped once. So I'm going to say thank you. and we hope to see you soon in person. Oh, you know, I'm going to back up here. How soon if you've got a shortened whale season, we haven't talked about this part, Sherry, what weeks do you like? What weeks, you know, is this happening? That happened. If you can give me five more minutes on whale season and how soon somebody should book with you, how far ahead somebody should book with you, that'd be great. Right. It's interesting. People say,

When's the best time of year to see whales? Well, it depends what you want to see. For example, I love January because the babies are being born. There's mothers, there's pregnant moms, and they sometimes have a midwife. There's a lot of mating goes on in January. The babies are born. It's great. But because the babies are just born, there's not a lot of friendly whale activity. Sometimes the pregnant moms and their midwives do come to the boat often, but it's not every trip. So February, the babies are born. The mothers are starting to push them up to the boat. They're starting to make contact. March, the babies are big. They're like already very big and playful and boisterous. And they mud the boat. So there's a lot of activity in March.

But then the wind starts to come up in March too. So I would say any time before March 15th, after March 15th, a lot of our whales that we see on a daily basis are leaving. So really, the window's pretty small from the beginning of February to March, mid-March, is the best opportunity for whale watching. We book up because what I do is special and different, we're often full by Christmas. A lot of our tours are full. So if you have a specific date, it's a good idea to book it.

I can be flexible to a point, and if you need to change it or get on another boat or something. And because I do longer tours, I only do them in the morning. We can put another boat on the afternoon if you want to go out again if the weather's good. But it's a really good idea to book long in advance if you want to get the date that you want, especially in whale camp because it's such a short season. So yeah, book early. And also due to COVID, if by chance anything gets canceled due to COVID, we offer a full refund for that.

Sherry, you've been in Baja for 30 years. you have a daughter there that's in business with you now. Is that right? That's right. My pride and joy. Her name is Sirena, which means mermaid in Spanish. And she's the reason I'm in Baja. She's the reason I stayed. I wasn't supposed to be able to have kids. And I got pregnant in the lagoon with her where the whales get come to get pregnant. So she's a miracle baby. And she was born and raised in the lagoon. And she is a phenomenal guide in her own right. And she has two boys. I have. of two grandkids. And interestingly enough, Serena's back in, she moved to Ensenada to study marine sciences and raise a family. And she's back now with me guiding. And she has a phenomenal

insight on whales, having been from, you know, her essence is from that lagoon. So she, I'm really happy to have her by my side. She's, she's in charge of whale camp. She's guiding all the whale camp boats and she's with me here in Bahia Ascension as well and I'm just really happy to have her back by my side. She's amazing. That's lovely. How do you say that in Spanish? The Manzana didn't fall far from the tree. Yeah. Yeah, she has a whole interesting outlook and insights on whales a little bit different but the same. She has a lot of experience and she's a great guide and just a great girl. You've mentioned whale camp a few times. Can you just tell us a little bit about your whale camp? Yeah. Last year was our first year. It's something I've always wanted to do, but really the pieces just

never fell together. And last year, everything, the stars aligned and we were able to open my first private whale camp, where we have spring bar canvas tents, which are phenomenal. It can be blowing a gale and you don't even feel the wind. And we're on a tiny, little strip of sand in the middle of the lagoon, water on both sides of the tents. And you can see whales from lying in your tent. And we have a big mess tent where we have great cooks preparing local seafood. And if you don't eat seafood, we have other Mexican meals and chicken and beef as well. So the food is great, healthy food. The whale watching is phenomenal. We go out first thing in the morning. And you can go out again in the afternoon if you choose. There's a

place to swim there, a little canal right beside our camp, where we swim and listen to the coyotes at night. We can hike and birdwatch and fossil hunt. There's lots of things to do in camp, and it's, it's a private camp, so there's no vehicles there, just our tents. We bring you in vans, so there's no noise, and we have two boats at camp to take you whale watching. And it's just, that is a magical, magical spot. It's at Punta Mariscal. It's called. And Sherry, would you recommend that people spend more than one day on the water with you? I would imagine there's a complete bit of overwhelm of like, hey, there's a whale, there's a whale, and here's a whale coming close, here's a baby. And if you take it in for the second day, I would imagine you're just

relaxed and like, whoa, you're a veteran. Absolutely. The first day, your fuses are being blown by whales and you just can't quite capture what's going on. You're just so in awe. that you're not paying attention to the little details about how they're pushing their baby or nursing their baby. You're just like, oh, my God, there's a whale right beside us. And that's it. The second day, you've processed it. You can actually look and appreciate all the things that they're doing. Yeah, the first day is a blow out pretty much.

And at least two days is really important. Some people come for a week or two and go every day. Because each day you go out, you see more and you learn more and you can appreciate more. Yeah, give yourself some time. If it's a bucket list thing, try to give yourself at least two days on the water. I can't believe we've gotten this far into our conversation, and you haven't mentioned Pink Floyd. Yeah, well, you know, the Pink Floyd is it's a force of nature. You know, a whale's penis is 12 feet long, three feet at the base, and it's hot pink.

And the first time we saw it, it was funny because one of the Mexican boat drivers said, Pink Floyd. And that's exactly what it. So that's kind of our code word for a whale penis. And it's quite something. Definitely you can't mistake what it is. You know, from a long way away, you see this big pink thing waving around it in the air.

It's pretty impressive. And so the breeding activity, does that happen the entire time the whales are there? Or is it just right in the beginning? They're mostly mating in January, late January, and February. By the end of February, the mating's done. pretty much a third week of February, they're done mating. Although things have been switching up because of the problem in the Bering and Chatshkees seas with the ice pack melting,

gray whales have had to go further afar to look for food. And so everything has been later. Usually they're there. My first trip's usually the first, you know, January 2nd. And there were no whales there last year until mid-January. So everything's kind of two or three weeks later than it usually is. Hopefully it'll get back to normal. but they're looking for food. They have to go further to look for food. So the migration was stalled a little bit. And it seems to be they had this past season,

they've actually made it a little bit later. So maybe they're going to have to change their mating habits to reflect their feeding habits. So we'll see what happens with that. And can you tell us about, is it just the mothers and calves after that? Do the males go off and migrate back? Or do they stay and,

as I assume, as I understand that there's nothing to protect the females and the calves from, but do the males stick around? No, they don't. It's kind of a wham-bam, thank you, ma'am. After they mate, they're pretty much gone. They've had their fun. And they can mate multiple times, too. So there are males.

And then, yeah, usually by March, the first couple weeks of March, most of the males have already gone. Because they're hungry. They want to get back and eat. So they've done what they've needed to do and procreate, and they need to get back. So it's pretty much, there are some juvenile males still in the lagoon at that time, hoping to learn the ropes and get lucky, but most of the males have gone by March. And do, is there juvenile behavior from juveniles? Do, do they, is there stuff that adult whales don't do that you say, oh, that juvenile, he's a real piece of work. Watch, watch, watch out.

He's going to bang into that boat or, or what? Is there anything crazy? Yeah, you know, pretty, they learn pretty much everything in the first three or four months of their life. They don't like bang into boats by mistake. I mean, they do it for fun. They might ram them for fun, but they don't make a lot of mistakes. Like they're good learners and the mothers are very good teachers about what they can and cannot do. Something that the males, little males, the juvenile males, like we call them teenage horn dogs. Like they will try to make with, they'll try to, they're like, you're having a nice, you know,

a really nice, loving encounter with a mom and baby. And this juvenile male horn dog will come over and try and mate with that poor female who has a calf, like really, who wants to mate after having a one-ton baby. But, you know, so they kind of try and get lucky, you know, whereas the big males, they know that's not going to happen. So they're kind of funny in that way. They'll try for sure. And, you know, my theory is when mating in threes is that one of those males is a juvenile learning the ropes. And that's why there's absolutely no aggression between males, which is a very uncommon in animal species because there's usually aggression to mate.

And there just is no aggression at all between the males in that threesome. So my take on it is that it's a juvenile just watching and learning and being right there in the fray. Wow. Well, I think we're going to leave it right there. All right. Well, sharing again, it's been a real pleasure. I hope to see you in person. in Bahia Sunsion soon. And thanks for making some time for the Slow Baja. Great, Michael. It's a really nice talking to you.

I look forward to meeting you. And, hey, I might tell you the story about whales saving my life when you get here around the campfire. Thanks a lot. All right. Bye. Bye. Hey, you guys know what to do. Please help us by subscribing, sharing, rating, all that stuff.

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