BAJA SPIRITS AND CULINARY CRUISE 

TRIP REVIEW:

Review posted by Deborah C – March

Amazing trip, 5 Stars

I have been to many amazing destinations but this trip really was fantastic. The variety of marine life and the way we were able to interact with the marine mammals was so rewarding. Our two naturists were extremely knowledgeable about the sea, wind and animals, this enabled us to see not only the wildlife expected at this time of year but also two blue whales. Highlights of this trip was seeing grey whales, blue whales, fin whales, minke whales, humpback whales, sea lions, whale sharks, mobula rays, too many birds to mention and lots and lots of cactuses. We snorkelled with whale sharks and sea lions, went rock pooling, beach combing, kayaking and drank lots of cocktails.

What was the most inspirational moment of your trip?

So difficult to say, both snorkelling with the whales sharks and with the sea lions was amazing but seeing the blue whales was too (and the humpback whales). Lela explained that we would have a better experience with the grey whales at Porto Chale instead of Magdelena bay as there were quite a lot of boats in the bay. This was the right decision as were were the only boats and were surrounded by 40-50 whales.

What did you think of your group leader?

Lela is just a lovely, knowledgeable, caring, compassionate person who did everything possible to educate the group and make sure each and everyone of us had a great trip.

Do you have any advice for potential travellers?

My only advice would be to make sure you don’t take the flight (which in this case was the group flight) which has a 6 hour 40 minute layover in Mexico City. Two flights to San Jose Cabo departed before ours and we would have had more than enough time to catch either of them.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

If you love marine life, birds, beautiful scenery and great cocktails then you will love this trip.

Trip Advisor

“Grey Whale Eco-camp and Grey Whales and Whale Sharks”
Reviewed 1 week ago

With wildlife based holidays you can never be sure if the said ‘wildlife’ is going to turn up; it is the risk you take. Our trip to La Paz, Baja California Sur delivered wildlife in shedloads.

While there we did two trips, both with Panterra Eco Expeditions.

The first was to an eco-camp in the Grey Whales Lagoons of Magdalena Bay. The camp was remote, beautiful and basic; you could sit on the beach and watch the whales and their calves in the lagoon or take a trip or five, on the water in a panga (small boat) which meant that you could get even closer to the whales. We were impressed by the way in which Lela (Panterra) allowed the whales to make the decision as to whether they wanted to engage with the panga or not and also if there were too many boats around a whale to back off and wait for another one to engage with us. We had so many whale and calf encounters we lost count, but each one was special and the calf allowing us to tickle their tummy was very special indeed. Not only did we see whales, but we also learnt a great deal about them. Make sure you have a jacket, as the pangas move quickly about the water and often have some distance to travel to find the whales. This trip lasted three days.

The second part of the trip was a live-aboard on the MV Adventure and again exceeded our expectations in what Lela and her crew delivered. This part of the trip was six days. Because of the unusual weather Lela moved the trip itinerary around, so that we could undertake the snorkelling activities – Whale Sharks and Sea Lions – when the Sea of Cortez was calm. What can we say swimming with Whale Sharks – how privileged were we – I’m not a strong swimmer, but Alan made sure I could keep up with the Whale Shark by giving me some help. As for having a Sea Lion swimming directly for you and then turning away at the last moment is still making me laugh; I’m not sure who was more interested us or the Sea Lions.

Other great moments – the bird life, Ospreys being so plentiful around La Paz; who knew cactus could be interesting; beach combing like we did as children, but with much more variety; the Mobula Rays doing both forward and backward flips – making us laugh out loud; the humpback whales breaching and showing us their flukes and deeply special the two Blue Whales we saw. Not to mention the fantastic food, always just the right amount and extra snacks available whenever required; and then there were the cocktails – sitting on deck with a delicious cocktail in hand watching wildlife. Thank you Panterra – Lela, Alan and the MV Adventure crew – ‘Amazing’ is an overused word, but both parts of the trip were amazing. Top Tip make sure you have spare batteries and memory cards for you camera – you are going to use them all up.

Visited March 2017

TripAdvisor