Flying and Whale Petting Adventure in Baja Sur
By: Doug Winston
Topics: whales, baja, flying, mexico
Posted by dwinston1 Mon Mar 24, 2008 14:38:00 PDT
Viewed 302 times
0 responses 0 comments
One of the best things about Bakersfield is it is a great place to travel from, especially by one's own airplane with good companions who are adventurous as well. We have several great airports locally and a flying community that is growing daily. Our trip had been planned for the better part of a year. I even finished off my Instrument Rating to assure that weather would not prevent our 800 mile flight to Southern Baja for what everyone in our 6-seater Cessna would consider the trip of a lifetime. The instrument rating allows a pilot to fly under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR), allowing flight in clouds and low visibility conditions within the capabilities of the aircraft.
We met at EpicJetCenter at Meadow's Field, the fabulous new facility near the International Terminal. Epic is worth a visit just to see the neat aviation-inspired decor and cool planes in the massive hangar. We all squeezed into our 1978 Cessna Turbo 210 (200 mile per hour SUV) with our maximum allotted 12.3 pounds of baggage each to keep the plane within its 4000 pound gross weight limit. This was especially important as we would be making five landings and take offs on dirt airstrips. Dirt is softer than asphalt and will make our takeoff runs longer and rougher than usual. Every extra pound is an extra foot or two of takeoff run.
March 13th was a beautiful morning with just a few clouds over the mountains that would provide a short burst of IFR as we headed to San Felipe, Baja to pass through Mexican Immigration. We had made two short forays into Mexico in the last year, San Felipe and Puerto Peñasco just to get the hang of going to and from Mexico so this trip would be a breeze. About two hours later we were in San Felipe. Here we waited in lines with many other planes that were part of the Baja Bush Pilots Association that had organized this group trip. We were now on "Mexican Time", so patience was a necessity. My wife, Denise is an "organizer" and self-admitted control freak, so she was already plotting strategies to get us through the bureaucracy faster before we hit the baños.
Pemex fueled us up and with the plane about $400 in cash lighter in fees and fuel, we took off for our next fuel and bio-break stop, Loreto, Baja Sur. Southern Baja is the 31st and last territory to become a MexicanState in 1974. Another two hours of beautiful vistas from 7500 feet made the time pass quickly as we traveled at a ground speed of 230 miles per hour south along the east coast of Baja. Dominating the view was the beautiful blue water of the Sea of Cortez on our left and amazing geologic features caused by the BajaPeninsula tearing away from the mainland of North America and the Pacific Ocean invading the gap this split. Magma worked their way upward through the fractured crust creating volcanoes, lava flows amongst faults offsetting layers of colorful rocks. Northwest trending slivers of continent cleaved by tectonic forces from the peninsula are now desolate islands off the eastern shore.
We passed over our final destination, Mulege about 100 miles north of Loreto. There is no fuel available at Mulege's El Gallilito air strip, hence our landing at Loreto. Fuel and fees including an $8 tower tax went much faster as there was no line and we were back-tracking to Mulege in no time. We also noted Loreto was a beautiful place, worth a trip in the future for us. LoretoInternationalAirport was in the midst of building a beautiful, modern new terminal so it appears that others have discovered this locale north of Cabo as well. Another half hour and six more souls were added to the 134 other flyers at the Hotel El Serenidad of Mulege. As pilots do, there was a group of Dos Equis sipping judges under an umbrella critiquing landing technique as we taxied into our parking spot among the forty or so other planes.
Greeting us was the gregarious Jack McCormick, owner of the Baja Bush Pilots Association. Jack alone would be worth writing a story about but is just one of the many interesting characters we would meet on this four day adventure. Let's just say Jack has a software publishing company but doesn't need to work and can do this flying adventure stuff full-time in his luxurious airplane, a Commander Twin Shrike. Ah, to be Jack. Checking in at the BBPA desk was a breeze, getting handed cocktails and coupons to pay for food, events and stuff.
The cocktails were timed right as the BBPA store was open and shopping would begin immediately. All passengers were briefed pre-cocktail that any purchases adding weight to the plane must be offset by dishing stuff here or losing body weight on this trip. The former was more of a possibility than the latter as were rewarded for our travels with many wonderful meals. We walked up the scenic MulegeRiver two miles into town to experience the wonderful Mexican culture and culinary delights. I have never seen scallops so big. So much for losing weight. The thought of re-weighing my passengers and pilot comes to mind. But then, the tequila takes over and we don't care. Early to bed as tomorrow is another adventure.
We are up before dawn to get in line for breakfast at the Serenidad Restaurant. Wise choice as service is slow but we are the fifth plane off the ground. The Cessna T210 has 310 horsepower and retractable gear so we pass all of our predecessors to land at the remote Laguna San Ignacio Airstrip after crossing the rugged BajaPeninsula to its west coast.
Laguna San Ignacio is an 18 mile long, 4 mile wide bay on the west side of Baja Sur. It is protected from the crashing waves of the pacific by a narrow, shallow inlet. We were given life jackets and walked on the tidal flat knee deep to small outboard engine powered fishing boats called Pangas. The Pangas were about 17 feet in length and could seat nine passengers. They were amazingly stable as we would find out when all nine passengers would shift to one side in unison to pet whales. The tidal flat ended with a drop off to 50 meter deep water per one of our drivers. We rode south for about 30 minutes those on the upwind side getting thoroughly soaked by the wind driven spray. The temperature was about 60 degrees and the water felt about the same but we came prepared so none of us was very cold.
Whales were in view spouting big clouds of water vapor from a great distance. Before we knew it we were having amazing encounters with the mammals that are can be larger than semi trucks. It was a very emotional experience as none of us could imagine seeing up close much less touching these magnificent behemoths. And boy, did they want to be touched. Slapping the water with our hands would attract them to the Panga, babies more likely to make immediate turns to our boat followed closely by Mom who would stay just below or next to baby. My wife, Denise actually started crying when on baby came out of the water, body vertical about 3 feet right into her arms for a long pet. Their skin was smooth and soft like an inner tube filled with urethane foam It was a struggle to coordinate petting with photography. Thank goodness I have a waterproof digital camera. Moms would occasionally come straight at our boat, their size would somehow elicit the emotional response of fear as would a ship’s bow coming directly at the small Panga. But they would come to a smooth halt and almost always exhale a cloud of spray right next to us and sometimes on us (whale humor). Some would receive a pet, others would descend slowly and smoothly below our feet, tail and snout clearly visible on the far sides of the boat. It definitely would get ones heart racing as the flukes alone rivaled the size of our craft.
The personalities of the babies were all unique as are the personalities of dogs and people. Some were friendly, some shy, others were showoffs like our last encounter on the second day where the female would do rolls and show her underside to us over and over. Baby was just having fun if you consider a two thousand-pounder a baby. Great White Sharks this size are fearsome, baby Grays are cute with their perpetual grin. We soon learned that Moms make white water when they move at surface, while the babies didn’t due to the size difference.
Our final night at the hotel was the most fun with the weekly pig roast at the Hotel Serenidad to celebrate how lucky we are to be doing this. The BBPA arranged for a fuel truck on Saturday so we could avoid the trek to Loreto again which allowed us to leave early and head north for home. Every night we were there, we went to sleep earlier and napped more than the previous day; Mexican Time. After fueling in San Felipe again and checking through Customs at Calexico International we were home bound dodging the remainder of the storm that passed through California while we were gone. As we flew through snow showers in the California High Desert bound for Bakersfield, I could smell and feel the soft, cold flakes as they passed through the air vents and landed on my face… remembering why I fly…
Doug Winston
| Send to a Friend | Report a Violation |
Spotlight
| Cool new People | ||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Find More People
|
||
|
|
||
|
Meet People Who Like ...
cycling, football, gardening, pets, food, singing, motorcycles, cats, art, outdoors, Family, SPORTS, friends, traveling, wine, Dancing, music, wildlife, reading, tattoos, coffee, mountains, beer, myspace, hiking, computers, church, writing, movies, pizza, dogs, Poetry, fishing, shopping, Travel, trader joe's, guitar, Politics, Theatre, cooking, starbucks, Photography, Animals, swimming, history, graphic design, Beach, Books, camping, cars.
|
||
| View Them All | Add Yours! | ||
|
|
||
|
Advertisement: |
||