I've got to tell this story - it was an absolutely amazing experience. Raenelle and I were camping in the Baja at a place called Eco-Mundo. It is a beautiful little spot with some grass huts along the beach right on the Sea of Cortez. We had just come from the south near La Paz, and had wanted to do some kayaking before heading back home but we didn't want to pay for a tour. Finding good quality kayaks for rent in Mexico can be a challenge, but as luck would have it, there was a stack of good looking ocean going kayaks stacked up in the shed. We were in business!
Raenelle and I are experienced kayakers - we do enough of it back home in the waters around Vancouver and along the coast of Vancouver Island - so we knew what we wanted: a double kayak, complete with rudder, spray skirts, well sized paddles, and of course safety gear including life-jackets and hand pump. Most of the kayaks we saw in Mexico were these little hard molded plastic thingy's that you sit on top of. There are holes in the bottom to put your feet so water comes up to the top. They're OK for tooling about in a shallow and sheltered bay, but anywhere else would be a lot of work and really unsafe (I'd rather swim). These full size kayaks we had were perfect.
So early one morning we got up just before sun rise to paddle out into the waters for one of those unforgettable Baja mornings. I prepared the kayak and we set off. Out in the distance there was splashing, so we headed for it.
Kayaking in a Pod of Dolphins
To our amazement, we were paddling the kayak straight for a pod of about 30 dolphins who had nothing better to do than play. They were jumping fully out of the water, splashing around. They would come up beside us, look us straight in the eye, and "gukgukgukgukguk" at us (maybe you've heard the sound of dolphins chattering on a nature show or at an aquarium).
It's a little unnerving to see them all around you. There were moments when they were on all sides of us, swimming back and forth under the boat, along side, jumping ahead and splashing in the distance. They're certainly not whales, but dolphins are large mammals!
We could whistle and we'd hear them whistle back under the water. There were full grown adults, mothers and babies. As the pod moved away we would follow. They'd stop 500 m away from us and play and wait for us to catch up. When we did they'd play some more, maybe eat, then move on. It went on for a few hours.
We didn't count on going whale or dolphin watching when we set out to kayak the Sea of Cortez that morning. But as it always seems in the Baja, there are always little gifts like this one waiting for you whenever you least expect it.
Photos
We took hundreds of photos, but we only had our cheap camera that takes a few seconds to focus - it was nearly impossible to capture any of the good flips and jumps the dolphins were displaying for us. In any case, I've added some of the better ones below.
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