Tuesday, January 22, 2008

La Paz to Bahia Magdalena/Puerto Lopez Mateos

January 21, 2008

After chatting with Sabine and exchanging our best wishes over breakfast, I loaded up and headed north. My plan was to get to the Bahia Magdalena – a premier whale watching area – on the Pacific. The Bahia Magdalena is one of the main calving grounds for California gray whales in Baja and Puerto Lopez Mateo is at the northern end of the Bahia in a narrow straight – a great spot to see whales migrating up the coast. Not wanting to spend a lot of money for a one-hour boat ride, I wanted to watch from the shore and PLM seemed the best place for that. Plus it is a small town and I was ready to be back in the smallness I had gotten used to in Baja.

The trip up the Trans was very uneventful in a particular way that, I guess, you could say was eventful: there was no wind. For the first time in a number of days I rode without fighting to keep my bike on the road against gusts of wind. I can’t tell you how much of a difference that makes.

As I rode along the highway towards Puerto Lopez Mateo I noticed a huge nest atop one of the power lines. Then as I went along, I noticed that every half-mile there was a nest and a wood perch was built on each pole, giving the hawk/eagle a good platform for their nest. It was obviously a state funded program to facilitate the habitat for the birds of prey. I even watched a hawk swoop from its nest with a big fish hanging from its claws. Way to go, Mexico!I got into Puerto, got settled, wrote a bunch of blog posts (this being one of them), took a shower and hit the beach to watch the sunset. Soon after I hit the sack. My plan was to get up early the next morning to watch any whales swim by.

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