Un-mothball your windbreaker, polish your binocular lens and ready your soul to shiver in awe at the sight of the ocean’s great mammalian leviathans, for whale watching season is upon us once again.
For residents of Jalisco, Banderas Bay, which shelters tourism mecca Puerto Vallarta and several smaller municipalities, is the site of much of the season’s whale watching, with humpback whales trooping down from frigid Alaska to give birth to and nurture their young in the bay’s heavenly, spa-like waters.
While outfits offering whale tours abound, one of the most reliable is Vallarta Adventures, an eco-preservation firm that also gives tours (Whale Watching Photo Safari), boating eager gawkers out into Bandera’s tepid chop, where one can see breaching whales, calves learning important survival skills and dolphins streaking under the bay’s glassy surface. Whale song can often be heard, piped from the cavernous lungs of male humpbacks, who hope with the beauty of their canto to attract a fetching humpback cow for a quick roll in the seaweed.
The tours given by Vallarta Adventures start at 8 a.m., last three hours and cost $US89 for adults, $US60 for kids aged 6-11. The season runs from December 8 to mid-March. For booking and details, go to vallarta-adventures.com.