Where is the best place to watch whales raising their babies? For years I had heard it was Cabo San Lucas in Baja California, but when I put my question to friends In Guadalajara, they were unanimous:
“Puerto Vallarta is the place to go!” they replied in unison, “and right now (January and February) is just the right time to see whales.”
So it was I discovered Explora Vallarta, a touring company run by marine biologists. They transported my friends and I from Puerto Vallarta to the port at Punta Mita in Banderas Bay, where we ended up having a medium-sized boat just for ourselves, plus the pleasant company of three enthusiastic young biologists whose very lives revolve around whales. We left the dock surrounded by brown pelicans. “How’s the sea today?” I asked the biologists.
“Smooth,” one answered.
We were soon being thrown starboard, windward, leeward and every-other-ward known to navigators of the deep as our little boat flew through the air, smacking the brine over and over. Lucky us that it was a smooth sea that day!
After half an hour, we spotted another boat, this one full of 20 lifejacket-clad tourists like us. We turned to our guide, Jorge Morales.
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