We started our day with a 50-mile-long sandbox to play in. Isla Magdalena, one of the two barrier islands creating Magdalena Bay was our landing for the morning. Sand with a texture so soft and fine you could call it flour caressed our toes as we started our walk across the island to the Pacific Ocean. It soon became obvious we were not the first to amble amongst the dunes. The oval shaped prints of jackrabbit bounded across the landscape, some of us were lucky enough to see the jackrabbit. Unseen but obviously present were coyotes, their tracks crisscrossed the dunes and paralleled the shoreline. Tiny zippers in the sand represented the tracks of beetles traipsing about and a few sinuous slash marks let us know snakes also inhabit this island.
Upon reaching the Pacific side we heard mixed into the white noise roar of pounding surf the muted conversation of awe and a higher staccato of giggling. The feeling of wet sand squishing between your toes has the ability to waken your inner child. Some of us started grabbing handfuls of the wet gray material and let it slowly slide through and drip between our fingertips into the whimsical shapes of miniature sand castles.
Upon our return to the mother ship, Alberto spoke to us of the diversity of marine mammals that call Magdalena Bay their home, as well as the cetaceans of the Gulf of California. Well equipped with our new knowledge base, we started our search for gray whales as the mangrove lined channels broadened and brought us closer to Boca de Soledad. Gray whales ahead, and next to and now behind us! We delighted in the abundance of these animals and continued to point out and shout out their positions. Cow/calf pairs were lollygagging about throughout the bay.
With the later afternoon we anchored near the town of Puerto Adolfo Lopez Mateos and investigated the small town as it proceeds to prepare for the gray whale festival. When the festival does start, there will be a Miss Gray Whale crowned, but we will be satisfied with looks at the cow/calf pairs swimming lazily in the lagoons of Magdalena, even if they don’t wear tiaras.