Zabels At Sea

This . . .

is a whaleshark.  We went on a trip on a local boat today to see whalesharks, and we saw at least five, probably more.  After a while, we weren’t sure if we were seeing the same one repeatedly.

Whalesharks are about 15-20 feet long.  They are the largest fish species in the ocean (i.e. they are not mammals, they are big sharks).  They eat plankton, like a balleen whale, thus the name, I suppose.

They are large, swim as fast as they want to – not generally very fast – and are tolerant of inter-species swimming.  They have very powerful tails.  When they get tired of your shenanigans, they just move a little fast or deeper.  Before you know it, they are gone.

Big tail.

They like this part of the Sea of Cortez for its warmth and food supply.  Their bodies are spotted.  Our trip companions, Cynthia and Butch, got much better pictures than we did:

The spots are beautiful and more colorful than they appear in these pictures.  You might try to find other pictures on the internet.

All of us had a chance to get up close and personal with one of these animals today.  Larry touched one by mistake (you’re not supposed to touch them.)  I swam beside one for a ways before my mask started to fill up with water (I hadn’t put it on securely before I jumped in.)

We would not have seen any of these magnificent animals without the help of our terrific driver, Juan:

The lady standing behind him is the business side of the business (so to speak).  She was there to organize us (quite a feat in itself!), send us off, and greet us on our return.  I think her name is Tessa.

We are pretty sure that this final best picture – person and shark — is of Cynthia, the participant in our group who got us together:

All in all, a very successful and exciting day!

Tomorrow, we are going to Caleta Partida, or bust!  It is an anchorage between Isla Ispiritu Santo and Isla Partida.  We’ll post a report over the weekend.

***Edit by Gilligan:****

Muggs asked me to insert this neat video they took of the whalesharks, so here it is:

We also have a  YouTube video prepared by someone who went on the whaleshark trip with them:

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Just taking some time out for some personal business – Muggs had a lot of dental work done – and then getting ready for something called La Paz Bayfest.  Larry will be teaching a one-hour class about knot tying, and Muggs will be displaying her artwork at the Art Show!  Maybe I will get a chance to get pictures of this for my next posting.

Meanwhile, we are getting ready to go out for a few days in the local islands.  Earlier this week, we purchased a 120v juicer.  Yesterday, Larry bought 10 pounds of oranges (at least – maybe more!!).  So we are having fresh-squeezed orange juice for the next week or so, courtesy of our 150w inverter that runs the juicer without having to turn on the engine or generator:

Pretty cool, huh!!

We hope to see whale sharks soon.  These are the largest living fish species.  They congregate not far from where we are anchored, so maybe we will see some as we leave tomorrow.  Possibly not, though, since a lot of breeze is expected which will make the water choppy and not conducive to seeing these big guys.

I will report later.  Until then, remember that manana (tilde on the first n) doesn’t really mean tomorrow – it just means not today!!

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