The Cactus Trip Diaries

When you’ve had a great experience and return later to do it again, there is always the danger that you’ll be disappointed. Will the whales always come to the boat? Want to be stroked? Play with the boat? Judging by today’s performance – yes! Was it the same whale as last time, that they keep on a lead and get to perform its routine on a daily basis? No, because other whales were doing their thing at other boats in the bay, while other whales seemed to be waiting their turn! A couple of times, a couple of dolphins came by and tried to get our attention. ‘Our’ whale actually seemed to leave our boat, to see them off, before coming back for more whale-play-time. I’m really not sure as to who had to come to see who.

So, was it better than the February time? No, it was exactly the same experience, both score 11 out of 10. But there were a few differences which I’ll mention for Alain’s benefit:

• The tarmac road out of San Ignacio is now ‘finished’, i.e. it takes you some 10 km out of San Ignacio before it turns into a graded track with bad wash-board affects all the way to the launch site some 70 km down the road.
• This time there were more people wanting to go, so we had to hang around for about an hour and wait for another boat to return. There are only 18 boats allowed to be in the watching area at any one time.
• This time, there were 3 to a bench in the boat, i.e. Ian, Cliff & I and I missed the freedom of moving around the boat a bit that was possible in February.
• I took fewer pictures – after all, how many pictures do you need of ‘an inflated car tyre inner tube covered in barnacles’?
  Instead, I hoped to take some classic video shots. I filmed some 10 minutes in total and may have some 1 minute’s worth of video. BUT I had all bases covered as I bought a DVD at the shop in town from which I can take clips for a presentation if need be. I’ll see that I copy it for you Alain, at least in time for ELK if not much sooner.

We bumped our way back along the track, impatient to download our images to see if they are any good. I’m pleased with mine, but have not yet seen the video.

Tomorrow we had hoped to drive in one go to the Desert Inn in Cataviña (with plant stops of course), but when Eunice tried to book it through the Reception at the Desert Inn where we are staying, we learned that is was fully booked – it is Easter after all! As we’ll be passing anyway, we’ll stop and see if the booking we tried to make in the same way had actually gone through. It seems that when the answer to the question is ‘No’, the Mexicans revert back to speaking only Spanish. Our back up plan is to reach San Quintín in time for the night – there is plenty of accommodation there and there will be less distance to drive to Ensenada the next day, which will be our springboard for a long drive via Valle de Trinidad to Mexicali and a X hour wait in the queue to cross back to the USA.  Going home is really coming closer.

Just as well, as I’m down to my last US$ 20 and MN$ 600. Fortunately I’m well ahead in the kitty, so that I have no real worries. I’ll be sure to leave Mexico with Nil Peso, although I’m sure I’ll be back some time soon.