A whale of a tale in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

From Zihuatanejo we continued our way north up the Pacific coast of Mexico to our next port of call, Puerto Vallarta. There we were in for a special treat as our excursion this day would be whale watching.

Whale watching season in Mexico, at least for the species that migrate to the area, runs from December through March. Humpback and Gray Whales travel upwards of 6,000 miles as they make their way here from the northern Pacific and Bering Sea. They come to breed, give birth, and feed their young in the plentiful waters.

Our excursion was on Zodiac inflatable boats that held about 30 people and were speedy enough to be able to whisk us from spot to spot depending on where the whales are. And they need to cover a lot of ground (or water!) as the Bay of Banderas (Bay of Flags) that surrounds Puerto Vallarta is huge. We had the option to go whale watching via more traditional boats and catamarans and were very glad we picked the speedier Zodiacs as they really made the difference in being able to whisk us from one whale sighting to the next.

From Puerto Vallarta our Zodiac headed northward toward Punta de Mita which is about 10 miles from Puerto Vallarta. The trick to whale watching is twofold. One way is to watch for the telltale water vapor that looks like steam that the whales send up when they surface and exhale. These 'clouds' of vapor are very distinct against a clear blue sky  and are a giveaway that a whale is in the vicinity. The other way, unfortunately, is to simply eyeball where all the other whale watching boats already are and head their direction. Fortunately our Zodiac captain relied on the first method as he had 30 plus tourists all craning their heads 360 degrees anxiously watching for the whales to blow. This mostly allowed us to see whales without the crowd of other boats around. On the few occasions where there were other boats nearby it made me feel we really were encroaching on the whale's space though to their credit we never saw any boats attempt to get all that close to any whales we saw.

All of the whales we saw this day were Humpbacks though there are many other species, including Orcas, in the bay. Humpbacks are large, growing to an average of 40-60 feet in length and weighing as much as 44 tons. Mostly dark gray or black in color their tail flukes do have individualized white patterns that can identify a particular whale. These patterns are used internationally to help track whales as they migrate through several international databases and Humpbacks are of course famous for their underwater songs.

We saw several pods of up to four whales swimming together and saw several mothers with their calf. As you'll see in the video below we were fortunate enough to see many different whales, whale tails, and fin slaps. It really was a special time on the water, completely different from anything we had done before. In fact, we enjoyed it so much we did it again at our next port of call, Cabo San Lucas. But that's a whale tale for another day...