We thought the butterflies couldn’t be topped, but Karel took us on an epic adventure today!
We had breakfast at the hotel and then met at the ECOtours Vallarta office where we watched a video about the whales and the conservation efforts that are happening in Banderas Bay.
We boarded the boat with our Capitán Rafa and off we went!

It didn’t take us long to see whale behaviors. One male humpback spent several minutes slapping his tail on the water surface trying to catch the attention of the surrounding females. After a few minutes of tail slapping and pectoral fin waving we witnessed the most sought after behavior…breaching!! To observe one of the largest mammals on Earth propel itself out of the water was truly magical. And we even have video and pictures to capture the memory.

After each whale encounter Karel would note the scientific data for research purposes- number of whales, time of day, and location. We also attempted to snap as many tail photos as possible to identify individual whales.

Our Captain spotted a solo male and we listened to him sing his song using a hydrophone. We also saw a young calf and its mother in the shallow water. The mother was letting the calf rest on her back. To identify the mothers we attempted to get a picture of her dorsal fin.

In total we saw about 25 whales. Other wildlife from the day were iguanas sunning in trees, an active dolphin pod, and a myriad of birds. We spent time birding and spotted a Roseate Spoonbill, Black Necked Stilts, Magnificent Frigatebirds and the Blue Footed Boobies. We even saw two crocodiles lounging in the sun. What a truly spectacular day soaking in the wonder of this area!