Whale watching in La Entrada
I got to go out on a Ponga ride yesterday, for the first time. I don’t think that I’ve talked about Ponga’s here yet, so let me give you some info on them. Ponga is a type of boat used mostly by fisherman, but fisherman who offer whale watching trips in Mag Bay use them as well. A Ponga is a fiberglass boat made in La Paz with varying lengths from 8 feet up to 18 feet painted white with a light blue trim. These boats are the standard out here, they handle the conditions very well and are long lasting. A “Pongero” is the pilot of the Ponga.
We headed out and quickly came up on a cow and calf that were being chased by a bull. The calf was very young, our Pongero says probably only weeks or a month old, and the bull was hoping to mate with the cow. We hung out with them as he chased them around in circles for an hour, we were essentially baby sitting while this was going on. The calf would come over and want to play with us, then the cow would get side tracked for a while, but after a little bit she would come over and get the baby. The bull would follow closely behind her.
No one on our boat got to touch them, but a couple people got to touch the cow from a zodiac right next to us. I did get some decent pictures, though.
It appears that we won’t be headed up to La Boca for a few trips. I’m OK with this, the whales down here in the La Entrada seem to be quite a bit more active. We have to go where the whales are!
