Chapter 31: Fly to San Ignacio Lagoon 2/17/25

Chapter 31 Fly to San Ignacio Lagoon
Monday, February 17, 2025

I arrive at SeeCreatures at 6:30 in the morning. At Calle Miguel Hidalgo 10, it is a short walk from my VRBO. My handlers offer coffee and pastries as I meet my traveling companions. There are 20 of us, more than I had anticipated. At 7:00, a coach takes us from downtown to the SJD airport. Two 13-passenger jetprop Cessna 208B Grand Caravans wait to take us on a just-under-two-hour flight to our camp at San Ignacio Lagoon. But they are delayed for an hour. Our luggage allowance is supposed to be a soft sided bag weighing no more than 22 pounds, a rule that I obeyed. Not everyone did. Oh, well.

A tray of champagne awaits us upon arrival at the dirt airstrip as the camp staff offers greetings. We are loaded into a caravan of SUVs and driven five minutes to our "camp site." There is brunch and a welcome briefing. Everything is a tent. There is a "Dinning" Tent, a bar tent and a whole bunch of glamping-type tents. I am in Number Ten. There are no children in our group. The youngest participant is a 14-year-old girl. A 16-year-old boy is with six members of his extended family/group. Otherwise it is couples of a certain age. Oh, and a videographer guy from Germany who has two gigantic rolling hard sided suitcases full of equipment.

The ground rules--or more accurately lagoon rules--imposed by the government are that only 16 "panga" boats are allowed in the lagoon at any one time for excursions not exceeding 90 minutes. At 11:30, our group loads into three pangas and away we go. The captains have a system for taking turns on the water. Everything is, of course, dependent upon the weather. Mornings are quite cool while afternoons in the sunshine can be quite hot. High winds put a stop to everything if the water gets rough enough. Today, the water is flat calm and the temperature is in the low 70's. Perfect.

We see tons of gray whales. They are thick. Some approach to within 20 feet or so but none are willing to take that extra step to snuggle alongside our panga. It is only day one. Be patient.

Back at camp we get a briefing about camp ground rules, are told that there is a presentation at 6:30 and dinner is served at 7:00. Breakfast tomorrow morning is at 7:00 and we are to be kitted out and ready to board our pangas at 7:45.

Being well prepared means dressing in layers. In the morning it is cold. By noon time, unless there is wind, it warms up. Then, late in the afternoon it cools off again. I have what I think is the right wardrobe for three days on the water but only time will tell if I am right.

Uploading video from here may very well be impossible. Uploading these blog entries won't be easy. But, I shall do my best.