Mike in the Wild

Medano Beach seemed like the last spot in Cabo San Lucas to try snorkeling, but I found myself doing it anyway.  The beach is busy owing to its proximity to the resort town's crowded port and to the scenic tip of Baja California in clear view across the bay.  The long, sandy stretch of coastline is filled with resorts hosting winter visitors trading blowing snow drifts for calm, lapping waves.  Jet skis, water taxis, and parasailers compete with swimmers in the azure waters.  But snorkelers?  I suspected there'd be very few of us. But there I was, having trekked over half an hour from my cruise ship's tender boat pier, passing hundreds of smaller docks and slips with my brand-new snorkeling gear on my back.  To be fair, I was with my husband, and we wanted a scenic, relaxing day at the beach on a Christmas Eve off of our cruise ship.  It was only me that wanted to snorkel.  And having been to the area the previous month, and successfully snorkeled...

The last time I sailed into Cabo San Lucas, a humpback whale breached several hundred yards off the port side of my cruise ship, the Majestic Princess.  I was sitting on my stateroom's balcony as the local pilot chaperoned us into the scenic bay and the whale leapt out of the sea and splashed back down spectacularly.  It was February, prime season to view the long-distance traveling behemoths in the area. On my November return to Baja California Sur, this time on the Discovery Princess, I didn't see any whales.  However, shortly before the sail into Bahia Cabo San Lucas, I observed an equally fascinating yet much smaller creature from my starboard balcony: a lone northern fulmar. It wasn't my first time identifying the seabird; I had succeeded at that on an October cruise off the coast of Washington State.  In fact, on that occasion, I observed three or four of them, swooping and gliding with stiff wings off the rear of the ship, occasionally diving under water....

I knew I'd return and, finally, thirteen months later I did.  But on my recent visit to Pelican Rock in Cabo San Lucas, I left the diving equipment behind and only brought a mask, snorkel, and fins.  It had turned out I didn't like diving when I tried it on my previous visit; the bubbles, ear pressure, and hand signals flustered me.  Exploring unencumbered by weights and equipment at the water's surface was a much better fit for me.  And besides, for me, there were just as many discoveries close to sea level as at thirty feet below.  Cabo has many places to snorkel, mostly all of them on the Sea of Cortez side of the Baja California Peninsula.  On stops off of multiple cruises, I've booked various excursions by catamaran and zodiac to Chileno Bay and Santa Maria Cove.  Sea life abounds and coral reefs thrive just a short swim off of these beautiful beaches.  You can even drive up the scenic Federal Highway 1 and park at an adjacent resort on eithe...

Spectacular.  There's no other word I can use to describe my first-time encounter with humpback whales. Any winter visit to Cabo San Lucas at the tip of the Baja California Peninsula usually guarantees a sighting of these visiting ocean giants.  Many come close enough to shore for resort vacationers to even catch a glimpse from the beach.  Deep sea fishermen and cruise ship passengers frequently see them from their respective decks.  And whale watching tour groups regularly bring tourists in close proximity.  But my own up-close encounter was from aboard a Zodiac boat on a return trip from a coral reef snorkeling excursion. The little craft's crew had given us hope that we might run into some of these whales as sightings had just started that late November week.  Humpback whales range all over the globe and generally follow a pattern of feeding during the summer in polar regions while mating and birthing their young in tropical and semitropical waters l...

While the bays around Cabo San Lucas in Baja California, Mexico are currently welcoming spectacular humpback whales for their annual winter visits, the coral reefs in the area have a colorful array of tropical fish in residence year-round.  Two reefs easy to reach either from nearby beaches or by a short boat ride from Cabo's harbor are Santa Maria Cove and Chileno Bay.  I chose the latter means of transport to visit these Sea of Cortez gems, taking a fast Zodiac boat tour organized by my cruise ship's tour desk. Each site has calm, shallow waters and most importantly vibrant and healthy coral reefs.  With less than an hour at each reef, I wasn't expecting to see the abundant and vast array of fish I witnessed.   Having learned to identify a number of individual species in Maui, I was excited to see some new and unique specimens in the same families.  And thanks to that experience, I was able to distinguish surgeonfish from filefish, and to find a first t...