Whale Walk
When living on Calle Ecuador in Puerto Vallarta, the view of Bahia de Banderas from our balcon stretched wide—an awesome vista. We could see Punta de Mita across the bay to the north. South from Punta de Mita, straight in front, lay the Islas Las Tres Marietas. Scanning the open water further south, our eyes met land again at Punta La Iglesia on the south side of the bay.
Each day we watched the sun as it moved north toward Punta de Mita at the summer solstice, then south to over land to Punta Iglesia at the winter solstice. Every day at sunset, we noted the apparent solar movement. By mid-January, the sun had moved north from Punta Iglesia enough to set over water in the south of the bay.
One morning looking out at the bay, we spotted whales. The whales were here.
Whales, ballenas!
A quarter-mile offshore, a catamaran and two pangas floated dead in the water within a hundred yards of two wallowing whales. The people in those boats were getting a close look.
I had a morning meeting in Old Town, Colonia Emiliano Zapata, so I kissed Alice goodbye, hurried down to the street, and scrambled down the steep Calle Panama to reach flatter terrain. I zigzagged across the cobbles of Colonia Cinco de Diciembre toward the north end of the malecón, the shoreline’s broad walkway.
There they were—the whales. They had moved further south, even closer to shore—now just a few hundred yards out.
I could swim to them from here.
As I eased into a comfortable pace weaving along the broad walkway through strolling tourists and locals, the whales seemed to move along with me. They sounded, came to the surface after gaining a few hundred yards, then dawdled together for a while. I was so pleased my pace synced with the whales’ movements it took me a while to realize most of the people on the malecón were oblivious to the whales. Every hundred feet or so, I met a person whose gaze also had locked on the whales, and we exchanged smiles.
It was like walking along with a dog—until I arrived at the south end of the malecón and the whales turned west—out to sea—untethered—free—wild.
A high-five tail-wag. Gone.
Whales. Humpback Whales.
