Time to head out to watch for whales. We are on a tour with Kelly Boat Cabo and just seen the Arch, Pelicans and Sea Lions...now let the fun begin.

We sped off in search of any movement in the water that might be a whale. Wait, is that white over there a whale? Is that their spout? Nope, just the wake in the water. Ugh!

At one point we stopped and the captain of the boat said he thought he might have seen something and there were other boats in the area so there had to be one here right? 

We waited and waited...but we didn't see anything. Honestly I was losing hope at this point. I wondered exactly how long they wait to see something. Do they just sit there the entire time until a whale pops up? Would it be hard to see? Would we only see their spout blowing in the water? Would they be too far away to really see? Would we move on? So many questions running around in my head. My anxiety was building all while losing hope. 

The hubby looked like he was a little disappointed as well. I mean I've never done this before so I didn't know what to expect. I did know it was the end of whale season and it was possible they had already migrated...I mean we did see the one off the back of the ship migrating north on our way to Cabo. Maybe it was the caboose of the whales?

Just a little information about Humpback Whales.

They usually range from 39 to 52 feet in length and weigh around 40 tons. They are black on the upper surface and white below.

They feed on krill, small fish and plankton (remember our land vacation to Isla Mujeres Mexico where we swam with the Whale Sharks feeding on the plankton that ended up in our hair when we got out of the water? That was THE MOST AMAZING experience we've ever had).  When feeding, it is called bubblenetting. They exhale bubbles, which traps the prey in a small area in the middle. They live off their blubber in the colder months and only hunt in the summer.

The Humpback whale is the most vocal of the whales and can make a variety of sounds. We actually considered a whale watching tour with a vendor that had some type of contraption that they put in the water and you can hear them making sounds.

The Humpback is the most acrobatic and frequently breaches by jumping belly-up, completely out of the water, then arching backwards making a splash in the water. When they are getting ready to breach, you will see them dive deep down into the water, their back hunches and their tail comes up out of the water perpendicular to the surface. 

They are very intelligent with brains weighing up to a ton! They can travel over 25,000km and remember locations and also organize hunting groups. 

They get their name from a hump under their dorsal fin, which is visible when they arch their back to dive. 

Female humpback whales breed every 2-3 years and have more than one male partner over their lifetimes. The males compete in groups around the females by singing, breaching, charging, sparring and slapping their tail and fins. If they are rejected, they leave the group.

Baby calves interact with their mothers by brushing fins and whispering. Mother and baby will share a bond for one year. A newborn weighs around 1-2 tons and are 12-15 feet in length. The mother nurses the baby with up to 100 gallons of very thick, rich, yogurt like milk a day!

So there's your Whale knowledge for the day. Now let's hope we see one!

So after sitting there for what seemed like eternity (but I'm sure it wasn't...it was just the excitement of the unknown), we decided to move on. 

All of a sudden we sped up and was zooming across the water to where there were other boats. 

We stopped and he pointed off in the distance, toward the rocks, close to shore...

IT WAS A TAIL!!! THERE'S A WHALE HERE!!!

Then we seen a splash!

We patiently waited...

Then all of a sudden...it got VERY ACTIVE!!!

There were fins and flappers and tails and spouts everywhere. They were jumping up in every direction and one even had her baby with her teaching him how to jump. 

It was SO AMAZING to watch! My heart was filled with excitement!

You see the big fin coming up? They were flapping their fins against the water. Oh what a display!

Out on the other side of us there were more!

We zoomed over to another area and one of the whale's that had a baby with her was repeatedly flapping her fin against the water...over and over and over.

 Whenever you seen their body come up and then dive down quickly, you knew a jump was about to happen!

We were so caught up in the excitement that I wasn't even paying attention to Karl to see how he was reacting to seeing his first whales...Oh hey Karl...the whales are over there. You're not going to see them looking down into the water like that...

Yep, he was sea sick. LOL  Puking up breakfast several times. Well, I guess that answers my question about whether or not he is "one of us". I brought medication with me just for this but he had refused saying he would be ok and ok he was not.

The guide asked if we wanted to stay longer and I told him we could go since we had a "member that was a little sick". 

We started heading back and on our way back...more whales, so we stopped again for awhile. 

By this time Karl was feeling a little better and moved up to the front of the boat...trying to compose himself and not making eye contact with us from embarrassment. It's ok Karl, not everyone can be water people like us. He assured me that he was fine and enjoying "every minute of it". I ask if that included face planting off the side of the boat. I wasn't sure if his laugh was genuine at this point or not. I guess I will have to ask him later if he is still a good fit for this family. 😄 

I had also seen that there was a Pirate ship that did whale watching tours. I had considered it just because I know how much fun Sakari had in Aruba on the Pirate ship. As we passed it, they were playing music and dancing. However, with a boat that big, I didn't feel like they might have been able to zoom off in different directions when they spotted a whale and had decided against it. But, now that I'm thinking about it, them being up so high off the water they probably had a great view for sure!

After this, we headed over to Pelican Beach for the rest of our tour.