If you’ve never been on a whale watching cruise, add it to your bucket list. If you are like me and get sea sick, make sure to pop a Dramamine before boarding your boat!
Whale watching season is during the Winter in Mexico. Prime time is between December and March. You might get lucky and see a dorsal fin or fluke off in the distance from shore. But, the best way to enjoy the magic of the Humpback whales is taking a boat. Be forewarned that to protect the whales, whale watching tours are required to stop on a certain date in late March when the whales travel north to cooler waters.
There is no shortage of whale watching tours in the Banderas Bay. After doing some research, Vallarta Adventures seemed to be most popular. They have a long list of reasonably-priced excursions including multiple options for whale watching. I was hoping to find a whale watching plus snorkeling trip, but since we were staying in Sayulita without a car, I decided to pick a company that met up in town.
If you want to go on a whale watching cruise, I recommend booking at least a week in advance.
Many of these trips fill up and some of them have a discount if you book at least 3 days beforehand. The next company in line was Ally Cat Tours. Unfortunately, they were all booked up for the rest of the week. We walked around town and checked out the local companies. I suppose more internet searching made sense, but it was a beautiful day to wander Sayulita. The decision came down to either Chica Locca Tours or Mi Chapparita.
At first, I was turned off by the sales pitch at Chica Locca, but I’m really glad we went with them. The price was roughly the same (about $100 for adults and $75 for kids), but Chica Locca put on one heck of a show. I’m actually shocked at how much was included in that price. Private shuttle to La Cruz Marina, a large boat with plenty of cozy seating to take us to the Marietas Islands, a full breakfast and fajita lunch, an open bar, an excursion to La Nopalera Beach, paddle boarding, snorkeling, an awesome tour guide, and lots of time to enjoy the whales and boobies. What a deal! And everyone was endlessly friendly and professional.
Yep, nothing like a beautiful pair of boobies chasing you!
We saw our first whale within a few minutes of leaving the marina. She was off in the distance, but it didn’t take long before more of those beauties came into view.
We saw about 10 Humpback Whales on our way out to the Marietas Islands. And another 10 on the way back. That’s a lot of whales! Sadly, we didn’t see any dolphins, and it was the wrong time of year for sea turtles.
I know that the title of this post is Whale Watching, but there were simply too many boobies not to show them off! During the entire ride out to the islands, a flock of Yellow and Blue-footed boobies kept us company. They put on quite a show circling overhead before diving just below the ocean’s surface for a tasty treat.
Yellow and Blue-footed Boobies are by no means endangered, but they are only found in the eastern Pacific Ocean, primarily along the western coasts of Central and South Amera, including the Galapagos Islands and Gulf of California.
From what I could tell, the Yellow Footed Boobies preferred to flock around the boats, while the Blue-footed Boobies mostly stuck to the protected, uninhabitated Marietas Islands. I was unable to find much information about the yellow-footed variety; apparently, they aren’t nearly as common as our blue-footed friends.
Despite the ridiculous number of whale and booby pictures, I couldn’t have my good camera on me for a good chunk of this trip. There are all kinds of rules protecting the Marietas Islands, so we could only get so close without abandoning ship and swimming to shore in the required life jackets. I’ll definitely be upgrading my water camera before my next Mexico vacation.
The pictures aren’t great, but I’m still really glad I had that silly, little water camera!
One of the best parts of the trip for me was the paddle board game Kaia and I created. The kid has good balance!
Snorkeling
The snorkeling portion of our trip was pretty short. I think we were only out there for about 20 minutes. We got good and close to the coral and some beautiful fish; unfortunately, the water was too murky for decent photos.
I did get some pretty pictures of the Marietas Islands from our boat before we headed for the beach.
The return trip from the Marietas back to the Marina was very relaxing. They served up fajitas for lunch, continued the open bar (the Virgin Piña Coladas, or Piñadas were amazing!). Music played, we watched the boobies diving, and kept an eye out for more whales.
Remember that other tour I opted out of? There they are!
They are up close and personal with a female humpback. According to our guide, the pod of male whales we’d been following were in the middle of a “heat run”, fighting for the honor to spend some quality time with this beauty. She ended up getting quite close to our boat, as well!
Even though we didn’t get as close to the whales, I’m still glad we went with the luxury of Chica Locca Tours. Great job, amigos!
What I would have given for a longer lens right about then!
I was a little sad as we approached the marina. I could have easily spent another 2-3 hours enjoying the boat ride, boobies, and whales with Chica Locca. And I really was hoping to see a breached whale and some dolphins. Next time!
Back to the Mexico Travel Blog
