Poo, quesadillas and a dead fish.
By Rodrigo Manterola
24 February 2019
Half way into the season our whale friends are finally
growing in numbers at the lagoon, this year’s season has been different for
sure, weather conditions mainly related to climate change have prevented ice
formation at the gray’s feeding grounds thus keeping them longer in the artic
seas, also, interestingly enough, our gray friends have been spotted in
southern latitudes than usual, reports from sightings as far south as Puerto
Vallarta are not uncommon this year.
Whales are not the only migratory species affected by these
weather conditions, Brant’s geese and white pelicans were also late to their
winter hangouts along with other species. A strong remainder that denial does
not make the problem go away.
It is interesting to observe how this year also brought an
unusual amount of water to the Vizcaino desert making it bloom with color for a
few weeks, the semper dry Adam’s tree bushes were beautifully adorned with
their characteristic red flowers and their not so always visible small green
leaves. Flowers of all colors along with every shade of green embellished the
road to Campo Cortez at least for a few days.
In the other hand our also migratory friend Carrie Newell
was right on time this year, just like every year she came along leading a
group of very enthusiastic whale watchers to the lagoon, armed with cameras and
rain jackets these fellow nature lovers followed Carrie in her every year
adventure into the Baja breeding lagoons.
For Carrie, coming to San Ignacio is a ritual. In her blood,
just like the whales, runs San Ignacio lagoon’s water and you can find it embedded
in her DNA, no question about it.
For us at the camp it’s always a pleasure to see an old
friend, the wealth of knowledge she embodies, is both inspirational and
educational for every guide at the camp, she devoted her life to the
observation and protection not only of the gray whales but also of their
environment. The interconnections between all the species in the ecosystem was
clear for Carrie since she was young, a lifetime of research and science put
within the public’s reach.
But what does the poo, the quesadillas and the dead fish
have to do with all of these?
Well, having Carrie around is like having an excited genius
kid around, she will jump and scream of emotion if a baby whale poo lands in
her hands, and it did. She picked it up and bagged it for a later microscope
session where all the guests at the camp could find the secrets behind the
babies fat rich milk diet after digestion.
The dead fish happened to be a half beak fish, an elongated
fish like the needle fish, and whom maybe out of bad luck escaped from the bite
of a bigger fish in a jump just to land in the dryness of a panga and to
finally be found next morning as stiff as a stick.
Well, that all sounds good, but what about the quesadillas
you may ask?
A set of two quesadillas was smuggled out of the kitchen by
yours truly to be enjoyed in a later snack that by design, included a nice hot
cup of coffee. Unfortunately for the writer of this post I forgot about the
whole idea and a day went by, next morning, I found these three items lying
together on the same shelf, of course my appetite was deterred by the poo in a
bag and the fish-stick, so I decided to have the nice hot cup of coffee and
just write about the whole thing.
Signing out,
Rodrigo
I’m glad to share with you my first camp report, this is
my first season at Campo Cortez, and from the first step you make on this
wonderful lagoon, you feel the special vibe of this place, it’s something magical.
Yes! The birthdays here are very special!
