El Salvador - Hump(back) day!

January 27-29

Hello everyone!

Whale, whale, whale…

Humpback whale

What do we have here?

Mini: enjoyed her weekend but was
more interested in squirrels than whales

A variety of the world’s largest mammal, the humpback, spends its year moving between warmer and colder waters. They move to warmer water in order to breed; eleven months later, they return to give birth.

Stock pic of a whale frolicking in the Pacific

This means that, between December and March, quite a few humpback whales appear off the coast of El Salvador. An opportunity hard to pass up.

In between, they feed in the colder,
more food-rich waters closer to Alaska

We’ve seen whales before in South Africa, a memorable experience watching Southern Right whales soar and splash whilst standing on the shore. This was slightly different. This time we were going into their territory…the water…

This stretch of water has restricted fishing 

Not technically in the water. The rules very much forbid that. Instead, we would be on a small boat leaving from the otherwise sleepy village of Los Cobanos.

We boarded at about 8am

It actually took closer to 3 hours, owing to
massive traffic and many accidents on the way

We stayed in an AirBnB a little way from the shore

We’d been sent some instructions - including that rule about not swimming with whales, which had never crossed my mind - in advance. These also suggested that you would probably get wet and therefore protect any valuables you bring with you. When we arrived, we were told that the water was choppier than usual; we would definitely be getting wet.

It had never crossed my mind

This turned out to be excellent advice

Choppy waters - we were given a
seasickness pill before leaving

Within two minutes of bouncing up and down on the windswept waves, my bag was soaked through, with ziploc bags protecting the most valuable assets (phone and wallet) and my towel absorbing water to protect other items such as binoculars and the camera. 

When we hit calmer sections, we had a great
view of the volcanoes rising from the land

This partly explains the lack of pictures from this trip. As we were fighting against the waves on our way out, we were relentlessly battered by salty water which took your breath away and stung your eyes, even with sunglasses on as protection. It’s hard to take photos when you can’t see!

Water: choppy

After what seemed like quite a long time, we abruptly changed direction to follow two boats which seemed stationary on the horizon. Excitement grew, which was slightly tempered by the amount of seawater I was swallowing. Excitement grew more when we started spotting spouts of air blowing from the surface of the sea.

More boats soon joined the group

There were quite a few boats in the vicinity when we arrived. As a dark shadow rose to the surface, we soon realised why. The baby, which was admittedly still massive, followed soon after.

I'm not sure whether this
is one of our photos!

The serenity of the movement was spellbinding. This could be the excuse for not getting any photos of the whales. In reality, it was because I had tried to take a photo with my camera…and ended up with a wave covering it with water. It immediately turned off.

Even with a working camera, no one would have had the foresight to capture what happened soon after. Without any warning, a humpback suddenly soared into the sky to our left. Its rotation allowed us to see a lot of its stomach before it crashed back into the water. As quickly as it happened, it was over.

They're under there somewhere...

We were ready for the second whale to follow suit…and it duly obliged…

There was another big splash later on behind our boat, which only Hannah managed to see. Thereafter we spent a while driving near, but not too near, the mother and child as they floated further south.

Moments like this are one of the reasons Hannah and I moved. We wanted to have easy access to the coast and to beaches. Add in some enormous visitors and it makes us feel happy to be living in El Salvador. Even now it is without a decent camera.

Hannah's artistic impression

Whale watchers!

Love you all,

Matt