Whales, whales and more whales, and dolphins too

I just returned from a fabulous week at Casa Melissa. The first morning we saw two humpback whales breaching very close to shore – just about 1000 feet off the pool. The first thing that grabbed my attention was a loud sound – I looked up to see a whale breaching. The sound I heard was the other one hitting the water just seconds before the next one breached. They were so close I could see their bodies really well without binoculars!

The next day we went on the whale watching boat tour with Vallarta Adventures.  We came upon a large pod, between 10 and 12 whales. For quite a while there was a pod of dolphins  swimming with them.

The guide said there was one female and the rest were males competing for the primary swimming spot right next to the female.  Then another male whale came into the area, breaching and making lots of splashing noise to announce his presence as a new suitor. It was very cool.  Though the law requires that the boat stay about 30 feet away from the whales, I guess the whales didn’t know the law. They even swam under our boat.  At another point the guide put a hydrophone into the water and we were able to listen to whale sounds. It was a memorable day.