Take the trip of a lifetime and experience the Pacific Gray Whales in their last remaining pristine birthing grounds at Laguna San Ignacio, Baja California, Mexico!

Description

Take the trip of a lifetime and experience the Pacific Gray Whales in their last remaining pristine birthing grounds at Laguna San Ignacio, Baja California, Mexico!

Includes: A trip for TWO (2) to spend 4 days and nights in Laguna San Ignacio – an internationally recognized World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve in Baja Peninsula – to experience the Pacific Gray Whales, courtesy of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). (Late February/Early March 2011 dates TBD).

Unlike typical whale watching trips, which demand patience, wishing and waiting, experience an intense whale watching excursion. On this outing you’ll come into warm contact with the deep whooshing of breathing whales as they too share in the experience of gazing at mysterious visitors. The more curious whales are even known as "friendlies” – typically babies that either swim over to your boat on their own or are inexplicably pushed up and towards you by their mothers. Often, they’ll heave themselves out of the water right next to you!

Laguna San Ignacio is the only gray whale birthing ground left on Earth that has not been despoiled by human encroachment. Each winter, hundreds of pregnant gray whales swim 4,000 miles from the Arctic to reach this perfect lagoon nursery and give birth. Here, in the warm tranquil waters and placid surf, their one-ton newborns play with one another and hone their swimming skills for the arduous journey back to Alaska.

Although NRDC has launched a successful campaign to protect 120,000 acres of the lagoon, it is still threatened by the resurrection of salt works and oil and gas drilling. Piers have also been proposed. To fend off these new threats, NRDC and its partners are trying an innovative new approach – buying up the development rights to a million acres surrounding the lagoon and putting them in trust. Already, 120,000 acres have been secured. Your contribution to this event assists the Natural Resources Defense Council’s ongoing efforts to protect this vital territory.

DAY BY DAY ITINERARY:

DAY 1
** Departure is scheduled for 7:00am (time subject to change) from the Holiday Inn in Old Town, San Diego. After a quick trip across the border to Tijuana, Mexico, you will take a private charter flight to the San Ignacio Lagoon in Baja California, Mexico. Enjoy lunch and a short excursion of the inner lagoon area before boarding boats for the 20-minute ride to the island base camp where you will join the gray whales at their winter calving ground. Once at the base camp, you will have time to settle in, enjoy the first camp dinner and hopefully view a perfect lagoon sunset.

*** Because the departure is scheduled for very early on the morning of Day 1, trip participants must arrive in San Diego the evening prior to accommodate the trip’s departure time.

DAY 2 -4
Twenty-foot panga boats will await you each day to take you out among the whales, which are often just offshore. These Mexican fishing boats are about half the size of a full grown gray whale, and enable you to be at water level in order to have direct contact with the whales as they swim in these pristine waters. You’ll explore the vast lagoon ecosystems via walks on the shoreline, beaches and tide pools. You’ll be able to photograph the bird life, listen to experts discuss natural history or just sit back and absorb the incredible rhythms of the lagoon and its diverse wildlife.

DAY 5
After a hearty camp breakfast and a final farewell to the whales, you will board the boats and travel back to the inner lagoons. Enjoy lunch at a colorful lagoon-side restaurant before the midday charter flight to Tijuana. We will then transfer across the border by bus and return to the hotel in the early evening. If booking a flight out of San Diego this evening, please be sure flight departs after 7pm.  

LENGTH:
4 nights/5 days

FOCUS:
Nature, wildlife and environmental issues

ACCOMMODATIONS:
Floored and windowed tents at base camp, Inner Lagoon, Laguna San Ignacio

PACE/DIFFICULTY:
Moderate with mornings and afternoons spent on the water in fishing boats

SIZE OF GROUP:
Maximum 20 guests

COST PER PERSON:
$2,450 per person double occupancy
Tour cost includes all accommodations (except the night before the trip’s departure), meals, group airport transfers, group transportation, lagoon fees, professional guide service and program expenses. Airfare to and from San Diego and guide gratuities are not included.

PAYMENT SCHEDULE:
Balance of $2,450 per person due on January 22nd, 2010.

The proceeds for this item benefit Christie's Green Auction: A Bid to Save the Earth

Donated by: NRDC

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