My Whale Watching Photos, Cabo San Lucas

[SDPadreFan]

Just posted my Whale Watching photos taken just last week on 13 Feb 2008. We were on the Pez Gato Catamaran.

I am happy to report that the Pez Gato kept a respectful distance from the whales. In this case it was a trio of humpbacks (including a baby) that were having so much fun in the water.

Photo's were taken with my Canon S3-IS camera with a 12X zoom.

Here is the link.

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/562535753iirWdb

[goat rancher]

Beautiful pics:)....

We were there on the same day (the 13th) on the Pirate ship....those whales were pretty neat!!

[anniev3]

Great shots...thanks for sharing!;)

[shagnut]

Great shots, You got the tale!! I got the tale too!! It took a lot of work but got it. I don't know how to link , sorry I can't share. shaggy

[retiring soon]

Great shots! What a thrill to see them, eh? Lovely sunset too!

~Jo~ :)

[DeBlonde1]

Can you tell us more about the Pez gato excursion? Did you book it on your own, what it included and the cost? Great pics, byt the way!

[SDPadreFan]

Can you tell us more about the Pez gato excursion? Did you book it on your own, what it included and the cost? Great pics, byt the way!

 

We made reservations online. They have their own web site. They have 3 catamarans named Pez Gato I, II, III. We were in Cabo for a week at our timeshare so we just picked a day. Whale watching excursions leave @ 10am and return @ 12:30pm. Cost was $30 each and included beer, soda, water, chips, salsa, & guacamole.

 

Whale watching generally tails off in late March and ends around April 1st.

[Another Cruise]

We were there Feb 10. What a great day. One of the Pez GAto crew members makes fresh salsa and guacamole on board the boat--best we had. Great crew. The Pez Gato II is the one used for whale watching and it is right next to the pier. Don't have my pictues posted anywhere yet, but here is a whale photo and one of the Pez Gato II.

[Another Cruise]

Don't know what happened to photos. Will try again.

[MEOWSMURPHY]

Darrell....were we in the same ocean???:mad: We were in Cabo on the 15th...while we saw whales I never saw anything like your pics...those are awesome...btw...we did end up doing the ship's zodiac excursion and you were right they are handled by Cabo Expiditions...great ride although some had to sit on the side of the zodiac...thankfully not me, but on second thought if I had and I'd gotten "bounced" into the water I just might have seen more whales :D anyway thanks for posting...if you are up to sharing a pic or two I'd love to have them to put with my other Pride photos and also use one for me desktop..especially the one of the whale breaching....if you don't have my email address from when you sent me previous pics of the zodiacs..let me know..

 

Thanks...Emmy

[SDPadreFan]

Darrell....were we in the same ocean???:mad: We were in Cabo on the 15th...while we saw whales I never saw anything like your pics...those are awesome...btw...we did end up doing the ship's zodiac excursion and you were right they are handled by Cabo Expiditions...great ride although some had to sit on the side of the zodiac...thankfully not me, but on second thought if I had and I'd gotten "bounced" into the water I just might have seen more whales :D anyway thanks for posting...if you are up to sharing a pic or two I'd love to have them to put with my other Pride photos and also use one for me desktop..especially the one of the whale breaching....if you don't have my email address from when you sent me previous pics of the zodiacs..let me know..

 

Thanks...Emmy

 

Hi Emmy,

 

Glad you had a good time. Give me your addr. again and I'll shoot you the pics. I'll send you the originals without my watermark. They are fairly big files (shot at max resolution on my 6MP camera). They average 2-3 megs. per shot.

[MEOWSMURPHY]

Darrell...thanks so much for sharing the pics..you can send to

me_meow@wowway.com "underscore between me and meow"...I'll look forward to adding to my Pride pics and showing my kids what we "could" have seen :D if we'd been on your tour...thanks again for all your information..sure made the trip more enjoyable with first hand knowledge upfront..we can't wait to go back... Emmy

[PattiPB]

I am purposely not looking at your pictures, because I don't want to get too excited about our excursion. Glad you had fun and a wonderful experience.

 

I'm hoping goat rancher can give me some feedback about the pirate ship. We've decided to do that one, in case we don't have any whale encounters the kids will have something else to focus on.

 

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I'll look at your photos after our cruise next month. Hopefully I'll be sharing my own National Geographic style pics!! :D

[MEOWSMURPHY]

Hey Darrell;

 

My internet has been down on my home computer...got it up today and didn't see any pics. If you sent then I never got them. Would you mind resending? If you haven't had a chance to send..no problem..I just didn't want you to think I'd gotten them and didnt reply.. Let me know when you have a chance..

 

As always..thanks for all your help...Emmy

[SDPadreFan]

Sorry, Emmy

 

Just been up to my eyeballs in post vacation chores, etc. I'll try to send them tomorrow or Wed.

[MEOWSMURPHY]

Thanks Darrell...no problem..just didn't want to miss them if you had sent...take your time..alas I'm back at work and not going anywhere soon :( so no rush...

 

Emmy

[bicoastalbabe]

Saw your posting and pictures and loved them! We are going on the Ryndam next week and would like to reserve a whale watching trip in Cabo and would like your advice. How close were you to the whales? On cruisecritic people are recommending two different whale watching trips. One is on a 140 passenger catamaran and the other on a zodiac with 15 people. We need to choose which to take. If you get real close I guess the zodiac would be better, if not so close, the catamaran (we get seasick). What do you think?

 

Also, do you love your camera? We need to buy a new one and want a larger optical zoom than our current 3X. We have an older Cannon Elph and love it but it is just too slow. The pictures it takes are wonderful, however, so we are thinking of sticking with Cannon.

 

Where else did you go on your cruise? We would love advice on other ports. By the way, we are in San Diego also.

[Host Caroline]

:) Great pics!! Really.. make me "homesick" for Alaska.. we go whale watching in Auke Bay every time we go back..it never ceases to be incredible

[SDPadreFan]

Saw your posting and pictures and loved them! We are going on the Ryndam next week and would like to reserve a whale watching trip in Cabo and would like your advice. How close were you to the whales? On cruisecritic people are recommending two different whale watching trips. One is on a 140 passenger catamaran and the other on a zodiac with 15 people. We need to choose which to take. If you get real close I guess the zodiac would be better, if not so close, the catamaran (we get seasick). What do you think?

 

Also, do you love your camera? We need to buy a new one and want a larger optical zoom than our current 3X. We have an older Cannon Elph and love it but it is just too slow. The pictures it takes are wonderful, however, so we are thinking of sticking with Cannon.

 

Where else did you go on your cruise? We would love advice on other ports. By the way, we are in San Diego also.

 

I've actually been on both a zodiac (March 2007, Ocean Riders) and a 40 person catamaran (Feb 2008, Pez Gato). Both were very good. When we did the zodiac boat in 2007, it was towards the end of March. We did see whales but it was nothing like this year. If you decide to go with a zodiac, choose Ocean Riders because they have a great seating setup. Cost will be about $50 for a 2 hr ride. PLAN on getting a little WET. It is a high speed thrill ride.

 

This year we went on the Pez Gato Catamaran. We had about 40 people on board. Because we went earlier in the year, there were A LOT of whales (both greys and humpbacks). We had a great time on Pez Gato. Cost was $30 for 2.5 hours and included beer, soda, water, chips, salsa & guacamole. Seating was comfortable and you will not get wet.

 

I am very happy with my Cannon S3-IS. It is a very capable camera with a powerful zoom (the reason I got it). I did a fair amount of research and it was the best for my needs (not to mention Consumer Reports likes it). It runs on standard AA batteries (I use rechargable's). It uses Secure Digital memory cards (very popular). The latest model is the S5-IS. It has a lot of capabilities and if you want to learn all of them you will be very happy. Or you can just point and shoot. You will still be happy.

 

Shooting whales requires either a great deal of skill (and knowing how to maximize your camera settings). Or a heck of a lot of luck. I tend to fall in the latter category. I know a fair amount about photography but I was also damn lucky.

 

This last trip was just our annual timeshare trip (1 week) to Cabo. We also have cruised to Cabo and other Mexican Rivera ports as well. Next up is RCCL Brilliance in November (France, Italy, Greece, Turkey). Next March (2009) will be Carnival Pride (Panama Canal).

 

Nice weather in San Diego this week. Really stinks living here doesn't it.

[SDPadreFan]

Hey Darrell;

 

My internet has been down on my home computer...got it up today and didn't see any pics. If you sent then I never got them. Would you mind resending? If you haven't had a chance to send..no problem..I just didn't want you to think I'd gotten them and didnt reply.. Let me know when you have a chance..

 

As always..thanks for all your help...Emmy

 

Started sending the pics last night, let me know if you got them. More to send today.

[MEOWSMURPHY]

Started sending the pics last night, let me know if you got them. More to send today.

 

 

YES!!!! THANKS SO MUCH!!..I didn't have time to download them to my computer this morning so I'll do that tonight...I can't believe you sent so many and so AWESOME...thanks again for sharing..I have decided we will HAVE to go back again so that maybe THIS time I can capture some shots like you did...can't believe one day made such a difference...you saw many and the next day we saw hardly any...wonder if the rough waters had anything to do with it??

[SDPadreFan]

Hi Emmy,

 

Hope I don't overwhelm you with photos. Be patient with your e-mail download, these are big files. I have 9 more from the whale watching trip, 1 of the sea lion colony, 6 showing how close the whales get to our timeshare (Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach), and 6 sunset shots from our Sunset Dinner Cruise on Feb 14th with SunRiders.

 

I don't know where the zodiac took you to see the whales. We were on the Pacific Ocean side and there was a lot of activity there. Many boats and many whales. Maybe you need to try Pez Gato next time (or maybe it was just a case of good luck for us). When we went on the Sunset Dinner Cruise on the 14th (also on the Pacific side), there were still a lot of whales to be seen in the late afternoon. Most people on our boat were excited to see them but for us it was just more whales again. Guess that's a lucky position to be in.

[retiring soon]

Darrell - Are you going to post the other photos you told Emmy about? Seals & sunsets are interesting too!;)

~Jo~ :)

[SDPadreFan]

Darrell - Are you going to post the other photos you told Emmy about? Seals & sunsets are interesting too!;)

~Jo~ :)

 

I just had one photo that I sent her of the sea lion colony. It wasn't anything that she had requested, just something I decided to give her. Same thing with the sunset photos (there are 6 of those). 3 looking at the sunset through lands end, the other 3 looking at the sunset with Cabo in the background. I'd be happy to share them with you as well. I prefer to share my high resolution (minimal watermarking) photos through an e-mail address like I've done with Emmy. The ones I post on webshots are much lower resolution with a much larger watermark. I don't mind sharing my photos, but because webshots allows unlimited downloading, I tend to post copies that people won't rush out to claim as their own.

 

So if you'd care to provide me an e-mail, I'll send them on their way. The whole set is about 38 photos including the whales.

[retiring soon]

Hi Darrell, Yes thank you, I would love to see them. My email address is:

 

jem476 at yahoo dot ca

Sunsets, whales & sealions would much improve another snowy day!!!

~Jo~ :)