Believe it or not and despite the fact I live in Paradise, time to time I need a vacation. This spring the location to go was Seattle Washington, I was lucky as the weather was awesome and not a single drop of rain fell on me.
So many things to see and do in Seattle and near places, museums, the underground tour of Seattle and of course: I wanted to see some whales!!!
I had see many different types of Marine life during my years of diving but i have never see a whale… so… i signed us up for a Whale watching tour, 5 to 6 hours of excitement on the quest of Moby Dick, Keyko or any of the closer relatives !
As in any other tour that involves watching animals on their natural environment, whale watching tours have more odds playing against that on its favor…and we knew that…nevertheless we were excited and anxious, optimistic and in good spirit.
The boat we went on was nice and comfortable and the crew that took us out did a pretty decent job keeping us entertained and pointing to all sort of places on the shore, identifying birds and other creatures along the way…
The scenery of the San Juans Islands is just awesome and in a clear day you can see Vancouver Island, the Olympus and even Month Rainer !!! the tour itself as a boat tour is very relaxing and a great opportunity to have a glance of what it was to be an explorer on the XVIII Century…
…but…how many animals can you see ? and more specific: how many whales did we see?
The answer to that it not as exciting as the voyages of Salvador Fidalgo or Captain George Vancouver while mapping the area for the first time…unfortunately…
At the end of the day the count was: 2 porpoises, 3 seals ( or so they said…I did not see them at all ), multiple and different kind of birds (which to be completely honest I couldn’t care less) and 2 Minke Whales !!!! yeah!! that we enjoyed watching for the whole time length equivalent to the happiness on finding out that what its inside that Christmas gift box is a pair of socks instead of the new X-box you asked Santa for…
So…did I get to see my whales? the answer is yes….did I came back with a feeling of excitement and happiness on my soul and heart ? no…
Overall…the boat ride was fun but the whale watching deal was not that great for us…and yes… I know that Mother Nature has her own time frame and schedules and that those tour operators don’t have the whales in a leash or under contract…nobody better that me to know that but yet….how many animals can you see?
To be fair…same deal was in Costa Rica while trekking the rain Forest or canoeing the rivers at Monte Verde…great tours…very little life.
So… the lesson to be learn and share is: if you really want to see wild animals and get intimate with them instead of watching a spot on the far horizon or a couple of eyes hidden on the green foliage…come and scuba dive !!!
Dollar for Dollar… Peso for Peso or Euro for Euro… the best way to spend you hard earned money wild life wise is Scuba diving…plus you get the tan as a bonus!
Share this with your friends…and get them in the water…I take care of having some sharks and turtles hanging around for them…
Be safe
Alex