February is prime whale time in the Bay of Banderas outside Puerto Vallarta. The humpback whales come to this bay to breed and nurse their young before heading north in late March to feed in the colder waters throughout the summer.
We headed out across in a speedy zodiac size boat with a capacity for about 20 people to see what we might find.
Humpback Whale Puerto Vallarta (Mary Curry)
It only took a few minutes to encounter our first whales- a calf with his mom. The calf repeatedly breached for us. The guide suggested that calves breach as a means of exercise to get stronger for the long transit north where they will begin encountering more predators than they have here.
Humpback Whale Puerto Vallarta (Mary Curry)
Our guide, Benjamin, was hilarious. He took us to a remote cove about an hour from the shore where we started and then proceeded to offer us a timeshare presentation (thankfully in jest). In truth, it was a great place to put the hydrophone in the water and listen to the male humpbacks singing to attract females.
Humpback Whale Puerto Vallarta (Mary Curry)Humpback Whale Puerto Vallarta (Mary Curry)
In total, we were out for about three to four hours and encountered dozens of whales, many of them mothers with calves, and many of them breaching to give us some breathtaking views!
Excellent travel advice and service
This is my second experience working with Adventure Life. I’m sold. Jess Heuermann is an experienced traveler and provides a lot of useful information when planning a trip. These are the questions I like to ask at the outset - What’s it like to go here, there, what would you suggest, what do people report, can we add any additional side trips? Jess took the time to answer my questions and seek additional information to share with me. Petchie Colina is outstanding in helping with travel logistics and final preparations. Adventure Life has excellent guides and offers private guides and small group adventures. We enjoyed the opportunity to talk with the guides and drivers to learn more about their countries, cultures and histories. A highlight was having the guides pick local restaurants where we could share meals together. Highly recommend.
Claire Cordon
5 days ago
Our six-day tour in Iceland went smoothly with one exception. We had asked for two rooms each night. Somehow we were booked with one room with three beds. It could not be fixed at the first hotel in Reykjavik because the hotel was fully booked. Once informed of the problem, however, Adventure Life rebooked for two rooms for the remainder of the trip. As an 85-year-old traveler, I appreciated that one could participate at different physical levels at many of the stops. Iceland is a great place to visit but on the expensive side.
Mary Warren
6 days ago
Jess was very easy going and answered all our questions. It’s not easy dealing with 6 people at once but she did an outstanding job!
Diane Foster
1 week ago
Kassandra and the Adventure Life team have been incredible! Kassandra was very knowledgeable and attentive to our asks while making sure we kept within our budget. This was our first experience with a travel agent and we were blown away by the booking/initial exploration service. We will use Adventure Life again.