Bonita

From my journal…(with just a little spit shine)

January 27

‘Whales. Whales, whales, whales whales whales, oh my goodness whales. Kathy and I went out on the last Zodiacs for whale watching at Mag Bay (Magdelena Bay) this afternoon. We got Jordan for our driver and we got Carlos too. (Carlos is a naturalist on the boat. He is from Baja California.) We had three guests, Darlene from the NY office and the ships Doctor.

We were out for about an hour and a half I guess, me praying praying praying praying to Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit &, why not, asking Mary & St. Francis for their prayer help too that we would touch a whale. We saw several, often quite close but not touchable. We nearly ran into a pair they surfaced so quickly and close. We saw flukes and baby breaches & two swimming pretty much on top of each other. (It was all amazing. It was wonderful to see it from the close perspective, not only distance wise but from where we were on the water as opposed to the usual high up position of the boat.)

And then when we’d been out for almost the whole time we had a mom and calf so close. Kathy and I started splashing because Daisey had told her that this helps. It must. They came closer. Oh. My. Goodness.

We followed them and they us. Baby coming up, head out of the water, I’m hoping he’s curious about us. Mama coming up. Oh my Mama. Soooo much bigger, barnacles on her back. Kathy and I lay on our bellies over the side, splashing and calling( “Don’t forget, these whales speak Spanish.”reminds Carlos. Oh great. Because we know Spanish. Except we don’t) and generally freaking out.

Some of Kathy’s finest;

“Look at you! Stop it! Stop bein so handsome! Look at him! Look at his little nostrils! I don’t know why it’s a he. Sorry guys its just a he. I need you, I love you! You need me too you just don’t know it yet! Oh my goodness his lips!”

Priceless.

We would all move from one side of the boat to the other as necessary. So close, so close…& yet…

Still I prayed.

Up they came. Right beside us, there was Mama. I stuck my hand in- couldn’t reach. Arm, fleece and all, in the water. I feel a hand on my ankle- Carlos making sure these two crazy women don’t fall or jump in.

Kathy touches.

“Oh my goodness! Look at you! You feel like an olive!”

I plunge my face in. She’s so close but I still can’t reach her. When I think of this even now I’m not at all sure how it is possible that I couldn’t touch her. She was RIGHT there, I was at almost the same point in the boat as Kathy, and I have longer arms not to mention my face was in the water. I was a tad concerned that my life jacket was going to inflate as I kept going further in.

At one point I go to plunge my hand further and stop. Her eye is right there in front of me under the water, right where I was going to reach. She’s looking right at me with her big beautiful eye under the water and just right there. Right in front of my face.

I say so later and it makes me cry because I can still hardly believe it and it’s so beautiful. I didn’t get to touch but it was all so beautiful, so very very beautiful.

We could see them as they were right beside the boat, swimming together, baby overlapping Mama, both their flukes and forms visible under the water. We could feel their spray on our faces when they came up for air. And we certainly felt when Mama bumped our Zodiac, perhaps trying to teach us as she would her calf. We could have touched their flukes (tails)- they were right there- but Carlos said not to.

We were so late back to the boat- Kathy and I drenched & laughing. Right before we had forced ourselves to say goodbye, Mama gave a fluke out of the water r I g h t by me, waving us off.

Beautiful, beautiful, bonita. Oh my, bonita.

Thank You Father. Amen.

Afternote-

Kathy and I were a little concerned that our abundant crazy happiness was a liitle much for our fellow zodiac passengers but that night at Fiesta dinner we discovered otherwise. Darlene and the Dr. told us it was so fun, and that we had helped to make it fun (let me just say now that in the main that was Kathy.) People kept commenting to us on things that had been said (namely Kathy’s “I’m never going to wash this hand!” Jordan nudges her. She is Senior stew and serves these people three meals a day. “I mean….I’m going to wash this hand.” Everyone laughs and at dinner they ask her if she washed her hands. One lady asks if I washed my face.) It’s very encouraging to know that we all had a wonderful time.

On our way out to see the whales I asked Carlos why they came to they bay here, why do they approach the boats, why do they let us touch them? I like Carlos. He is an underwater videographer and naturalist and he says I wear pretty earrings. He is a big man who is very sweet. Like a big teddy bear. He is from Mexico but sometimes he looks and sounds to me like he’s Russian.

The answer to my question was that he didn’t know. He said there was still a lot of mystery about whales, and about many things in the natural world, and that he believed this was a good thing. I think so too and I like that he said so.