SKA Blog

If you are considering a kayaking and/or gray whale tour in sunny Baja, give us a call for friendly advice about the best trip itinerary or location to meet your needs.  We are happy to answer all of your questions, and please feel free to give us a call at 1-800-616-1943 directly - we're always eager to chat about all things Baja!

1.  Do you and your staff run the trip, or do you contract with another company?
We own the permits and operate the tours ourselves. Co-owners Terry Prichard and Nancy Mertz started as guides in the Baja area in the 80s, and are still very much in love with the area. One or both spend much of the season at their home base of operations in Loreto.

2.  What is the minimum/maximum number of people you take on each trip?  What is your participant to guide ratio?
We have the highest (that we know of) guide-to-guest ratio in the area, with a guide per every 3-4 guests.    We have a minimum of 6 guests and a maximum of 13.  Most of our trips have 3 guides on them, so that two can be preparing food while one is leading a hike, helping snorkelers, or giving a nature talk.

Vladimir "Vlady" de la Toba has been a cheerful, enthusiastic member of the Loreto Sea Kayak Adventures team for over 6 years.  A 3* British Canoe Union kayaker, Vlady also brings a wealth of local knowledge about the wildlife and wilderness of Baja to all of his tours.

Did you know that Vlady comes from a long line of lighthouse keepers at San Lazaro located at the southern end of Magdalena Bay?  Both Vlady and his father, Victor, contribute work towards sea turtle protection with Grupo Tortuguero.  Vlady spends his summers educating fisherman about preserving sea turtles and other important species and the dangers of bycatch.  Vlady perfected the art of safely catching sea turtles for biologists: he jumps into the water from a boat, swims after the turtle, and grabs the turtle by the shell just behind the head with one hand and just above the tail with his other hand.  He calls it "sea turtle rodeo."  After measurements are taken, the turtle is returned unharmed to the sea. You can read more about the sea turtle preservation efforts in Baja here.

Meet Vlady and our other wonderful Loreto guides on your next trip to Baja to hear more about his work and the beautiful animals about which he has so much passion to protect. If you would like to get involved in sea turtle recovery in a more "hands-on" way, consider joining our Sea Turtle Monitoring and Kayaking Expedition this March!

Sea kayaking and whale watching tours in Baja and British Columbia with Sea Kayak Adventures are fully-equipped and fully-catered, so all you need to bring is yourself! But don’t worry – just because you’ll be eco-camping doesn’t mean you won’t receive first-class fare. So how DO our guides prepare such wonderful, delicious meals in the middle of uninhabited wilderness?!

Dutch ovens are the first “ingredient” to our success.  Sea Kayak Adventures remains one of the few kayak tour companies that cooks with this authentic, versatile method. Dutch ovens are placed on or over a campfire or stove, often with coals placed along the lid to heat from the top as well.  While most people think of Dutch ovens as suitable only for slow-cooking, like roasts or stews, our specialty is dutch oven baking for savory main dishes like chili rellenos, baked salmon and vegetable lasagna.

We even make delicious desserts in these cast-iron pots, from brownies to pineapple upside-down cake. Want to test your culinary camping skills? See the recipe below – and let us know how it turns out!

Fabulous Dutch Oven dessert: 

Pineapple Upside Down Cake (serves 7-8 people)

Ingredients:

• Yellow cake mix (1 box for 7 people)
• 1 Can of sliced Pineapple
  
• 2-3 eggs & vegetable oil for cake mix/box
• 1 small jar maraschino cherries
• butter & brown sugar

Instructions: Oil inside of Dutch Oven. Cover D.O. bottom with butter & brown sugar.  Arrange pineapple slices & maraschino cherries on bottom of D.O.  Mix cake mix according to box directions and pour batter over pineapples/cherries.  Bake 45 mins.-1 hour. Invert cake onto D.O. lid for serving.

Sarah's Report from the Field

As we mentioned in our last blog entry, the July 31st - August 5th trip to Johnstone Strait was a fantastic success.  Trip leader and long time SKA guide Sarah Hauser reported the following:

"Last week's trip to Johnstone Strait was packed full of wildlife and calm seas. Our first night out we had a visit from the Straitwatch girls and they chatted with us around the campfire with fresh baked dessert about what they do in the Johnstone strait educating people on the marine wildlife viewing guidelines. Another highlight would be the northern resident orcas that came right along the shore of our campsite and two of them came into the shallow waters of the beach just meters from us for a little rub on the pebbles.  Amazing!"