SKA Blog

Call us with any travel questions and to check availability prior to booking flights: 1-800-616-1943 or 1-208-765-3116

Our Baja kayak tours operate out of Loreto, Baja. Travel to this supreme paddling and whale watching destination is surprisingly easy for a world class wilderness adventure. Like many national parks, the Loreto Bay National Marine Park and the islands in the Sea of Cortez UNESCO World Heritage Site remain pristine in part due to their geographic remoteness - and they are just as worthwhile to visit!  Fortunately for travelers, Loreto hosts its own small airport with several flights per week on a US carrier. Additionally, the international hubs of La Paz and Los Cabos ("Cabo") are just a short distance south down the Baja peninsula and offer easy transit to Loreto. The following travel options are well-tested and utilized by Sea Kayak Adventures guests every year.

Sea Kayak Adventures visits many world-class locations on our kayak and whale watching tours.  Each year, as excited guests arrange the details of their trips, we receive the same question over and over: "How do I get there?" We do our best to provide up to date information about flights, buses, and other methods of transport.  While we are so fortunate that Loreto, where we kayak on our Baja tours, is easily-accessible by regular transit (no need to travel for 2-3 days to get there!), flights sell out quickly in advance of our tours.

We stumbled upon this link with some helpful tips for savvy travelers who seek ways to find inexpensive airfare: Top 10 Tips for Finding Low Airfare

Sea Kayak Adventures office staff member and first time kayaker Amber Crane just returned from a tour in Baja (Oct 30-Nov 4, 2011).  She will chronicle her adventures in a new blog series:

Voyage of a Novice Kayaker

Part 2: Do as I say, not as I did – Trip Preparation

I didn’t do everything wrong on my Baja trip.  After all, I had the time of my life!  I just don’t recommend pinning the success of your tour on my misadventures. Consequently, I bestow this blog to fellow nervous-novices that you might glean from it the fruits of my foibles.

As mentioned in my last blog, took a proactive approach to my upcoming trip that worked quite well, initially. I familiarized myself with a sea kayak prior to my departure and increased my upper body strength.  I talked through my concerns and asked questions about anything of which I was unsure. (I must confess, I didn’t even know what a ‘dry bag’ was when I started working for Sea Kayak Adventures!)  I joined a trip that had motorboat-support, which was a luxurious addition and support to make up for my minimal camping and paddling experience.  I read through the pre-trip e-mail and thoroughly combed through every page of the trip guide with devotion and studious measure.

…Okay, okay, I actually just browsed through the first through pages, tore out the pack list, and then flipped through to look at all of the animal pictures.

Sea Kayak Adventures office staff member and first time kayaker Amber Crane just returned from a tour in Baja (Oct 30-Nov 4, 2011).  She will chronicle her adventures in a new blog series:

Voyage of a Novice Kayaker

Part 1: Wait, what do you mean by ‘sea kayak?’

Kayak? On the ocean?  Like, where the big fish live?

I confess, when I first joined the office staff at Sea Kayak Adventures this past August and received the generous opportunity to join a trip this fall to Baja, my first thoughts were not of starlit sand or diving dolphins. 26 years of media influence and land-locked living ensured I possessed a healthy caution of open waters and the untamed inhabitants therein.  Consequently, the thought of strapping myself into a sliver of fiberglass and hovering like a delectable hors d'oeuvre above hundreds of feet of water containing what I could only assume would be a swirling mass of “things-that-might-eat-me” seemed, quite simply, impractical.

That SKA owners Terry Prichard and Nancy Mertz have led kayak expeditions in the Sea of Cortez for over 25 years (and operated their business there with thousands of guests since 1993) without anyone swallowed by a whale (most of which, I later learned, are of the peaceful baleen variety) didn’t soothe the stirrings of my survival instinct. As much as I aimed for intellectual suppression of my irrational fears, I remained committed the administrative end of the Baja sunshine: from the safety of my computer screen with my feet firmly on solid ground.

And then I saw the pictures.

Travel to Loreto's world class paddling/whale watching destinations, on par with the Galapagos and Patagonia, is surprisingly easy compared to other Latin American or South American destinations.  The latest information is provided below.

A simple direct 2 hour flight from Los Angeles LAX to Loreto LTO OR 60-minute flight from the Cabo area to Loreto will set you down in the sunny palm-tree studded relaxed seaside village of Loreto.  You will be met by our representative at the airport holding up a sign and whisked away to our tour hotel a 5 minute drive away in downtown Loreto, a short walk from all the restaurants, shops and lovely waterfront walkway. You can also fly into Los Cabos "Cabo" (on the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, where the movie stars go for resort action) and fly Aereo Calafia to Loreto OR fly into the capital city of La Paz and travel by express bus or rent a car and drive 4-5 hours north on the main highway to Loreto (the tiny Loreto bus station is right across the street from our tour hotel).

For more information on flight schedules, click "Read More." (Or scroll down).

Sept-Dec, spring in the southern hemisphere, is the "right" time see the southern right whale. Pods travel up from Antarctic waters to give birth in the sheltered lagoons of Peninsula Valdes UNESCO World Heritage site in southern Argentina. This offers an excellent opportunity to be in close proximity to these ungainly looking but acrobatic whales. They were called "right" whales by the early whalers because they floated once harpooned, making them easier to harvest.

We still have room on our Dec 3-10, 2011 departure to kayak with these whales and their calves, and view them also from our campsites and by small boat.   We also tour penguin colonies and view rheas and guanacos (a llama-like creature) in this splendid World Heritage Site.

Curious about these unusual whales? The following video clip is a research documentary on Southern Right Whales primarily in Peninsula Valdes: Whale Trackers: Southern right whales of Argentina

UNESCO stands for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, founded 16 November, 1945. In pursuit of their mission, UNESCO designated 936 areas worldwide as places possessed of significant cultural or natural heritage for preservation for future generations. These sites receive funding and expert advice for preservation efforts from UNESCO, which has deemed them to have "outstanding universal value to humanity."

UNESCO World Heritage Sites & Sea Kayak Adventures

We operate kayaking/whale watching tours in two of only 32 UNESCO "Natural" World Heritage Sites in all Latin and South America. These areas are Loreto Bay National Marine Park (part of the Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California UNESCO World Heritage site) in southern Baja California, Mexico and Patagonia's Peninsula Valdes World Heritage Site in Argentina.  We also operate tours in British Columbia, Canada's Johnstone Strait, home to Robson Bight Ecological Preserve, which, while not a UNESCO site, remains the world's only orca preserve. 

Loreto Bay became a national marine park in July, 1996, first by presidential decree then confirmed by the national congress of Mexico.  Loreto Bay then became part of the UNESCO World Heritage site July 2005; a culmination of concerned local citizens' efforts and Mexico's diligent actions to preserve important national natural sites.  This World Heritage site is home to 891 fish species, including 90 endemic fishes.  A third of the world's cetacean species are found in the Gulf of California/Sea of Cortez.  According to UNESCO, this site is home to 695 vascular plant species, more than in any marine and insular property on the World Heritage List.  In addition to the biodiversity and wildlife value of the region, fishing for sustenance and for sport and eco-tourism such as sea kayaking, snorkeling, SCUBA diving and whale watching are widely popular, and greatly contribute to the culture and the economy that sustains the citizenry of Loreto.

Península Valdés UNESCO World Heritage site in the Patagonia area of Argentina is "a site of global significance for the conservation of marine mammals", according to UNESCO.  Peninsula Valdes also hosts the breeding grounds for critical populations of elephant seals, endangered southern right whales, southern sea lions, and sea birds. Sea Kayak Adventures guests may encounter Armadillos, ostrich-like rheas, maras (Patagonian hares) and llama-like guanacos that roam the sweeping landscape. Click here to view a photo gallery for this trip. http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-0262-aca0-6b07

Read more about the process of becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the history of UNESCO's preservation efforts:

UNESCO World Heritage FAQ

History of World Heritage Sites

An interesting side note - countries must uphold the strict preservation standards of UNESCO to avoid being delisted.

In view of headlines about violence along the U.S. border, many people are wondering about the safety of visiting Mexico. Keep in mind that Mexico is a big and diverse country, so violence along the U.S. border towns won't have any effect on your vacation in Loreto any more than violence in Miami would affect people in Chicago. Most of the violence that has taken place recently is due to conflicts between drug cartels and the Mexican authorities in just four cities and there's no reason to condemn the rest of the country, especially Loreto and the surrounding state of Baja California Sur.

Patagonia: What is the best time to travel and see whales?

Patagonia offers a unique experience for whale watching.  Southern right whales choose the shallow coastal areas to give birth and are often visible directly from the beaches surrounding these coves. However, these whales are migratory and have only a limited window during which they calve in the protected lagoons of the Peninsula Valdes UNESCO World Heritage Site. The rest of the year they are at their feeding grounds in Antarctica - where most of us will never venture to view them!

So what is the best time to see the whales? RIGHT NOW! These right whales begin to arrive in mid-September and return southward in mid-December.  These three months host incredible sightings of right whale acrobatics, adorable baby antics, and a variety of other other interesting creatures.

Even better, this time frame is spring in the southern hemisphere and the lagoon is a sheltered, protected body of water. Thus the weather and location make it perfect for sea kayakers of most ability levels. Imagine kayaking near a family of frolicking right whales! Are you ready to sign up yet?!

We provide all gear and guides on this camping/lodge kayaking/whale watching combo (airfare not included).  To any of our kayak tours can be added an extension to explore the Fitzroy mountains and Moreno Glacier.  Call now to reserve your spot for this fall!  We only have a few spaces left for 2011 on Oct 3-10 and Dec 3-10, 2011 tours.