Ongoing travel
Day 1 (17.11): “Diving is the greatest thing on earth”. The thought circles in my head as I haul roughly 45kg of dive gear and a spare t-shirt through the belly of Munich’s public transport. For the first time in many years I feel a bit homesick, having to leave Michi behind on this trip.
Viva la Mexico! The lady at the exchange counter at MUC hands over all her Mexican Pesos. 5.000MEX, about 300EUR. Mexico seems far away from Munich. Luckily there is a direct flight. And luckily, I upgraded to business class. A technical issue delays take-off by almost 2h.
But champagne is the secret ingredient that makes flying enjoyable. I spend my time with a mic of work and relaxation. But the backlog still feels tremendous.
We land at 8pm local time. The airport is quite efficient: Fast passport control and luggage belts with precise timings. Customs waves me past the scanner. With my backpack I either look like a bum who ist not worth the effort od like too much trouble. Either way, welcome to Mexico. I meet my driver who takes me to the Andaz in Condesa.
The hotel is quite nice and Condesa feels like a nice and save neighborhood. Not much left to do but go to sleep.
Day 2 (18.11): I wake up at 1:30am for a work call and continue to work until morning. Still backlog! My plan is to have breakfast at 9am. As I step out of my room, I find a note in the hallway. It is letting me know that my tour guide is picking me up at 9am. Good that I am master of a quick breakfast.
20min later, Raoul and I are cruising north west towards the famous Pyramids of the Teotihuacans. Raoul gives me the full lecture on Mexican history. What sticks is in short: Mayans in the south and sticking to themselves, Aztecs in the North West and aggressive, Teotihuacans great traders. Also, Mexico City is actually built on a giant lake. Well, something like that.
The Teotihuacan Archeological Zone contains three pyramids, similar to Gize. We start… well I start with a work call .. then we explore the pyramid of the feathered serpent. Its the smallest of the three pyramids but has well preserved figures of Quetzalcoatl.
But the Sun and Moon pyramids are the true stars of the show. 40 and 60m wide with a base of 130 – 200m these Pyramids are impressive sights. In the past years, the government has closed the pyramids for climbing but reopened the lower section of the moon pyramid. In hindsight, the balloon tour may have been even more impressive.
No guided tour is complete without the obligatory visit to a random workshop for shopping. I get to see a mic of paper making, alcohol brewing, silver making and obsidian carving. I get out with minimal damages and Raoul and I head back to Mexico City.
The contrast between rich and poor is striking. We see Favelas pass by, nestled into mountain valleys. Mexico uses cable cars as a form of public transport, with lines of up to 10km. Another item for the bucket list.
We stop at the Basilica of our Lady of Guadalupe. The old church tilts, so it feels, more than the leaning tower of Pisa. The new church is an amazing building the fully opens up to the plaza.
I am quite tired and breath a sigh of relief as we reach the hotel. I take a short break before heading out again for my Lucha Libre tour.
But first I fail a mental fitness test. I go to the first meeting point but no one shows up. So I check my messages and my spam folder and find a note with the actual meeting place. I put it into my phone but as I arrive its just a dark sports arena. Third time is the charm and I manage to catch up to the group.
First stop is tacos and mezcal at Escándalo on C. Orizaba 156 in Roma Norte. We get three small but very tasty tacos. The second stop is close to the Arena Mexico. Again three tacos (pastor, chorizo and mixed). Out guide explains how the Lucha Libre works: Two teams fight, one good one bad. The good ones play by the rules and typically win, the bad ones break the rules and typically lose. The audience’s role is to shout profanities. We practice in the restaurant and the wait staff smiles to our “asshole” chants.
Then its time to go – actually, the fights go on for a long time but we arrive for the main act. It is a very wild experience but good fun. The wrestlers fight inside and outside the ring. The matches follow no apparent structure and even the surprise appearance of a numbers girl does not help. In the end, the wrong team loses. Our guide is very unhappy. As we end the evening with Churros from a street stand opposite the arena, all is forgotten. I half walk half take an uber home and fall asleep.
Day 3 (19.11) The day starts with work. Some calls some stuff to do. Its quite frustrating. Around lunchtime I decide to visit the Anthropology Museum. It takes me 45min to walk (less than the return trip with an uber).
The museum has rooms for the different regions and peoples of Mexico. Of course the Teotihuacan Hall is impressive with the sun disc and a colored version of the temple of the feathered snake.
The Aztec hall impresses with its giant sun wheel. The most stereotypical Mexican artefakt but amazing to look at.
I take an uber home for a very short rest. Then I am on my way to a bicycle food tour. Mental fidelity check: I find the right spot on first try. Check. Guide checks my name, checks my reservation, makes a phone call to the office. A bit more checking. Finally he says: “You are good. We are friends.” What is that supposed to mean? “You booked for next month”. Well, I may truly need a holiday.
We start with a Taco Gringa at the Av Sonora. Then we get on the bikes and head to a Mexican – Korean place on C. Guanajuato.
From there we cycle north with a stop for explanations that I can perfectly use for a work phone call. Next stop is corn on a stick close to Av Reforma. Its corn covered in mayonnaise and sprinkled with sauce.
Good that we only get a half portion. We bike to the old town center ans visit the Monument of the Revolution before heading back to Condesa.
Last stop are fantastic enchiladas on the north end of the Parque Mexico. Deep fried with lots of guacamole. Amazing. Its a short walk from here to the hotel. This is good because I need to pack.
Day 4 (20.11): The alarm rings at 3:30am. 10:30CET so it practically means sleeping in. With nobody on the road, we quickly arrive at the airport (enough time for a work call). Check in for aeromexico works smoothly. I can drop off my 25kg bag and nobody cares about the 20kg of carry-on luggage. I pass security without problems, i.e. no need to take out the camera. I grab a coffee and a croissant, do another call and board the aircraft.
I see the first people from the dive group sitting in the first row. The plane is 2h delayed, which means that I will miss every call today. The flight itself is smooth. So is the landing in La Paz. My luggage is out so quickly that I almost miss it. we meet a good part of the group in the entrance hall.
From La Paz its a long car ride to Magdalena Bay. The landscape looks like a movie set. Ospreys and vultures circle above us. Two stops and three hours later we reach Puerto San Carlos. Where I expected beach resorts we actually find a simple fishing village. Our hotel is on main street. Nothing special but will do. Nice surprise is that I have a single room, although I forgot to ask for it.
We relax a bit in the afternoon. In the evening, the town has a surprise for us: A parade.Its the day if the revolution and the whole town is out and about.
We end the day by watching the sunset and having a dinner at the hotel – Cameron, Gambas from Magdalena Bay. My chest muscles hurt like hell from pushing the camera around. I cannot concentrate on anything. Therefore, I go to bed early.
Day 5 (21.11) Day 1 in a paradise called Magdalena Bay. But the paradise has a price. And this price is to get up at 5am to be in the boat by 6:15. Our Captain slams down the gas and we race towards the sunrise across Magdalena Bay. Swarms of Pelicans pass us by. With our hats, sunglasses and scarfs, we could easily be mistaken for the Sausage and Sauerkraut Cartel. But it is cold.
The 30km across the bay pass in no-time. Oug Latitude Encounters guide Sophie gives us last information and instructions. At the mouth of the bay, we change our colorful coats to black wetsuits. Now we look like a proper cartel.
We continue to race south along the coastline until we see the at the horizon: blows from humpback whales. A pair of males are cruising south, using the coastline for navigation. They are unbothered by us and come up right behind our boat – we can even see them on the sonar. We watch them a few times. Then we decide to pack up. As we are storing our cameras we see a big shadow, turn and see the humpback breaching, coming almost fully out if the water. This is the most amazing thing I have seen that has not been captured on camera.
We continue to the south tip of the island. Underwater pinnacles male it easier for the marlins to push up the sardines. About 30 boats, divers and fishermen compete for the the bait balls. But actually, there is no competition. We jump into the deep blue ocean.
It is an amazing sight to see. Marlins and sea lions zoom around small sardine baitballs trying to escape. But its 10-15 Marlins and half the amount of sea lions. So the sardines stand little chance. Unless we get to close and scare the predators.
We are working hard: Jump in, swim, get out on the boat, get ready, jump in. After 4h of jumping, Sarah – our guide – offers some lunch. But captain Gabinio has no mercy: “There is a baitball under the boat if you want to jump”.
After noon, the activities die down and we put our cartel uniform back on and Gabinio floors it. We are racing over the choppy sea. It takes a good hour to reach the mouth of Magdalena Bay. As we get changed, a pod of Pacific White-Sided Dolphins comes to play.
After they leave. We make our way back to the harbor and the hotel. Its been an 8h day and we likely covered 130 Nautical Miles or 250km. What a start.
We have dinner at the hotel – chicken burger, and head to bed, as the alarm will ring at 4:45.
Day 6 (22.11) We are all divers and thus settle into routine quickly. One captain is sick so we have to reshuffle boats. No problem, we are dividing with Jake today. We joke with him that we expect great things and he delivers. We are racing through the cold morning air, change into our wetsuits and have just turned south on the coastline when we see a pod of small whales heading north. Gabinio brings us along side them. Its a pod of false killer whales. We are watching topside when Gabinio screams “Jump!”. We are puzzled but do neither dare nor want to ask questions. We are in 5s later as the pod passes underneath us. We do three more jumps with them. On the last one I see the full pod. Amazing. By that time about 30 boats are grouped around the pod and more are racing back north. This apparently happens once a season.
We take off as things are getting crowded. We are the first boat of the pack going south. After 30min we see the familiar blow of the humpbacks. But something seems off. Then we see ut, the whales are breaching. Gabinio pushes the boat a little bit faster and we catch up with the two whales. And they but on a show for us. Breaching helps them to clean their skin from barnacles and other parasites. 30 tons hitting the water should do it.
As the whales continue their travel, so do we. We head a bit further south than yesterday. After this amazing morning, Baitball action is a bit slower. The sea is flat like a mirror which apparently leads to smaller baitballs. Nonetheless, we have great interactions in the crystal clear water.
We make our way back very quickly with nothing but a quick stop to get changed. I have dinner at the hotel again. Tacos de Camerons which are excellent.
Day 7 (23.11) Day three on Magdalena Bay. We are back to four boats. Today, we make our way south without any additional natural wonders. The sea is more choppy again. But the baitballs are moving fast. “Muy rapido” is the word of the day. We still have good interactions.
We move further south looking for signs of actions on the surface. All of a sudden the sea around us explodes and starts to boil. A pod of thousands of common dolphins passes in front of us. There are mothers with their juveniles. And there are even two Brydswhales in the mic. We do a couple of jumps to see them under the water. By the time we are done its again tens of boats and we leave.
We head up the shore to second largest the sea lion colony in Mexico. But the sea lions are in no mood to play. The way back offers no further encounters. But on the other hand, what else can you expect.
Tonight we have dinner at Lore’s house. We sit on the roof terrace and enjoy the evening.
Day 8 (24.11.) Today is our last day in this amazing day. We get the choice to either go out again or visit the mangroves. Some people feel they have seen it all, others need to recover from damaged ribs, cold, etc. But a small group of undeterred ocean warriors has the feeling that the pacific still has something to give. So for the fourth time we get on the boat and fly 100km south along the coast. We do not see any baitballs, but dolphins. So we jump. The dolphins are pretty chilled, circling around us. Our guide Nina shows of her long fins and zooms left and right so it feels like an ocean safari wrapped in an olympic race. We have great encounters. Finally, I decide to leave my camera on the boat.
And we jump right into a large pack of ca. 50 sea lions. Below is a school of Skipjack Tunas on which the pod feeds. They let us hang out eight in their middle with jaus an arms length of distance. A 300kg male is calmly circling and checking us out. The females do their dance. It is one of the most amazing feeling that they just let us be with them. We spend about one hour in the water, just watching.
Happy we get back on the boat. A small baitball that we find is nice but our hearts and minds are still with the sea lions. Nina decides to try one more baitball. And man, she got close. We race full speed towards the ball, fins on, mask on, sitting at the side of the boat. Seconds from jumping we see a BrydesWhale come up and snatch the baitball. We missed it by seconds. But it is a great sight topside. Happy and content we make our way back, watching a pod of 5 humpbacks passing by.
We spend the last evening at Lore’s. The atmosphere is great. It feels like a bunch of friends getting ready for their next adventure.
Day 9 (25.11) Road trip day. Today we transfer from Puerto San Carlos to San Jose del Cabo. its about 450km, a 6h trip. I wake up 4:45 and want to get ready for diving but after a while I realize that I can sleep a bit longer. We pack and are on the road at ca 8:30.