Baja Wildlife Trip Report 2026
- Week 2 -

La Ventana, Mexico
May 9 - 16, 2026

May 10, 2026. Day One.

A new week begins. New group. New search.

We headed out this morning into a beautiful bay. No clouds, low wind, calm seas.

Exactly the kind of conditions that make you want to push far offshore and see what the ocean might give you.

Our day begins.

Not long after leaving port we ran into a pod of bottlenose dolphins feeding inside the bay. We stopped briefly to watch them before continuing on.

With conditions this nice, we needed to take advantage of it and get as far out as we dared.

Later in the morning we encountered three humpback whales.

A mother, calf, and escort.

Brad sent up the drone hoping to capture some nice aerial footage of the trio moving through the calm sea.

The ocean was unbelievably flat today.

Eventually we moved toward another area where several boats were swimming with mobula rays.

The groups of mobulas were small, and with several boats already trying to work them, we decided to leave the area and continue searching.

Toward the end of the day we received reports of orcas.

That changed things quickly.

We headed over to investigate and eventually found a lone male orca near Orca Landie. The locals orca hotspot.

The orca surfaced near the boat in slightly lumpy seas, passed by us once… and then ghosted us.

Just as quickly as he appeared, he disappeared.

We eventually relocated him again while heading back toward home, but once again he vanished almost immediately after surfacing.

This guy clearly didn’t have much interest in us today.

So we decided to leave him alone and call it a day.

Still…

we saw an orca.

And life is always good on the days you see orcas.

May 11, 2026. Day Two.

We headed out this morning into beautiful conditions and onto a different boat from yesterday.

Already there were large groups of mobula rays moving through the bay. Always a good sign of how much life is around right now.

There were too many boats so we left the mobulas behind and headed north in search of the orcas, hoping they were still somewhere in the area.

After searching through the morning, we eventually decided to stop at La Reina for a swim with the sea lions.

And man… I am so glad we did.

The place was alive.

The visibility was incredible, and huge schools of tiny juvenile fish covered parts of the reef.

Everything was feeding on them.

Skipjack tuna were darting in and out of the schools, slashing through them at full speed.

The sea lions were super interactive.

It was chaos in the best possible way.

I spent some time searching for diving cormorants, hoping to photograph one underwater, but never managed to spot one beneath the surface.

Eventually I switched gears and started searching the reef for octopus.

I found one moving across the rocks.

A few moments later, a second octopus appeared and slowly crawled over toward the first one I had been following.

The second octopus stretched out one of its tentacles, almost like it was reaching over to investigate or touch the other.

The octopus I was photographing immediately balled up one of its arms in like a fist and punched the other octopus.

Man, I started laughing.

I love these guys.

I spent a little more time photographing the two of them before finally climbing back onto the boat.

What a dive.

Absolutely incredible.

May 12, 2026. Day Three.

We headed north this morning in absolutely beautiful conditions.

Flat seas, light wind, and clear blue water stretching forever.

Inside the bay we found several schools of mobula rays, but there were already quite a few boats working the area.

We made a quick jump, but the rays stayed deep and never really gave us much of an opportunity, so we left them behind.

The goal was to try and find our own group away from the crowds.

On our way farther offshore we stopped briefly to check out a sperm whale that had been reported in the area.

The whale was extremely shy.

It surfaced briefly, gave us only a quick look, and disappeared back into the depths almost immediately.

After that we pushed roughly twenty miles offshore toward reports of spinner dolphins and pantropical spotted dolphins.

We managed a few nice jumps with them.

Fast moving, beautiful animals.

We were hoping for some up close encounters with them, both of these species can be quite friendly.

But after a short while they lost interest in us and continued on their way.

So we left them alone and kept searching for more wildlife.

Always hoping we will run into those black and white sea pandas somewhere out there.

A quiet afternoon out at sea.

May 13, 2026. Day Four.

We are off!

Reliable orca reports came in early this morning and we immediately headed out to investigate.

Our day begins with fire, baby!!!

We found them.

A pod of orcas hanging around Orcalandi, actively hunting in the area.

Word had already spread, so there were a lot of boats around, but thankfully the captain meetings have been working. Everyone was behaving respectfully, and things felt surprisingly controlled considering the amount of excitement out there.

We managed our first jump fairly early and had a close encounter with an adult female and a young calf.

A really good first jump.

The guests were happy.

Day four, baby!!!

At one point we watched a group of orcas completely stop swimming and hover beside another boat while swimmers were in the water.

They just stopped…

suspended there, calmly watching the people.

Absolutely insane behavior to witness.

We spent the next few hours waiting, watching, and trying to position ourselves carefully.

Eventually we got another opportunity to jump.

And this time the orcas gave us a huge surprise.

As one of the females slowly ascended toward the surface, she had an olive ridley sea turtle in her mouth.

The visibility wasn’t great, but it didn’t matter.

Seeing something like that underwater was pure magic.

What a day.

I am completely addicted to these animals.

There is just something about them.

And when they choose to interact with people… there is honestly no greater feeling on the planet.

We finished the day with one final jump out in the blue.

The water around Orcalandi had been green and murky most of the day, but once the whales pushed offshore into deeper water, the visibility cleaned up beautifully.

One last jump with five orcas moving through the blue.

And then we said goodbye.

And thank you.

May 14, 2026. Day Five.

We headed out this morning hoping to relocate the orcas.

Yesterday they had pushed offshore, so we decided to head in that same direction and see if maybe they were still somewhere out there in the blue.

We had some really good encounters yesterday…

but of course, you always want more.

Our day begins.

No orca sightings today.

By midday we stopped at La Reina for lunch, and an afternoon snorkel.

The seas were much lumpier than earlier in the week when conditions had been absolute perfection.

But…

I finally got my birds!

I have been dreaming of photographing hunting cormorants underwater for a long time.

And today, in rough surging seas crashing against the island, with heavy currents and whitewater exploding across the surface, it finally came together.

The cormorants were diving hard, chasing schools of minnows and small reef fish through the rocks.

Pelicans hovered above the chaos, crashing onto the surface and scooping up mouthfuls of baitfish and seawater.

The whole scene was alive.

Absolute madness.

So many of my shots were blown out from the whitewater exploding overhead, but I didn’t care.

It was so good.

A dream come true for me. I was getting tossed around. 

And the only thing going through my mind was Magic… just magic.

Conditions were rough enough that I was the only one really trying to photograph it.

Everyone else stayed around the corner with a family of sleeping sea lions tucked into calmer water.

1:20 PM. We finally left La Reina and started the slow journey home.

No big animals today…but I got my bird!

May 15, 2026. Day Six.

Final day with group two.

We are heading south today in search of mobulas, but of course always hoping to find something bigger along the way.

That’s the beauty of this place. Every day is different, and you truly never know what might appear out here.

Feeling lucky today. 🍀

We launched into glassy conditions this morning. The ocean looked absolutely perfect.

This is the stuff of dreams.

I will forever be grateful for this life I get to live.

I’m grateful every day… but days like this just feel different.

Pure magic.

We pushed offshore and eventually came across several boats working a group of pantropical spotted dolphins.

We motored around for a while before eventually leaving them behind and continuing farther offshore.

About eighteen miles out into the blue we found them.

Sperm whales.

And not just one or two.

A huge scattered group spread across the area.

There had to be at least 30–40 whales feeding offshore. Our buddy Fer thinks it was way more. 

Massive blows appearing in every direction.

And somehow… we were the only boat out there with them for most of the day, aside from our buddy Fer joining us later on.

Sperm whales are just incredible animals. We spent hours drifting among them while they fed, socialized, and occasionally breached out in the distance.

Bigfamily. Males, females, babies. The kind of animals that make you feel very small out there.

What a day… And what a way to finish a really great week of wildlife here in Baja.

Thank you to my amazing friends who joined us out there… what a great week, what a great time!