The Kids Won't Let Me Title This Post

The kids don't want me to pick the blog titles, but they can't come up with anything either. Unfortunately, that leaves us in a rough spot when we need a title. 

Whales! Today we got to see whales. We had planned to go whale watching on Monday when we will be driving from Malaga to Lagos. The trouble is, if the weather is not great they will not go out to try and see whales, and Monday is supposed to be very windy, so the boats won't be heading out. We had a conference with the kids and they all wanted to make a go at seeing the whales if possible. We have not been able to get our phones to work to call anyone in Europe for some reason. In order to book with an agency they want you to be able to call so you can check on the day of the event to ensure it is not cancelled due to weather. Anyway, we were able to find some availability and a company that uses Whatsapp (which does work here) and so this morning we drove down to Tarifa to see the whales. 

We booked a 3 hour tour in the hopes that we could see some orcas. The drive to Tarifa was 1.25 hours. When we arrived the kids and I jumped out to get us checked in while Ammon went in search of parking. There was nowhere to park. Eventually a guy in a vest with a bicycle was standing by the road and flagged Ammon down. He asked if Ammon needed parking and when Ammon confirmed he jumped on his bike and led Ammon to a parking place that was a good long walk from the pier. Thankfully, Ammon has been blessed with long legs and great endurance, he made it back with time to spare.

Ruins near the pier.

We boarded the boat and sat down to start eating our lunch. They told us that we would head out to where the whales were and that it would likely take around 45 minutes. We had been going for all of 10 minutes when they announced that we had come upon a pod of Fin Whales. Fin whales are the 2nd largest animal on Earth. They were so amazing. We came upon a group of at least 4, there may have been 5, but it was hard to tell. We got really lucky following these friends along for probably around 30 minutes. We even saw one of the whales roll and show us its belly twice. The guide said we were super lucky.

We made it out where they often see Orcas. The guide told us that the Orcas have learned to go near the fishermen because they can steal the fish. Their new found life of crime has allowed them to spend less energy hunting and because of that they had more babies this last year than they have in previous years. As the Orcas are endangered I suppose we can overlook their illicit activities. Unfortunately, we were not able to see any Orcas.

We got pretty close to Morocco during our trip. I believe that we were in the narrowest part of the Strait of Gibraltar. As we were puttering along the boat took a fast turn and headed off at quick speed. A sperm whale had been sighted in the distance. We caught up to the whale and watched him for a short time before he decided he had had enough and he dove down deep. We got to see his tail and it was amazing. All of us in the boat ooh and ahh and clapped. It was awesome.

While watching this buddy we could see another whale blowing air/mist up in the air in the distance. So after this guy dove down we took off to get a better view of another Sperm Whale. He got very close to the boats (we weren't the only onlookers) and then he joined his brother and dove down deep giving us another amazing show.

The guide was able to identify this second Sperm Whale. They have named him Siorillo. He has been hanging out in this area on and off for the last 2 years. 

We got to see some huge ships as well as smaller ones. The Moroccans use small ships to go out and fish according to our tour guide.

Morocco in the distance.

We had started heading back towards Tarifa when we came upon dolphins. The dolphins came up close the boat for only a moment. There were more in the distance. We couldn't get much closer to the dolphins because a giant ship was coming toward us. The guide mentioned that often boats will get distracted watching the wildlife and will get in the path of the huge barges and risk collisions. As we watched the barge go by we noticed that there was a dolphin swimming directly in front of the huge barge. It would jump, go under, and then jump again. Eventually it was joined by another dolphin. It looked like it could get run over at any moment. The guide told us that they dolphins enjoy swimming like that to allow the boat to do the work. It was amazing and looked like a blast.

Sadly, after the barge passed we were out of time and had to head back to the pier. It was such an awesome day. Even Ammon was able to enjoy the boat ride (thanks to copious amounts of motion sickness medicine).

Once back on land we had a long walk back to our car and then a long drive back to Marbella.

We were all exhausted. We had all taken the motion sickness medicine. It's supposed to be non-drowsy, but we all still feel it. So when Ammon had a minute in between meetings he ordered us pizza. We ended up with far more than we had meant to, but it was tasty. Azy and Lu both agree that this was one of their favorite days so far. I think the rest of us enjoyed it and we are so glad we were able to make it fit into our trip before we leave this area in a few days.