Mobula, Cownose Rays, and Sea Lions in Baja California
From sea lion chaos at Los Islotes to hours spent with mobula and cownose rays in La Ventana, this trip captured the movement, wonder, and unpredictability that make Baja California unforgettable.
(Be sure to scroll below the story to view our photos and videos for this trip.)
La Ventana is a quaint town just two hours from the airport — quiet, peaceful, and surrounded by incredible wildlife.
Almost exactly two months to the day, we found ourselves once again in Baja California for our second planned trip of the year. This time we came in search of mobula and cownose rays — a sight that’s been on our bucket list for a while. Our second motive was to finally visit the famed sea lion colony at Los Islotes after threatening to do so for several years. Given that the Sea of Cortez is abundant with large wildlife this time of year—whales, orcas, whale sharks—we kept our fingers modestly crossed that Baja would have more in store.
And Baja did not disappoint!
After a scenic 2-hour drive from the airport, we settled into our place in La Ventana overlooking the Sea of Cortez. Our morning views consisted of an amazing sunrise over the ocean, with a gorgeous sunset over the mountains in the evening. The soft sounds of the town, mixed with the constant breeze, made for a perfectly relaxing week. We decided to start off by visiting the sea lion colony, so the first two days of the trip would be long—driving an hour each way to La Paz followed by a 1½–2-hour boat ride each way to the Espiritu Santo park made for early starts and late arrivals home. But after waiting several years to finally make it here, the labour was worth it.
A distant view of Isla Islotes in La Paz, Baja California — home to the famous sea lion colony in the Espiritu Santo National Park.
Choppy sea conditions made for slow and slightly uncomfortable trips to Espiritu Santo. The main sea lion colony resides on a small arch island named Islotes, which sits at the north end of the group of islands that make up the park. The main island, Espiritu Santo, is a large volcanic mountain with beautiful geological features and color, and takes 30–45 minutes to traverse by boat. Once at the north end, you are immediately greeted by the sounds of hundreds of sea lions resting on the island or in the shallows near the shore. Even from the boat, you can feel the place buzzing with life.
The four dives we performed over the next two days can be easily summed up like this:
Sea lion cubs horse-playing with each other and performing sprints and summersaults for the camera
Curious older females casually approaching the divers and making the cutest faces and turns
Keeping an eye on the territorial males that wanted to establish boundaries
A few sea lion cubs who playfully bit our snorkels, hands, and fins
Rinse and repeat
Playful sea lions swimming and tumbling through the water at Isla Islotes in La Paz, part of the protected Espiritu Santo National Park.
If this sounds like a few hours at a friendly petting zoo, it’s because that’s exactly what it felt like; several hours of playing with these magnificent and innocent animals who serve as a living reminder of what is so great about the ocean and why we must stop destroying it. There was no other motive for this visit but to have fun at the colony and come home with huge childish smiles. We fell in love with the romper room so much that we decided that visiting the colony will now be a permanent part of our yearly Baja itinerary.
The rest of the days would be spent leaving from a small private boat a mere kilometer from our place in La Ventana. The agenda was somewhat open-ended: head southeast to look for the mobula ray aggregations and deviate as we heard about other things in the water. Do this over and over again for 5–6 hours. There are worse routines to have.
Day 1 we immediately hit the mobula jackpot—scores of rays in various locations all morning. Every time we dropped into the water we swam with magnificent formations of these creatures for long periods of time. It was amazing to experience success within minutes of starting our trip. We finished the morning swimming with dolphins and turtles before heading back to shore. What a great start.
A massive aggregation of mobula rays gliding through the Sea of Cortez—one of Baja’s most iconic and breathtaking wildlife spectacles.
Day 2 we fulfilled our desire to see groups of cownose rays. These rays are considered very shy and don’t normally congregate in large groups, so getting to see one up close—or a group of them for that matter—is a real treat. Both mobulas and cownose rays are famous for breaching. Mobulas splash back into the water like a pancake while cownose rays flip several times in mid-air. Another distinction is that cownose rays like to swim at the surface with the tip of their wings sticking out.
On this day, as we headed southeast towards the mobulas, we ran into dozens of cownose rays who were gently swimming at the surface with their tips out. Into the water we went, and what awaited us was a spectacle of dozens of cownose rays. Fearing that we would scare them off, we kept our distance while gently keeping pace with them. Likely due to the fact that only two of us were in the water, the rays eventually seemed to accept our presence and allowed us to swim within arm’s reach of them for over an hour. I love taking pictures and video, but this is one of those times where I put the camera(s) down and just admired nature. What an honor to be there, suspended in the blue among these creatures.
We finished the day swimming with more mobula rays and dolphins once again. In just two days we had already fulfilled our intent for the trip. Simply amazing.
We couldn’t enter the water with this whale, but watching it cruise past was absolutely breathtaking.
For Days 3 and 4, I’m going on a slight tangent—or soap box, if you prefer that term. As we were heading on our normal route southeast in the morning, several boats had spotted two humpback whales transiting in the same direction. As we approached the other boats, our captain told us that we would not be getting in the water due to an order that had been issued the night before to the community. Boats were directed not to approach orcas or whales any closer than 100 meters, so swimming with the animals was out of the question.
The day we arrived to Baja an orca had been spotted nearby. I didn’t hear much about the incident other than the spotting itself, but apparently many boats had congregated around the orca, and with swimmers in the water, had harassed it enough to cause it to change course. We weren’t there since we had just arrived in country, so all accounts of the incident are hearsay to us. But what was perfectly clear and consistent in all the accounts was that the boats and swimmers had misbehaved and stressed the animal. No one was debating this fact, and something had to be done. Thus, the order.
Marine tourism in Baja is booming. Word is getting out about the wonderful wildlife Baja has to offer, and it has caused a huge uptick in the number of tourists who are seeking encounters with large animals such as orcas and whales. I saw a wonderful heartfelt post on Instagram eloquently describing what is occurring in Baja, especially the Sea of Cortez. Operators are desperate to stand out and satisfy the customers. They are leaving for the ocean earlier so they can be the first ones to see the large game. They are riding faster and more aggressively. They are throwing caution to the wind when approaching the animals in the water so photographers can get their nice photos with their big expensive rigs. This is creating an increasingly fragile situation where the line between admiration and disruption is being crossed more often than anyone wants to admit.
Talking to one of my conservation buddies in the area, regulation is needed. The Sea of Cortez is now experiencing what other places have experienced, which is a sudden boom in tourism that has caught the operators and conservationists equally unprepared to handle the impact on the wildlife. Baja must now work to put rules and regulation in place to ensure that tourism and marine life can live harmoniously. Thoughtful, science-based policy—and a willingness from tour operators to hold themselves accountable—will make the difference.
It’s always a thrill to swim with dolphins—especially when they’re in a playful mood.
Not to be discouraged by this incident, we continued our journey and swam with more dolphins and rays—including manta rays. We finished the trip by heading over to the tiny island of La Reina, which hosts a small colony of sea lions. What a great way to end the trip; book-ending it the exact way we started it.
Baja California is an impressive mecca of marine wildlife, and the Sea of Cortez in particular bodes an impressive and diverse range. Our hope is that the heightened attention Baja is receiving becomes an opportunity—not a burden—for the region to protect its wildlife while still welcoming those who care about it. We’re hoping that regulation is put in place by the time we come back to La Ventana next year so that we can fully enjoy her beauty responsibly once again. For now, we say “see you later” to Baja until December when we plan to head over to Magdalena Bay for a whale, marlin, and bait ball adventure—along with visiting the sea lion colony in Espiritu Santo once again. CaaS
Gallery: A glimpse into the beauty and rhythm of Baja—mobulas, cownose rays, sea lions, dolphins, and the quiet moments in between.
See more from this trip — watch our sea lion, ray, and dolphin encounters in Baja on YouTube:
