These sharks are no threat

BAHIA DE LOS ANGELES, Mexico — Everyone got excited when the 20-foot-shark, inches below the surface of the water, started circling slowly under our little fiberglass boat and wouldn't leave.

What to do? Get in the water, of course.

“This is special,” said our guide, Christina Colpitts, as three passengers from our boat eased into the tepid Sea of Cortez and swam carefully toward the creature to get a closer view.

Anyone who saw a “Sharks of the World” poster as a youngster surely felt the mystique of the whale shark, largest shark in the world and biggest fish in the sea. The Sea of Cortez, a three-hour flight south of San Diego, is one of the few places in the world where whale sharks congregate predictably. They start showing up in summer, with peak season for whale shark-watching from the start of September through the end of October. My trip was run by a small San Diego-based company, Baja Airventures.

“We've had a lot of people who've gone on our trips and they've been down to Australia, they've been off of Belize and they've been all over the place and had yet to be able to snorkel with whale sharks,” said Baja Airventures owner Kevin Warren. “Our last five years in a row, every one of our trips we saw them throughout the trip.”

Baja Airventures flies its guests in single-engine planes to the remote Mexican fishing village of Bahia de los Angeles, population 500. From there, basic but powerful and seaworthy 26-foot boats shuttle guests another hour south to the rustic Las Animas Wilderness Lodge on a turquoise cove.

The Baja Airventures pilots also are knowledgeable guides, leading guests in small groups to kayak, fish, hike and snorkel with whale sharks and the other abundant sea life.

Just be ready to rough it. You must enjoy sleeping in little more than a tent and doing without electricity and running water — not to mention television, Internet or cell phone service.

Whale sharks grow up to 40 feet but have very small teeth and aren't predatory. That means they won't try to eat you. Gentle giants, they gather each fall at Bahia de Los Angeles — almost halfway down the Baja Peninsula on the Sea of Cortez — to filter-feed on microscopic organisms called plankton.

The sharks swim slowly near the surface, keeping their large mouths open to gorge on the clouds of plankton that color the water jade that time of year.

Whale sharks have recently been in the news because of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, with some seen swimming near and through the oil in the Gulf of Mexico. But the Sea of Cortez population is off the west coast of Mexico, while the Gulf waters are on the other side.

The Baja Airventures travelers stay in spacious yurts — a type of large, round tent with a conical top that is the traditional housing of Mongolian nomads. Baja Airventures has eight beachside yurts for lodging plus a larger, central yurt for dining and entertainment at its Las Animas Wilderness Lodge.

The yurts have no electricity. And there's no running water — guests carry water for their showers in 5-gallon bags and set them in the sun to warm up. There are composting toilets.

Although the accommodations are primitive, the food at the lodge is not. Two outstanding cooks prepare authentic Mexican meals, often using fresh fish caught right offshore. And even though the camp is remote, it has an ample supply of Mexican beer — which always tastes better in Mexico. Not only that, Colpitts, the guide, makes a mean margarita.

Best of all, though, are the scenery and wildlife. The desert landscape roughened by volcanic rock and 30-foot cardon cactus tumbles unimpeded into the ocean from nearby mountaintops. Cliffs that seem about to crumble into the water at any moment host crowds of pelicans and while ospreys and frigate birds circle above.

And there is nothing like the experience of floating still next to a creature many times your size, hearing the soft swish of water and wondering what this mellow fish might be thinking with its beady eye watching you.

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