Taking It To the Next Level: Kayaking on the Pacific Coast

Last weekend Kelsi and I embarked on another kayaking trip with Julio Perez and his company Bicivan. We have previously traveled with Julio on a day trip down the Rio Cauca as well as a spring trip to Bahia Malaga on the Pacific Coast of Colombia. However, this trip to Bahia Malaga was going to be different because we were set on seeing WHALES!

According to Lonely Planet,

"The Pacific is famous for its whale-watching. Between July and October whales come from as far away as Antarctica to calve and nurse their young. You can see them all along this coast."

Also, according to Colombia Travel,

"Around 10-15% of whale births in the southeastern Pacific Ocean take place in Bahia Malaga" How cool is that?!?

For more about the whale migration to Colombia, read here.

Following a similar schedule as our last trip we started out early from Cali at 5 am on Saturday, and after a three hour van ride and an hour boat trip, we arrived in our base for the weekend, the small town of Juanchaco. Over the three days in Juanchaco and the surrounding area we went out kayaking twice, hiked along the coast between Juanchaco and neighboring Ladrilleros, and took a three hour canoe ride in native canoes during which it rained the entire time. Also, we were in a canoe with a man who really struggled to maintain his center of balance so basically this affirmed our love of kayaks and hatred of canoes.

This trip 100% confirmed for me my love of the ocean in general, specifically on the Pacific Coast of Colombia, and also kayaking. When Kelsi and I first went on a kayaking trip with Julio we capsized ten minutes into it because we hit the shore of the river unintentionally. Needless to say, we have come a long way since then because this trip we got called "Olympian Kayakers". Probably because we were on a trip with a bunch of people who had not kayaked before in an ocean. We definitely aren't that good, but we have gotten a lot better. We didn't unintentionally fall out of our kayak once the whole weekend! Pretty awesome considering that entering and exiting the water in crashing waves isn't exactly a piece of cake. However, the situation was pretty funny because on our last trip we totally made fun of this couple who came with wetsuits and gloves and just looked like intense kayakers the whole time, and as Kelsi pointed out, on this trip...we were the intense kayakers.

Some of my favorite photos from the weekend: