Lonely Planet

52 Lonely Planet Traveller October 2017AAT FIRST IT’S JUST Ashadow moving in the water.It seems impossibly big:eight, maybe nine metres.Dive under the surface andyou can come face to face with 20 tonnesof muscle and cartilage with fins; the broadmouth sucking in plankton as it reaches uptowards the light; the remoras clinging on toits white-spotted body; the graceful stroke ofits huge tail fin as it glides through the water.It moves leisurely, averaging around 3mph,so for a little while you can swim alongsideit, kicking your scuba fins hard to keep pace.Not just a big fish, but the biggest fish ofthem all: the whale shark.It is a majestic sight in a place that isoverrun with majestic sights. The Sea ofCortez, the hundred-mile wide strip of waterbetween Baja California and the Mexicanmainland, was a favourite of the great oceanconservationist Jacques Cousteau. He calledit ‘the world’s aquarium’. It is home to a vastpanoply of sea creatures, with some 9003. Bahía de los ÁngelesImmerse yourself in the natural world by swimming with whale sharks and sea lions inspecies of fish and 32 types of marinemammal living, eating and breeding here.It’s not uncommon to spot sea turtles, mantarays and even grey whales. You can swimwith sea lions, who bark and tussle like apack of aquatic dogs, and anglers come herein pursuit of yellowtail, red snapper andgrouper. The fishing is so good even thebirds join in. Brown pelicans and blue-footed boobies soar through the air andthen suddenly dive, freefalling out of thesky and snatching up their prey.It is experiences like these thatencouraged Ricardo Arce to start hiseponymous diving tour company in hishometown of Bahía de los Ángeles. ‘I grewup here and I’ve been diving for 21 years,’he explains. ‘I wanted people to have thesame experiences that I’ve had.’Bahía de los Ángeles is a small fishingtown of just 800 people beside themountains of the Sierra San Borja. Itsisolation makes it such a perfect place to getclose to the Sea of Cortez’s many wonders.``````Returning by boat after a day at sea, the townis barely visible on the shoreline. ‘A regularday here means getting up early to give atour, then having a chilled life,’ says Ricardowith a shrug. ‘It’s a relaxing place.’This has not happened by accident.The community of Bahía de los Angeleshas consistently come together to fightplans to make the town into a morecommercial resort. ‘We’re concerned aboutdevelopment, it worries us,’ says Ricardo.‘We think the area has been conserved verywell like this so we don’t want it to growthat much. There have been lots of projectsthat have tried to get in here, but as acommunity we didn’t want them. We’revery selective about the sort of tourismwe want to attract. We don’t want SpringBreakers or the party crowd. We only wantpeople who are really interested in gettingto know nature.’Places like Bahía de los Ángeles arecrucially important because the whaleshark is an endangered species. Ricardo