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The
Best of Baja 2014!
Reserving
now for just 20 guests.
Experience
Baja California, Mexico's Personalized Natural History
including boating
with Scammon's Lagoon's friendly gray whales.
Since 1966: Our
Greatest Natural History Learning Adventure!
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The
2013 March date sold out by October, thank you!
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Now
Accepting 2014
Small
Group Reservations:
March
7-15, 2014 |
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Please
scroll down for more information, and enjoy the photos on the way... |
Space is Limited
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Participation is Limited to 20 guests.
Call Piet & Mary for
The Baja Brochure & conversation...(520) 887-2340
Please
scroll down for more information and photographs.
Your
detailed itinerary is in our Baja Brochure.
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Good News for our Baja California guests! |
| Again for 2014,
for your savings (often very substantial savings,
depending on age) and convenience we've included Travel and Trip Cancellation
Insurance from Travel Insured International for
every guest. Further, our
friendly group is limited to 20 guests; enjoy our spacious
seating comfort
of
only two people per wide three-person seat in the brand new vans. Now everyone has
their own window seat with a view! |
| Did you know that Mary & Piet personally
produce and operate each one of their learning vacations? And
that they are your hosts and guides in Baja California? Piet
first ventured into the Baja peninsula in the summer of 1962 and
began BFT in Tucson four years later. You're invited to come
along on BFT's 2013 adventure and make Piet & Mary's long experience your own
personal memory. Please call and discuss your interests with
them at 520-887-2340. |
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Our guests admire a friendly 40'
California gray whale and her 16' calf beside our boat.
BFT's guests look
at
whales...not for
whales!
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We're not looking for
whales, we're looking at whales! Scammon's Lagoon, located on the Pacific
Coast of Baja California, Mexico, roughly 400 miles south of San Diego,
California, is the largest and best-protected and regulated of the
California Gray Whales' calving and mating grounds.
These leviathans have
traveled 4,000 miles from the Bering Sea to mate and to bear their young
in the safety of these protected waters. They are at peace here. It is
truly amazing to share their waters as they go about their natural
business of life undisturbed.
Our Best of Baja
tour is easy-going and especially created for natural history-oriented
guests seeking a learning vacation. Informal natural and cultural history
interpretation abounds, and is rooted in Piet's 50 years in Baja
California (47 years since founding BFT) combined with Mary's vast Sonoran
Desert botanical and interpretive skills. This unique learning vacation is
personally operated by Piet & Mary Van de
Mark with enough comfortable new passenger vans to allow just two guests
in each wide seat, so everyone enjoys their own window seat! Guests find time off the beaten track to stop and smell (and photograph) the spring flowers
and meander some of their favorite special spots in Baja's deserts and sea coast.
Very comfortable hotel
accommodations are included throughout. Very fresh seafood, plus Mexican
and American specialties are always available from familiar restaurants we
and our guests have enjoyed since most of them first opened decades ago.
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Believe it or not, these friendly
whales are looking at people, too! In the
center of the photo (above) you'll see the eye of a 40' adult California
gray whale looking looking right at the guest to my left! You know
when they're looking at you!
This image was shot from our boat,
looking through the water with a polarizing filter to cut the glare.
Running at an angle beneath the large eye, the line of the whale's mouth
is visible through the distortion caused by the water. Other distortions
result from small ripples on the water's surface. White blotches are
barnacles, which blend to result in the typical gray appearance of these
whales. |
These friendly whales are resting on their sides
just beneath the water's surface and right by our boat. The images
were shot looking almost straight down and very close to the
boat.
The smaller photo (above) shows the eye a young
whale, this time looking right into the camera ! This is the eye of
the small (16') whale (below) photographed 28 seconds earlier (by
camera data) as it approached the boat; its head is above the surface.
Both images have been sharpened and brightened with
PhotoShop; because whales typically open their eyes to people-watch
in the shade created by side of the boat; one might conclude that
they find bright sun unpleasant, as they don't often expose their eyes
to it for more than a few seconds. The eye is recessed into the side
of the head, and has eyelids, eyeball and pupil like many other
animals.
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Breathtaking!
These 9 photos are taken with a motor driven
camera over a period of two seconds, as an adult California gray
whale comes to the surface while passing close by our boat and rises just
far enough above the surface to begin its blow...
The first three little images illustrate
the exhalation; water vapor is blown out with great force in well under
one second, as the droplets are frozen by the shutter speed of 1/1000
sec....
The next three little photos show the twin
blowholes open wide as the whale inhales, again in less than one
additional second...
Finally, the blowholes close very quickly
as the animal slips with hardly a ripple beneath the surface.
The sound is impressive! |
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The
Best of Baja 2014!
Whale
Watching & Natural History
March
7-15, 2014 - Reserving now for just 20 guests
$2,895
per person, double occupancy.
Private
rooms are available at $410 additional.
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Join us for this
comfortably paced, comprehensive and diverse Natural History learning
vacation. Experience those friendly California Gray Whales in one of the
most storied places on earth!
Desert delights
abound during the scenic journey between San Diego and fabled Scammon's
Lagoon: breathtaking forests of boojum and immense cardon cacti,
graceful elephant trees, and, hopefully, brilliant spring flowers.
Enjoy two days
boating on Scammon’s Lagoon, sharing the gray whales' largest and
best-protected migratory mating and calving destination. In 2012,
biologists counted 1523 gray whales, plus a new record number of 1198
newborn calves during our visit!
Normally about
half of our guests pet the friendly whales, yet in 2012 everyone was
touch by a whale! |
The Desert
Museum teams up with Baja's Frontier Tours to give you that up-close and
personal Friendly Whale experience you've heard so much about.
Piet & Mary Van
de Mark, with decades of Baja experience, will provide you the optimum
natural history learning vacation with great fun, good food and lots of
comforts.
Baja's classic
wilderness includes pretty places by the sea and great Sonoran Desert
forests of bizarre and wondrous plants, offering ideal opportunities for
leisurely exploring, learning, and photography. Birding in a nearby salt
marsh and lagoon provides delightful views of all the North American
herons and egrets, and many other residents and visitors to this
area.
Truly fresh seafood
and comfortable accommodations complete your learning vacation. |
Your comfort
is important to us! During our scenic journey roundtrip from San Diego, veryone
enjoys their own spacious window seat in our comfortable new passenger
vans; just two guests share per wide 3-person seat.
Also included:
deluxe group travel and trip cancellation insurance, delightful nightly
hotels, five picnic lunches and knowledgeable nature interpretation
throughout.
The 2013 tour sold
out early. Just 20 lucky people will be able to share this unique 2014
learning vacation, and we are receiving your reservations now.
Call Piet &
Mary Van de Mark at Baja’s Frontier Tours in Tucson, (520) 887-2340
for detailed brochure, information and registration.
You may email: piet@bajasfrontiertours.com
Please
read on, we've prepared lots more photos and information for you..... |
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The tiny white flowers of this rather ordinary-looking shrub (photo at the
left) (euphorbia xantii) become a delight for the eye when its tiny
flowers are viewed through a hand lens. |
 
Many of us are touched
by whales!
A whale of a holiday card! Photo by BFT guests Stan & Mary Lou
Holmes
BFT's
guests don't look for
whales...
They look at whales!
This photo was
taken in 1998, and the whales are now friendlier than ever.
About half
of our guests are touched by friendly California gray whales!
Photos are shot by BFT
guests and by Piet & Mary Van de Mark |
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When a friendly California gray whale comes
over to your boat to visit - even to hang out for a few minutes -
you can actually watch (and hear!) her breath. Baleen whales have
two blowholes at the top of their head. |
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Here is a close look down
at a gray whale's blowholes, open wide to draw in air. The other
objects on the whale's skin are barnacles and large whale lice
that blend together to give the animal a gray appearance at
distance.
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Simply The Best
of Baja Whale Watching
and
Sonoran Desert Natural History
 
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| This very friendly and curious little California
gray whale was born in Scammon's Lagoon in 2009, just a month or two
before this picture
was taken.
It's Mom has brought it over to our boats
and given her OK to come close, perhaps to share her curiosity about the
people in the boats who have shown themselves to be friendly.
Friendly whales sometimes interact with boats
in a manner comparable to... |
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...interaction frequently observed with their own
species when they seem to be at play.
The baby's youth - just a couple of
months - is distinguished by the pickle-like dimples on the front of its
stubby head.
The eye is visible just to the left of
the point where the line of the whale's mouth enters the water; the eye
is partially open and just above the waterline after taking a quick
glimpse of us in the boat. |
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Our
specialty Since 1966 |
| Ellen, our guest from Tucson, writing about Pacific
Coastal birding on her 2005 trip with us -
It was marvelous - and if you got tired of watching the whales,
you could watch the seabirds: a Caspian tern, more gulls and pelicans
and cormorants, eared grebes, snowy and great egrets. After several
hours when our boatman headed us back to the launching dock, we passed
by bobbing channel markers and huge metal mooring buoys used by salt
barges, covered with lounging sea lions or pelicans, and sometimes both.
Several early evenings we went bird-watching along the shore and tidal
inlets. Here’s where my bird list took a great leap. There was a lot
of marshy grass and little islands with great numbers of birds feeding.
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We saw willits, godwits, and whimbrills with their curiously long beaks,
a blue-footed booby, reddish egrets, long-billed curlews, cormorants
with their wings spread to dry, pintail ducks, greater and lesser
yellowlegs, red-breasted mergansers, semi-palmated and Western and least
sandpipers, common goldeneye, brants, lesser scaups and American
widgeons. In the long grasses, we saw tricolor herons, yellow-crowned
and black-crowned night herons, little blue and great blue herons, each
spaced equally apart for nesting. At the lighthouse point closer to the
sea, we saw black-bellied plovers, oyster catchers and Western gulls.
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We were struck by the number of ospreys on nesting platforms built
all around town, including two within view of our motel. Since it was
spring, some chicks were ready to fledge but were still being fed by
their parents. It became a daily ritual to check on the two nearby
nests. There was great excitement when one of the youngsters finally
flew, a sense of shared accomplishment among us, even to delaying our
departure one morning. The great shaggy chick looked like an improbable
flyer, but fly he did from nest to telephone pole while we stood and
applauded. There was another osprey platform near the bakery we
frequented and there was as much interest in that nest as in the
contents of the bakery.
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Another
unique educational travel experience from Baja's Frontier Tours, co-sponsored
with
Tucson's world-famous Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
Whenever you're in Tucson, be sure
to plan a day to enjoy this very special place to enhance your experience in
our Sonoran Desert.
Our
brochure with more details of this trip is yours for the asking. Call Mary & Piet Van de
Mark today.
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BROCHURE?
ITINERARY? QUESTIONS? RESERVATIONS
We're pleased
to speak with you to discuss your interests and what we have to
offer you.
Please call;
we're here to help you determine if this is the trip for you...or
not.
$2895.
520-887-2340
(Tucson,
Arizona) |
Please call or email to
make your reservations well in advance.
Space is limited.
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We proudly include Travel & trip cancellation
insurance by Travel Insured International
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The
Best of Baja 2014
Experience
the Natural History of the Peninsula's Unique Central Desert and Pacific Coast,
plus
the Gray Whales on
the protected waters of Scammon's Lagoon!
Exciting
Daily Discoveries and Comfortable Nightly Hotel Accommodations. Plus the freshest
seafood you've enjoyed in a very long time!
For your
savings and convenience, comprehensive travel and trip
cancellation insurance is included in the
price for all Best of Baja
participants! Further, our personalized group is
limited to just 20 guests, and seating is only two people per
three-person seat in
the three new vans. Now everyone has a window seat! You're invited to join
us! Please call Mary and Piet to discuss your interests
and determine if this program is just right for you.
Personally
produced, operated and hosted by
Piet & Mary Van de Mark.
March
7-15, 2014
$2895
per
person,
double
occupancy.
Please call/email.
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Private
rooms are available at
$410
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Detailed
Baja Brochure is your for the asking!
Call
us at 520-887-2340
(in
Tucson)
outside
Arizona call 1-800-726-7231
EMAIL: piet@bajasfrontiertours.com
Please call us with
your questions and let's talk about the details of our learning
vacation.
NEW:
Comprehensive
Travel & Trip Cancellation Insurance from Travel Insured
International is now Included for our guests!
Comfortable
new passenger vans roundtrip
from San Diego, California; two guests per wide three-person seat; 20 guest
maximum; everyone enjoys a window seat!
Your
$300 deposit assures your reservation now
Space
is limited. Filling now.
Please reserve
early and savor the anticipation!
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The Best
of Baja
is
a comprehensive and diverse natural history vacation created for guests with a
wide range of ages and interests. Desert delights—Boojum forests, immense
cardon cacti, brilliant spring flowers, plus the lovely Pacific seashore alive
with marine and bird life—are but a part of the fascination you’ll
experience on this leisurely learning vacation.
Piet (who
pioneered Baja eco-tours in the 1960’s) and Mary Van de Mark (with 20 years at
the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum's Education Department and Tucson Botanical
Gardens) will personally share their passion for Baja’s natural history with
you throughout this comfortably paced vacation. You'll also enjoy two days with boating on Scammon’s Lagoon, always with many hundreds of California gray
whales. During our visits in 2004, biologists counted over 2,000 gray whales in
Scammon's Lagoon! Such numbers are common. About half of lucky BFT guests actually
exchange touches with one (or more!) of these magnificent
mammals!
This is the
gray whales' migratory destination; we're not looking
for whales, we're looking at them! They have always
been there for our guests in great numbers since Piet began whale watching tours
forty years ago. You'll have time for leisurely
exploring, photography and always-optional walks about Baja's springtime desert
and shore. Picture pristine places by the sea and great desert forests of the
peninsula’s wondrous plants.
This very
personally hosted learning vacation features travel
in comfortable brand new air-conditioned passenger vans round-trip from San Diego, nightly hotels, several meals,
knowledgeable nature interpretation and the most outdoor enjoyment and learning
you'll find anywhere! The rear seats are always removed from our vans for comfort and
luggage, and radios connect the us for sharing information en route. This
program is limited
to twenty-some congenial guests. Reserve now. Call or e-mail Piet &
Mary in Tucson at (520) 887-2340. From outside Arizona, call
1-800-726-7231. You may email us at piet@bajasfrontiertours.com
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Dennis
Winsten photo
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Mary Van de Mark's
nearly three decades of natural history education experience, include 14
years at the Arizona-Sonora Desert
Museum's Education Department and six years with the Tucson Botanical Gardens. BFT's guests
are always assured of both
enjoyable itineraries and a professional interpretive focus by the Van de Marks
and often by a selection of the very best guest interpreters. Mary's informative
nature interpretations continue to be enjoyed by all. |
Piet
Van de Mark’s passion for Baja
California, Mexico's natural beauty bloomed on a personal odyssey in the summer
of 1962. Baja's Frontier Tours began as adventurous four-wheel-drive camping expeditions in 1966. As
paved roads and hotels slowly came to Baja California, BFT gradually evolved into the
Personalized
Natural & Cultural History Learning Vacations that Mary & Piet share today in
the peninsula and
other selected locations in Mexico and the American Southwest. |
From our guests about The
Best of Baja…
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| "I just want to say what a
really wonderful trip it was. You made the trip so personal.
It was like going with a group of old friends. Seeing the whales
was an amazing, unforgettable experience, but also so enjoyable were the
walks in the desert and on the beaches, the picnics, and driving to and
from. I loved it all. Just got my pictures back, so I
enjoyed it all over again! You guys know how to do it!
Thanks for sharing your love and knowledge of Baja so generously."
Best regards, Gail,
San Francisco. |
| "I know we told you how
much we enjoyed our time with you but thank you again for beautiful memories.
We want you to know that if you ever write a book, we will be one of the first
to buy it. Bob and I place this tour at the top of our list as being the
very best." Thanks again. Nancy & Bob, Indiana. |
| "The
arrangements were great—fun hotels and wonderful food! We were amazed
at the lushness and beauty of that part of Baja, and the wild flowers were
incredible!! And the whales—We were so lucky to encounter two friendlies right
off the bat! We just couldn’t imagine seeing so many whales, and so close. It
was fantastic!"
Bobbie & John, Arizona.
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| "The
Baja trip was by far one of my best! Great folks interested in science! I have a
new puppy…her name is BOOJUM! Never stop exploring!" Kathy,
Wyoming
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| "We
want to thank you for a marvelous Best of Baja trip. We enjoyed it immensely and
were especially appreciative of your efforts to acquaint us with Baja—from its
people and history to its plants and whales. You gave us wonderful memories of
delicious picnics, beautiful canyons and beaches, and good fellowship."
Ivan and Venice, Arizona |
| "I
have relived my
whale-petting event many times--each time I tell it. Thanks for the
wonderful adventure." Carol,
Colorado
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| Watching
the California gray whales in
Baja was first widely reported to the outside world by that prolific mystery
writer and Baja aficionado Erle Stanley Gardner in his 1960 book Hunting The
Desert Whale, an account of his early adventures at Scammon's Lagoon. Named
after a Nineteenth-Century American whaler, Scammon's Lagoon is the largest
destination point of the gray whales' awesome 8,000-mile migration from the
Bering Sea. This spectacle was witnessed by very few until 1967, when Baja's
Frontier Tours began land-based programs to Scammon's Lagoon. |
Another
turning point came a decade later with a simple act of trust by one curious
whale: she swam over to one of our Zodiacs filled with people and watched—and
touched our outstretched hands! Other whales must have watched her, for
succeeding years have blossomed with friendly whale encounters. The story
of Baja's Frontier Tours' early encounters with Grace, the friendly whale appeared
in National Geographic World in 1978 and in Newsweek in 1979, and
resulted in BFT's participation in the production of PBS's TV special The
Great Whales. |
While
we cannot assure you a touching encounter with a friendly whale—acts of
nature are not often guaranteed, are they?—perhaps half of our guests share this most
memorable experience. On our tours, two boating journeys are planned on
the waters of Scammon's Lagoon with lots of gray whales—often over 2000 animals! They can be seen relaxing, mating and caring for their young.
Photography can be breathtaking! Our guests find many memorable experiences with
us in Baja both on and off Scammon's Lagoon! |
For
most folks, while whale watching may be the journey's high point, most guests
find that getting there
with Mary & Piet on The Best of Baja is even more than
half the fun! Comfortable accommodations, the freshest seafood you can imagine,
and traveling companions who truly get along and make fast friends, characterize
the BFT experience. We hope you'll join the fun and learning on our next
adventure during the heart of the whale season. Please feel free to
call any time to chat with Piet and Mary about your questions and your
interests. |
Value
Whale Watching
for your group?
Value
Whale Watching can be a wonderful, quick and economical custom program for your club, group,
institution or extended family and friends.
Please plan as far in advance
as possible. Call, write or email us to discuss options.
Boating Excursions with Baja's California Gray Whales on Scammon's Lagoon!
Luxury
Full-Size Motor Coach and Round-trip Sightseeing from San Diego, Tucson,
or your home town; van travel available for smaller groups.
Contact
us for cost & details for your group
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Value
Whale Watching features
the magnificent California
gray whales including two or more days that feature up-close observation outings
by boat on famous Scammon’s Lagoon during this comfortable motor coach
excursion. Experience the whales’ largest and best-protected migratory destination lagoon, where
adults often number two-thousand or more and several hundred calves are
born each season! Lots of our lucky guests actually
share a touch with a friendly whale—truly one of life’s most
memorable experiences!
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This
fully escorted learning vacation represents a terrific travel value in
education, comfort & fun! Comfortable hotels and
wonderful food are enjoyed by all.
This short and easy-going educational program involves no
required hiking and just a little walking. Just relax in your comfortable full-size, air-conditioned U.S. Motor coach
and enjoy the unique beauty of Northern and Central Baja’s Pacific
seacoast, deserts
and villages passing by outside your window. |
Your
trip may begin with your hotel
on the evening of the first day in San Diego (or your chosen location), and normally ends there
on the morning of the last day, allowing travel time from home on both of these days. This escorted
eco-tour includes direct travel by luxury U.S. charter motor coach (bathroom
aboard!), five (or more) nightly hotels, two (or more)
whale-watching boating adventures on Scammon’s Lagoon and your choice of
meal plans. Please plan this one well in advance. Call
or e-mail for more information.
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QUESTIONS &
RESERVATIONS?
Contact Piet & Mary Van de Mark by phone:
520-887-2340 (Tucson, Arizona)
Toll
Free: 1-800-726-7231
©Baja's
Frontier Tours LLC Tucson, Arizona 2005 & 2009
Home
Page |
When the rains come, you'll
experience great spring
flowers in Baja! 
2007 Guests & one cardon cactus.
hole in the rock
Old friends in Guerrero!
