You'll have to sign up next year for the Baja Whale Watch and decide for yourself. After a quick tour of Guerrero Negro we gassed up and split into two groups, those of us who were to stay at Hotel La Pinta and those who were to stay at the Malarrimo . It was interesting to learn that the town received its name from an American whaling ship, the Guerrero Negro or Black Warrior, that ran aground in the shallow waters near the mouth of Scammon's Lagoon in 1858. For many years thereafter the stranded ship served as a marker for the shallow waters of the area. Guerrero Negro exists today to mine salt from sea water by evaporation in vast pans dammed on the flat land of the area.
Summers are hot and there always seems to be a breeze blowing, which helps speed the evaporation.
This salt works are the second-largest salt producer in the world. Whale Watching Early Sunday morning came with a gray overcast and acceptable wind, which can cause whale-watch cancellation when too strong. We saw a gigantic salt harvesting tractor with its two giant trailers up close. Its 12 wheels are each 12 feet tall and it is able to carry 360 tons of salt at a time, which it scoops up in 45 minutes from a salt flat. Enrique informed us that the California gray whales migrate 6,000 miles from the Bering Sea to Scammon's Lagoon to mate and have the babies which were conceived there between January and March the year before.