The Traveling Widower

Tag: Tachycardia

  • The First and Only Day – Baja Part III

    February 24th, 2026

    It was not easy getting up early on Tuesday – I was still tired from my late night E/R experience on Saturday/Sunday, and had to get up at Oh-Dark-Thirty on Monday for the trip to Ensenada, so a 5:45 AM wake-up was tough. But, I managed to stumble off for breakfast at 6:15, and had everything ready to go for loading up the vans for the short drive to the dock. 

    The “visitor center” for the whale watch tours consisted of an office for buying tickets (which we did not have to do), a small cafe and gift shop, and a room where you get your life vest. And a few port-a-potties back in the parking lot. After getting the vests, we all headed out on the long dock to load on to the boats (Panga’s) – the loading dock was kind of fun since it floats and rocks, so boarding the boats can be a challenge. The first boat out only had four passengers while mine had 7. Not crowded, but I’d rather have been in the first boat. 

    My plan for  this first trip was to get the lay of the land so to speak for photography.  I had three cameras plus my phone, and I wanted to experiment and find out what worked best for the remaining 5 trips out to the lagoon. After all, I’ve never photographed whales from 6 inches away before. 

    This was absolutely a perfect day – just warm enough, no wind, and the water was really calm. We saw lots of whales as soon as we headed out. The first boat was far ahead, and already had a bunch of whales surrounding them, so we went over to share. No whale hogging allowed on this trip. That was not a problem as it turned out.

    It was an amazing experience. We had 3 or 4 whales coming right up to the side of the boat, rolling over like Golden Retrievers. Yes, I did rub one of them – really soft skin. And no, I did not kiss them. Other people in our group did that. At one point, we had two adults and one baby on one side of the boat, and one swam under, scraping along the bottom of our boat. It was impossible to get a full photograph of the whales – just whatever portion of their body that was sticking up next to the boat. They move around quickly, so it is pure luck on what you capture with the camera. 

    I started out photographing with the Sony when the whales were over by the other boat, but quickly switched to the GoPro when three or four whales approached our boat. I wish that I had just used my phone for the close up. I totally gave up on the other underwater camera I had brought along. One other challenge was the other passengers in the boat – I wound up with a lot of heads, arms and other body parts in my photo’s – not much you can do about that. Not everyone is focused on photographing the whales. So, here are a few of the still shots I made that morning – mostly close-ups of the head and blow holes.

    I did luck out with some of the GoPro videos – this one is the best. I managed to get most of a whale, including the eye. I have a few more clips I’ll put on the next post.

    All good things come to an end unfortunately – the boat drivers have to be back after 2 hours, so we left our friendly whales and headed back to the visitor center. I was pleased – I figured out what I would do in the afternoon session – just use my phone and the GoPro, and maybe switch out the wide angle for the regular lens on the GoPro.  Once we got to the dock, I managed to get out of the boat without falling in the water, and made it back to the center to turn in my vest.

    On the drive back, we noticed an Osprey having lunch, sitting on a sign. These birds are all over the place – they build huge nests on top of the port-a-potties, or any other structure convenient for them. This turned into a great photo-op for me with the Sony camera

    Once back at the camp, we all headed over for lunch, and had about an hour afterwards to rest before we went back to the visitor center for our next outing. I went back to my cabin and started checking out the battery levels in my cameras, when all of a sudden, the world started spinning around, and my heart was pounding. Crap – this was just like what happened on Saturday night. Once again, I tried to just calm down, but my BPM was way over 100, and I staggered every time I stood up. I realized that going out on the next whale trip was not going to happen, and that maybe I should get some help. Calling 911 was not going to work this time.  Fortunately, the door to my cabin was open, and I must have looked like I needed help – I soon had three staff members asking what was wrong, and one of them rushed over with a blood pressure cuff. Way high, not too surprising. The van drivers were hanging around waiting to see what I was going to do, so I told them I’d stay behind, and the group headed off for the boats.

    One of the staff members came back with a home made Gatorade mix, since I was probably still dehydrated from the previous days, and they set me up in a shady spot where I could rest. I was not sure what to do – I was scheduled to take the van ride back to San Diego on Friday, and maybe switching to the plane would be a smarter move. Or maybe I could switch to Thursday instead. I still wanted to get a few more cracks at photographing the whales. I passed this request on to the staff, to check with Keith (the owner). Needless to say, I was really depressed, stressed and a bit panicked now.

    I rested for a while, and then walked up the hill to the dining hut for a refill of the Gatorade mix, and to have someone to talk to. Keith was already there, waiting for me. He first said that there was no room on any of the flights out. And then he lowered the boom – he was very concerned about my condition and put it bluntly to me. If anything serious happens, I will die there. There are minimal medical services in Guerrero Negro, and there is nothing close by that can handle heart related issues. He told me I needed to get back to the US – he could get a car to drive me back later in the day, or early tomorrow. It was my choice, but that was his recommendation.

    I gave it some thought for a few minutes – part of me REALLY wanted to stay. The intelligent voice, and probably my wife’s as well, was saying…”Idiot, get your ass back to the states!!!” Intelligence won the argument. It was not just the risk, but also the impact I could have on everyone else. What would happen if I had one of these incidents while we were out in the lagoon? I guess they could just push me overboard. At any rate, I told Keith I’d leave and he went off to make the arrangements. I finished another glass of the homemade gatorade, and pondered my fate. Lots of bad words. This was a really bad day to have given up drinking alcoholic beverages. 

    After a while, the dizziness was gone, and my BPM was down to something more reasonable, so I decided to take a long walk along the beach, and find someplace to sit and relax. And curse and cry in privacy  By the time I got back to my cabin, Keith had everything set – I would leave early the next day – the driver would arrive at 5:30 AM. Another very early morning. The driver did not speak English, but we would switch cars close to the border, with a driver who could get across the border, and also spoke English. I could hardly wait.  I enjoy adventures, but this was one I could have lived without.

    So, I had a nice dinner with the group, enjoyed watching them play some very strange game which involved eating poisoned jelly beans (not really, but it was peculiar and funny), and wandered back to my hut. Such a shame – I was really enjoying this trip – what a fun group of people, and incredible staff.

    My favorite all-round photo from the trip (not really):

    One more post after this…I promise. I like to draw out the story.

    If you are interested in this type of adventure, here is a link for the Baja Jones whale camp: wwww.graywhalewatching.com

    If you are really adventurous and want to drive to Laguna Ojo de Libre and camp, you can rent one of the pads, and just sign up for one of the whale watch tours: https://www.campendium.com/laguna-ojo-de-liebre-campground

  • Baja and the Grey Whales – A Really Bad Start

    Feb 21, 2026

    Note – I wrote most of this on February 22nd, and completed it on the 26th – much has happened in between. This is Part 1 of the Baja trip blog…sorry, you will have to wait for the rest of the story since I’m still working my way back home.

    I left for the first of my major 2026 trips on a beautiful Saturday morning, with high hopes for this long awaited trip. My plan was to drive down I-5 to Valencia (North of LA) on the 21st and stay at a nice hotel, then drive on Sunday to the hotel in San Diego where a van from Baja Jones will pick the group up on the 23rd, and travel to the airport in Ensenada. Great plan. It did not work out quite the way I expected it to. Read on.

    I drove down to Valencia on Saturday since driving all the way to San Diego in one trip is much further than I like to go in one day. I find it difficult now to drive one distance by myself – I miss my co-pilot. It was about a 5.5 hour drive, and I made it in time for happy hour at the hotel. I had a nice dinner at the bar, and two small glasses of beer, and headed back to my room. All good so far. When I was getting ready for bed, I got really dizzy and my heart was pounding. Not good. My heart beat was way over 100, and remained high. I was absolutely panicked and had no idea what to do – I tried to relax, but that did not help, so I eventually called 911. I do have heart related issues – these were classic symptoms of a tachycardia event, so I knew that I needed to have a physician check me out. An ambulance ride was not high on my list for this trip but I had no choice. There is nothing quite like being carted out on a gurney through a hotel lobby to an ambulance. 

    A long story short – they checked me out thoroughly at the ER –  my EKG’s, X-Ray and blood tests were all normal, so there were no indications that I had a heart attack. Always good news. My blood pressure was high, but not at a dangerous level and it had been elevated of late. The doctor said it was probably due to long and short-term stress and dehydration from the drive, and the alcohol and caffeine did not help either.  He recommended that I see my cardiologist soon, and also said I could go ahead with the trip.  

    The best part of this incident is that I got to experience the joy of being all alone in the ER. This facility had most of the patients on beds stationed along the walls and I was lucky enough to be where the police gathered with prisoners who needed medical attention. I got to listen to all the “Bro” talk from the officers, and the endless chatter from the handcuffed detainees. I was not about to tell the police to be quiet, but some poor patient, who was in incredible pain from a passing kidney stone screamed out “Shut Up”. That worked for a while. I’ve heard that passing a stone is the male equivalent of giving birth. I hope never to have that experience. 

    Now I understand why Jan hated going to the hospital,  but at least she had me by her side each time. Having support from a family member or friend really helps while you are lying there, waiting for hours for test results. She was always there for me whenever I did something stupid (rock climbing accident, bicycle accidents, etc.) This was my first time experiencing the ER solo. It sucks.

     I was eventually discharged and made it back to the hotel via UBER around 4:00AM. I was in no rush to leave the next day, so I managed to get a few hours of sleep. I considered briefly just heading home the next morning, but decided that I just needed to relax and stop worrying about the trip ahead. I really did want to see the whales. So, I headed off to San Diego later in the morning – just a 2-3 hour trip, depending on LA traffic. 

    Shortly after I arrived at the hotel, I checked my mail and found some additional, untimely bad news. I had read about the killing of a Mexican cartel lord in the news feeds, and the reprisal gang violence which had spread across Mexico. The owner of Baja Jones (Keith Jones) had sent out an e-mail providing some detail on the impact of our trip, and also included a copy of the State Department warning for a bunch of the Mexican states impacted by the violence. The two Baja states were listed at levels 2 and 3, with the latter suggesting to reconsider travel. Hmmm. 

    I spent some time reading through the news reports, and to me at least, it appeared that all the violence was centered in the mainland states, not in either of the Baja states. But, there is still risk in going, possibly of being stranded in Mexico for a while. Keith had contacted his transportation companies, and there were no reported incidents in the places we travel through so for now, the trip was still on. One more thing to worry about, and stress was something I was trying to avoid. I had bought some calming gummies (no THC) on the way down and started popping those early on. After thinking this over for a few minutes (I did not have a lot of time, the vans were taking off at 7:00AM), I decided that if we could make it the airport without incident, we would be OK. Guerrero Negro was in an extremely remote part of Baja – not exactly a hot spot for tourism or the drug trade. So, I packed up my duffel bag, checked my pulse (almost normal), put a handful of gummies in my pocket, and headed down to the lobby. The two vans were in the parking lot – time to leave for Ensenada and start the adventure.