The photos taken of this trip were those of amateur photographer Jean Paul Blanchard who is part of the Panterra team of volunteers. 
   As a photographer JP has grown over the years from a high school kid on a Panterra trip (who spent most of his time shooting pictures) to a budding amateur photographer. It was hard for me to let go of the photo responsibilities of the trip but it was worth watching his work change over the days of the trip. It is with great pleasure to share with you JP's work on the Livingstone school trip. 95% of the pictures are those of JP's.
   He has also taken the time to select some of his favorite shots of the trip and they can be viewed in the "Jean Paul Photo Gallery" page of this journal.

Lela Sankeralli

Day 1 



The sun set early and the crew greets the group as they arrive in the dark of night.







Our junior naturalist arrives with the group and 
a gift of a very large pink dolphin stuffed animal. 








The crew helps the students load their bags onto the panga.







The students then head down the dock to the boat. Moments

later the "Welcome to the Baja Dinner" is served, followed by 
time to unwind and chillax and then off to bed. 

This ends day 1!




Day 2 



The morning starting with a beautiful sunrise.







Followed by a great Mexican breakfast.







First activity of the day was to fit masks, snorkel ...

Day 1 
My trip begins at 7:00 am in a Super 8 Motel in Drumheller. This morning there was 10 cm of snow and it was blowing. The drive to Calgary airport was slower than normal but we got there safely at about 9 o’clock. We said our (not so sad) farewells and before we knew it we were on the direct flight to Cabo San Lucas. Time literally flew and the 4 hours sped past. Soon we were climbing off the plane into the + 25 degree weather.

Outside of the airport Lorenzo, our driver, was waiting to take us along a 2.5-hour drive through the countryside into La Paz. The bus ride was a lot of fun, the driver taught us many words in Spanish such as; perro (dog), rio (river) and arroyo (dried river bed that only runs when it rains). 

We used our amazing vocals to keep alert by singing La Cucaracha and Happy Birthday in Spanish. Next we had to say goodbye to Lorenzo and hello to the crew. Lela and Stasia met us on the dock and took us to our new home, the Narval. 

We soon found out that the food is amazing! Our welcome to Mexico dinner was superb! When we finished eating we watched pelicans in the dark as the boat was heading for Pichilingue.



Day 2 
Today was amazing! Three of us got up earlier than the rest (6:45) and proceeded to wake everyone else up. We chilled on the upper deck for a while before a delicious breakfast of eggs, beans, and tortillas. We were joined by a  very nice man, Dave, who we were told would be tagging along for a couple of days as he was a naturalist friend of Lela's.

After breakfast we saw a few dolphins. They were close enough to see but not close enough to provide a decent kodak moment. Things didn’t really heat up until a couple hours later when the rays started jumping and a blue whale surfaced way off in the distance. We got closer and amazingly enough it surfaced again right in front of us. It surfaced and dove again three times before we moved on. It was the biggest and possibly the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. 

After this we went to Lela’s Beach for some snorkeling. We saw a bunch of different kinds of fish and some really cool starfish and coral. The beach was really sandy and surrounded by rocks and cacti. It was really beautiful even though the water was cold. Once we were all thoroughly chilled we went back to the boat for lunch and to dry off. This didn’t last long as we soon hit some pretty decent swells and everyone climbed into the bow spirit to ride the waves and get totally soaked. 

The rocking of the boat was pretty fun for about the first hour, and then we all started to feel a little queasy. So we stretched out on the chairs on upper deck and fell asleep. When we woke up two hours later it was sunny, the wind had died down a little bit, and we were pulling into a new bay. 

We had a snack and were given the option of fishing or beachcombing. I went fishing but we didn’t catch anything on our panga. The group on the other panga caught a big sea bass which was promptly delivered to the kitchen. 

Once back aboard, we killed time with a game of MAU, before a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs (who knew Italian food in Mexico?). 

Afterwards, Lela pulled out the nightlight to attract some sea life. A bunch of California half beaks showed up followed by some krill a couple puffers, and a hungry pelican. Our pelican (who we named Francois) caught four fish before we went to bed. Waiting for tomorrow!

Sarah