Whale Watching in Bahia Ballena

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Whale Watching in Bahia Ballena

The Perfect Place for Whale Watching in Bahia Ballena Costa Rica​

humpback wales can jump out of the water

Costa Rica’s humpback whale watching season has officially begun, and you have the opportunity to see them up close and personal from the comfort of your private sun deck. Escape Villas Vacation Rentals offers Costa Rica/Puertocito Point, a luxury waterfront home right next to Ballena (whale) Marina National Park. From August to November humpback whales use this areas part playground, part nursery as they give birth to calves here in the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Enjoy the splendour from the deck of puertoncito point-Dominical-Costa-Rica

Puertocito Point

If you were going to build a home for whale watching, Puertocito Point would be it. This luxury 2 bedroom villa with a 2 bedroom guest house is nestled on 12 stunning acres of ocean front property surrounded by dazzling green rainforest on one side and the sparkling wide-open Pacific Ocean on the other. On the ocean side, guests have access to white sand beaches or they can relax on a long sun/observation deck with pool and watch the whales as they saunter by.

Why Humpbacks Are So Popular

Humpback whales are the largest living mammal on the planet. They can be 52 feet long and 80,000 pounds. Even the calves are huge, measuring 15 feet long at birth and weighing a ton. Amazingly they grow to this size by slashing through clouds of tiny plankton and krill and straining the food out of the water with 300 or more baleen plates, which are like long brush bristles. Unlike other whale species, humpbacks spend a lot of time at surface level, which makes them easier to spot. The humpback whale gets its name from the dorsal fin that sits on a large “hump” on the back, which is noticeable when the whale arches its back and dives.

Humpbacks enjoy breaching (jumping out of the water), fluke flipping (smacking their back tails on the water’s surface) and fin slapping. But one of the oddest behaviors is something called spy hopping. This is when a humpback decides to take a calmer look at the non-water world around him. You can see humpbacks in a vertical position, like long pickles standing up, half submerged.

Scientists don’t really understand a lot of this behavior. Some feel it’s all intended to communicate with the rest of the pod. Others believe the whales leap clear of the water to try and rid themselves of parasites like sea lice and barnacles. Still others feel the humpback launches itself out of the water because it can. They are playing and they do this for sheer enjoyment.

Humpback wales in Dominical/Costa Rica

Coming And Going

The humpbacks that visit Costa Rica’s Pacific coast from August to November come from the Antarctic where they have built up their blubber reserves for what amounts to the longest migration in the animal world.When winter comes to the south in June these Antarctic humpback whales travel 11,500 miles north along the coasts of Chile and Ecuador to the tropical waters of Costa Rica. Then after several months of well-deserved R&R, the whales return to the plankton- rich waters of the Antarctic.