Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 35

ALL EDITIONS Mar. 23, TO B-IS The Arizona Republic ffihcdewatdting in Baja California supplies thrill to hordes of visitors I Los Angeles Time GUERRERO NEGRO, Baja California For Howard and Doris Cole of Seattle, it was one of those golden moments in retirement bays In the states of Sonora and Sinaloa. To see the whales at Laguna San Ignacio you must drive five to six hours on a dirt road out of the town of San Ignacio. Only the most dedicated of whale watchers make it to San Ignacio. Enrique Achoy, a restaurant owner, occasionally has received government permission to organize a boat tour.

Salt works pilots Francisco Munoz and Francisco Morales will fly you over the lagoons for 30 minutes for about $75. From the air, the mothers and calves are seen plainly in the blue-green water, by the hundred. Farther south, the whales also visit Bahia Magdalena and Laguna San Ignacio. A few round the tip of Baja and calve at two quiet mainland souvenir stands, no hustle. Word is, however, the government plans to build a viewing tower by Black Warrior Lagoon.

The area is a reserve and boats are prohibited when the whales are present, from late January to early April. But recent day; dozens of whales could be seen perhaps a half-mile away. The sound of their breathing, like elephants blowing through their noses, was startlingly clear across the water, more so than at Black Warrior Lagoon. Watching and listening to the whales is like watching and listening to lightning first y-ser, then the whoosh of air. At Scammon, two boys in a kiosk collect $2 per car from visitors.

It is larger and farther inland than Black Warrior La goon. Against a backdrop of jagged mountains to the south, the whales blew lazily in the distance. Only two sounds could be' heard, the eerie roar of air blasts across the water and the cry of gulls. Guerrero Negro is a company town on the 28th parallel. Exporta-dora de Sal is tht world's largest evaporative salt works.

It employs 750 of the town's 3,000 inhabitants. There are no billboards announcing you've reached the whales' calving area, no Snjihjs ORTHO ROSE CARE y. UKf was iusiuc uivu 26-fbot motor home, sip-n ping martinis and looking through sunglasses into a fiery sunset over Black Warrior Lagoon. A few hundred yards away, a hundred or so California gray whales lolled lazily through the water. "This is something I've always wanted to do," Howard told a visitor, "come to Baja and watch the whales.

We may stay here all week." on an 1 flock, David and Marie of Mexico, braced themselves against a cold, hard wind fof a closer look at the whales. Three hundred yards Standard equipment is binoculars or telescopes, warm clothes (It's windy at Black Warrior Lagoon) and luck. Generally, the whales are a few hundred yards away. But sometimes whale watch-ers are astonished to see one surface 50 feet away. Black Warrior Lagoon, shown on some maps as Estero de San Jose, is the Yankee Stadium of whale watching.

It's located seven miles outside the small, dusty town of Guerrero Negro, about midway down the Pacific side of the Baja California peninsula, It adjoins the better-known Scammon Lagoon, and veteran whale watchers say it offers better viewing. "This lagoon is smaller and the whales seem to be closer than at Scam-mon," said Ken Clements of Long Beach, just as another whale broached. "Hey," Clements said. "That's great! I mean, that's really great!" Whale-watching at Scammon Lagoon requires a 17-mile drive on a dirt road that's sometimes washed out by rain or overflowing salt ponds. Shortly after dawn one that again if we have to slay here all day tomorrow." Ray Assendrup drove down from Jerome, Idaho, to watch the whales.

"I read one of those National Geographic magazine articles on the whales here and took off," he said. "It's me best entertainment I've seen in a long time." In Southern California hundreds of thousands of binoculars-armed people annually line coastal high points from Morro Bay to San Diego to watch California gray whales pass by on their 2-month, 6.000-mile migration from the arctic to Baja's warm, shallow lagoons. Others watch from boats. About 15 sportsfishing fleets operate whale-watching tours. But with the 1973 completion of Baja Califor-n i a transpeninsular highway, Mexico 1, a new dimension has been added to whale-watching.

Now you can drive 450 miles south of Tijuana, park your car practically on their doorstep and watch the 50-foot creatures frolic, sleep, mate and teach newborn calves how to be whales. 4.99 REG. 5.83 3.99 REG. 4.49 SYSTEMIC ROSE ft FLOWER CARE fertilizes plants, kins Insects by systemic action. 5 b.

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He was elected to the state Tax Commission in 1966 and re-elected in 1972. His term as tax commissioner ends this jrcar. Kennedy is a mechanical engineering graduate of Stevens Institute of Technology and a former teacher, ordinance procurement engineer and manufacturing executive. Before coming to Arizona from New Jersey in, 1959, Kennedy was an iMA value analyst re sponsible for controlling the cost of radar and missile telemetering s-terns, he said. He said that, if elected to the Corporation Commissioner, he would rvatch "exploding" utility rates because they combine with inflation and indigent care expenses to boost government costs and household expenses.

The commission seat at stake in this year's election is held by Republican Ernest Garfield. Charity group jplan salute by governors The 20th annual Salute Dinner of the Salvation Army will be held at 7 p.m. April 26 at the TowneHouse. The theme will be "Arizona Governors Salute the Salvation Army." All first quality Hundreds of styles, patterns and colors Many one-of-a-kind Be early for best selection; they go fast to Breuners for one of the biggest and selections of plump and pretty comforters ever seen! These aren't seconds or irregulars they're all first quality from famous maker! Some have polyester cotton others are rayon taffeta. All are filled cloud-light polyester and backed with brushed nylon tricot! Quantities or limited.

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