One of the pleasures of Puerto Vallarta in the winter is seeing the Humpback whales that come down from Alaska to have their babies. Along the West Coast, one can watch the whales migrate back north from February on. The difference is, that when in Mexico, the whales are playing. They have nothing to eat, but they also have no predators, they are not focused on moving north as quickly as possible – so whale watching in Banderas Bay is very rewarding.
It took about an hour to get far enough out and we came upon a pod of whales, spouting away.
They would surface all around us. 
And then they dive back into the water, only to resurface at a new location.
This picture is pure luck, I aimed the camera and shot non stop. I ended up deleting more pictures than I saved. 
The size and the majesty is unbelievable.
The underside of the tail is the fluke, it is the signature of the whale, sort of like our fingerprints. Here a rather dark fluke.
And here, a very white one.
On our way back we came across a two whales, I love the city in the background.
I don’t know how the tails get so ragged, but I noticed this on a number of tails. This is early in the season, the whales are mating, they will return north, the females will gorge on Krill, storing up for the journey south to give birth. They won’t eat for months on end, all that while nursing their young and then leading them back to Alaska.
Leah