Where Your Trip Fee Goes at San Ignacio Lagoon
When you choose a whale-watching trip at San Ignacio Lagoon, it is reasonable to ask what your money supports once it leaves your hands. It pays for a locally run operation. The local families who run Campo Cortez and the boats are paid from it, it buys food from nearby ranches and farms, and a separate reserve fee goes to the protected area the whales depend on.
Our overview of conservation at San Ignacio Lagoon covers the lagoon’s protection in more depth. The sections below cover the part your booking pays for.
The people who run your trip
Baja Ecotours began in 1989, when Johnny Friday met Maldo Fischer, a local fisherman and whale-watching guide, at San Ignacio Lagoon. Today Maldo and his family run the day-to-day operation of Campo Cortez. Our kitchen and boat staff are family members, and Catalina, Maldo’s wife, is the head chef.
Most of our ecolodge staff and boat captains are residents of Baja and San Ignacio Lagoon. Many of them moved from commercial fishing into ecotourism, and for them the work is a way of life that has to sustain them through the year from a season of about three months. Hiring and training local people has been part of how the company works from the start, and you can read more about that on our About Us page.
Our captains are lagoon residents with decades on the water, and they are graduates of the RARE naturalist training program. A Baja Ecotours naturalist rides on every whale watch. When you pay for a trip, you are paying for their time and their knowledge of this place.
Whale-watching permits and the local rules
Whale watching at San Ignacio Lagoon is limited by permit. Twenty-seven whale-watching permits are issued each year for the lagoon. Baja Ecotours holds four of them, and local residents hold the other twenty-three.
The operators also hold themselves to shared rules of their own. In December 2000, Maldo and three other companies founded the Laguna Baja ARIC, a voluntary association of captains, workers, and others involved in whale watching. Under ARIC’s guidelines, no more than two boats may be with a whale, and the second boat waits its turn.
ARIC’s guidelines are funded by its members’ fees. Those fees pay a local monitor at the entrance to the whale-watching area, who tracks the boats going in and out and radios each captain when the time limit for the area is reached.
Food, water, and supplies
Our food comes from local ranches, farms, and the local oyster farm. Most of the meat comes from local ranches, the fish is caught fresh from the lagoon, and the poultry and many of the vegetables come from a ranch in the nearby mountains. Food scraps go to the pigs at a local farm, and the rest is composted.
Drinking water comes from San Ignacio, where the local drinking water company treats it. The camp runs on solar power, and it was built with locally sourced materials.
Not everything a camp this remote needs can be bought nearby, but the fishing and ranching families around the lagoon supply much of the food.
The biosphere reserve fee
San Ignacio Lagoon lies within the El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve, established in 1988, and the Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaíno, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. Every visitor pays a Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve entrance fee, and that fee goes toward the protected area itself.
The fee is separate from the trip fee, and the amount depends on the trip:
- $100 per trip on the 5-Day Private Air, 8-Day Big Whale, and Great Migrations trips, and on scheduled self-arrival stays
- $50 per trip on the 7-Day Big Whale trips
- $35 per day on flexible self-arrival stays
The fee appears as its own line on the 2027 trip calendar, and WeTravel shows it inside the total you pay when you book.
The total on your booking page includes the trip fee and the applicable fees for your departure.
Support beyond the camp
The company supports the community at San Ignacio Lagoon directly. We make donations to the local school, both financial help and school supplies. We also invite children from outlying schools in nearby towns to Campo Cortez to go whale watching for the first time.
Our staff run beach clean-ups during the season and outside it, collecting and recycling what washes ashore. One of their projects turns clean plastic bags into dense plastic-filled bottles, which are used as legs for stools at the local grade school. You can read about these practices on our sustainable ecotourism page.
Frequently asked questions
Does my trip fee go directly to the local community?
Your trip fee pays for an operation run by a local family with mostly local staff and captains, and much of its food comes from local ranches, farms, and fishermen. If you would like to know more about how a particular part of your trip is run, the office can answer.
Is the biosphere reserve fee included in the trip price?
It is listed separately, at $50 or $100 per trip depending on the trip, or $35 per day for flexible self-arrival stays, and it is included in the total you pay through WeTravel.
How does whale watching help protect the lagoon?
Whale watching at San Ignacio Lagoon happens under a limited number of permits and within the ARIC rules, and the local families who earn their living from it have a direct stake in keeping the whales undisturbed. Our conservation and local stewardship guide explains how the lagoon is protected and what visitors can do.
Can I ask about this before I book?
Yes. Call the office at 877-506-0557 or email info@bajaecotours.com, and we will answer what we can about how the trip is run.
Planning a visit
If supporting a locally rooted operation matters to you, start with our San Ignacio Lagoon whale watching tours and choose the departure that fits your dates. We would be happy to help you plan a visit that suits your timing and interests.