Down the Baja Peninsula

I’ve been a bit lazy, and pictures of people eating and drinking are pretty dull, so this is the first blog entry for 2016. If you want to see earlier stuff, click on the Blog Entry List above and Welcome.  

Down the Baja Peninsula

Baja, Mexico is a long peninsula with a mountain range running down the middle like a giant backbone. One road goes from north to south, crossing the mountains back and forth to reach the significant towns. Most of the land is empty desert and rugged mountains.

On the west side is the Pacific Ocean. On the east side is the Sea of Cortez. Leaving Playa Santispec, we headed south. The first stop was the beautiful town of Loreto. It has some great small hotels and a guy who knows how to make a list. We stopped at an overlook to see some of the islands in the Sea of Cortez south of Loreto. A panorama photo gives a little better idea of the scope of the view. In La Paz, we caught a Seahawks game in Spanish. Then it was out to Tecolote Beach north of La Paz. 

We camped on the sand by the water and took a hike back into the hills looking for agates and lost gold mines. We found some crummy agates, no gold, and a good view of our rigs. The beach was a good spot for bird-watching. 

Many years ago, Helyn and I flew twice to Los Barilles, south of La Paz, to go windsurfing. It is the best spot for wind in Baja. Windsurfing has been my favorite sport for a long time. So this trip, we made a special detour to Los Barilles so I could go windsurfing. An international kite surfing competition, Lord of the Winds, was taking place.

Flips and high-flying jumps make kite sailing look like so much fun. We were able to camp right on the beach. They rent windsurfing equipment by the hour, 1/2 day, or day. The entry to the rental area looked promising. 

I laughed at the idea of an hourly rate. I wanted to surf all day. Unfortunately, I was too eager. The wind had not built enough for small sails, which are much easier to handle. But I thought the water looked pretty calm, and I would have the water to myself, so I went out on a board with a giant sail. Bad idea! 

If you know windsurfing, you can see that I am doing the hula, which means I do not have enough wind to get harnessed in or use my foot straps. I am balancing on the board, using massive energy to keep upright. 

Alas, further out from shore, there were four-foot swells, not the calm water I saw from the beach. Now the hula went into overtime. I knew I did not want to get too far from shore in these conditions. It takes a lot of speed to turn a windsurfer around successfully. So I fell in. Now on a high-speed board, to get started, you work to get the sail out of the water and fly in the air just above the water. (Easier on a small sail, a lot harder with a big sail)  Then you get your back foot up on the end of the board, shove the sail in the air, and hope that the wind picks you up out of the water, and off you go. You do not want a swell to dump a ton of water on the sail you finally got out of the water and make you start over again. After many exhausting attempts, I was finally up and doing the hula to shore. I was tired and needed to return to the beach to rest until the wind improved.  

I did not realize that 8-foot waves were breaking on the beach when I came to shore. I only realized this right before I got to them. I jumped into the water to avoid sailing off a cliff, and my board, sail, and body went over the falls and slammed onto the sand. Safe, you ask? Oh no. I was immediately pulled out by the undertow and then had the next wave crash on top of me, pushing me under my sail this time, with the board flopping around like a hungry shark. On about the tenth wave, I had finally drug my board and sail out of the grasp of the undertow and collapsed on the beach, hardly caring that the sail looked a bit limp where it attached to the board. I was only leaking the red stuff in a few places.

A kindly employee of the rental place finally saw me and came and took away my sail while I staggered up with my board. Then I took a shower to get sand out of hidden places it had no business being.  

My sail was limp for a reason. The waves had snapped my mast base in half. Luckily it was old, so they did not charge me for it. The rental guy told me the wind was much better now, and he could fix me up with a smaller board and a much smaller sail. That sounded great, except I was so tired I could barely stand. I paid for a one-hour rental (the rate I had laughed about), had a margarita, and reflected on my windsurfing adventure. My humor was intact. My dignity was a bit tarnished. My dream of zipping across the waves as I did twenty years ago was completely and utterly trashed. What to do now? Maybe I should take up kite sailing. That looked easy.

From Todos Santos to Cabo San Lucas, at the tip of Baja, we say you leave Mexico and enter little America. From Todos Santos south, prices are quoted in dollars, and everything is twice as expensive.

Todos Santos is a cute town, and they were having a music festival there, which we attended. Where we camped, a guy came by with a car with just a minor detail. The Hotel California used to be a total wreck, but now it has been all remodeled. This guy is on the street. I will give you a cup of fresh fruit for about $2.