Travelin the East Cape

After a few weeks here and a less than favorable review of Baja Norte, I think I can finally answer the question I wondered about during our first week here: Why do people come to Baja year after year for several months at a time?

If you've been along the coast of the Sea of Cortez, it gets easier all the time to figure it out. Here's a few reasons:

• the hundreds of miles of clear, turquoise waters with shallow bays
• the empty beaches (okay, maybe a fisherman or two) 
• the sea life - while you are gazing out at the Sea and marveling at its beauty, you see a puff of spray in the distance – wow! Whales? Or flapping in the sea – what? Manta Rays? Or schools of dolphins or jumping fish
• the multitude of sports available – such as swimming, diving, windsurfing, surfing, birding, hiking, kayaking, fishing
• the excellent restaurants serving fish cooked to perfection for about 2/3rds what you'd pay in the USA
• the climate -- never rains, highs in the 80s, lows in the 60s; beautiful sunny, clear days.  Cabo San Lucas has 360 days a year of sun.  Get that?
• the friendliness of the Mexican people -- ready to help you out, ready to spend time with you, ready to serve whatever dish you'd like even if its not on the menu; ready to put a smile on your face.
• the influence of the gringos -- both good and bad – the good being gringo-friendly stores to make shopping for supplies easier (like having WalMarts); the acceptance of the US Dollar most every place; the cleanliness standards higher; and most people speaking even a little English; the bad being some authenticity lost and higher prices than you might expect from “Mexico”.

What a wonderful surprise. This area starts getting into your blood. 

You never stop getting a thrill from seeing whales out in the ocean. The other day, I see two puffs of spray – maybe 100yds apart. One small spray; one quite a bit larger. I determine it must be a baby whale and it's mom. After a bit, I notice the mama whale flapping her flipper and staying in one spot – waiting for baby to catch up and alerting it to her location. It was like she was saying, “Swim a bit faster, baby” or “I'm right here” ---- amazing.

After our sailboating trip, we headed to Los Barriles – a famed windsurfing area at the north end of what's known as the East Cape. Driving into the town, I thought we were back in California again. Newer shopping strip malls, restaurants, small stores – the major give-away being the dirt roads and the topes announcing the entrance to town. But obviously, gringos have brought wealth to the area. We found the camping at Los Barriles Norte campground to our liking – shaded spots, clean bathrooms, showers, WIFI, parking right on the beach. Kitesurfing championships are held here in January. After talking to some fellow divers, we explored Punta Pescadora the next day, which is a rock point north of Los Barriles. To get involved driving on a pretty poor dirt road along the edge of a mountain. The point was gorgeous tho, so we jumped in and did some diving. Unfortunately, we were plagued with mask fog-up = finally figuring out that if you have sunscreen on or put it on just before diving, either the vapors or the sunscreen itself causes fog-up. At least we know now. After diving, we wanted to head back a different way. Our not-so-trusty Nat'l Geo map failed us again, as when we left Punta Pesadora, it showed that a paved road was shortly north of the point and connected back to Los Barriles. Turns out it was several kilometers off, was a poor dirt roadabout as bad as the coastal route and the turnoff was way farther north than shown on the map. We ended up driving maybe 9km on dirt and 20km on paved road through the mountains at dusk when we could have gone back the same way as before for a few more kilometers. Locals call that mountain road, “The Road to Nowhere”. Yes, it was paved (unusual for the East Cape to have pavement), tho it must have been done several years back as it had numerous potholes and worn away shoulders. Poor Bob. I'm always screeching at him when I see these sections of road washed away. He said, “Don't worry. I don't want to go over the side either.” He's got a point. But still............ Glad we didn't leave any later. You don't want to come across these washed away sections on mountain roads at night. This picture shows a road that is just a few miles outside of San Jose del Cabo, but illustrates what I mean by washed out pavement. This section of road was pretty extreme – with no signs of construction vehicles around.

This is a two lane road............yeah right...............

The coastal road leading to Punta Pescadora

After Los Barriles, we headed down the East Cape along the dirt coastal road. We found secluded, deserted beaches all along the way. We'd drive in, park, walk around – and say, “There's NOONE here! Amazing! Beautiful sunrises and sunsets, peace and quiet and just you!

I actually woke up early and caught this sunrise

Empty beaches you can camp or swim at

We continued down the coast to Cabo Pulmo, a 12 mile long marine area protected since 1993 by agreement of the inhabitants there. It's the only living coral reef in Sea of Cortez with 12 diving spots and reef “fingers” jutting out from shore for snorkeling/diving. Our first day free diving, the winds had been calm and thus the water was clear. Fish were abundant. We saw fish we'd both never seen before. The next day, we also did a dive. This day, the winds had kicked up and clarity was less, but on our return to shore, I spotted two rather large rays in the sand. They looked about 3-4 feet across underwater. They swam off as Bob dove down to get closer. We decided to do some Scuba, and since it'd been about 4 years since I had done any diving (I got certified in Lake Tahoe in 2007), I did a Refresher course one morning and then we went out with a dive boat later that day. Two dives – one around a sea lion colony where we saw a few sea lions jump in and swim above us. The other dive was about 55' and around a reef off the coast. Very beautiful. The next day, we decided to dive again – and went out to El Bajo – WOW! GORGEOUS REEF! - lots of fish, saw a striped eel, scorpion fish, grouper, plus some unusual coral – and also dove at a shipwreck there. Lots of fish hang out and it's known for sharks coming to get cleaned up by other fish – but not today. I'm not sure if I was happy or sad about that fact. I did pretty well diving, altho on my last dive, I let out the air in my BCD too fast and sunk like a stone to the bottom. I was surprised I didn't panic – but I didn't – I just looked around wondering where everyone else was. It just takes practice – and I learned a lot by doing those four dives.

Mary on the Cabo Pulmo beach

Cabo Pulmo from a mountain we climbed

Bob windsurfing at Cabo Pulmo

Rock beach - smooth river rock really deep

A few notes on Cabo Pulmo: No free diving is allowed unless you are a “certified” free diver. That means you are not allowed to wear a weight belt if you go diving or snorkeling on your own from the beach. The snorkel trips that are offered there seem well worth the $40/pp; the trip I saw go out went to 5 different places and were out about 2.5-3 hrs. They make you wear a life jacket however. The park fee – well, that's a strange one. One map I read said you must pay a daily $54pesos in La Ribera, about 15 miles away. We didn't pay anything until we booked the first dive and only paid once. The following day, our same wrist band was good enough to use again. Two tank dives were $75pp plus $25pp for equipment rental. This seemed standard in all the dive shops in the village. We chose the PADI dive shop due to PADI's known standards and found absolutely wonderful staff there from the dive operators, to the captains of the boats, to every worker there. Thanks Tyler, Lauren, Alex, Martin and Luis! Also, dives are limited to 45 mins each. No sure who set these rules, but that's what they are.

PADI dive shop at Cabo Pulmo

A few notes on the East Cape road: It's dirt. It's washboard. It is dusty and dirty just about the whole 100 miles or so along the coast. From Los Barriles to short of La Ribero, and then about 10 miles south of La Ribero, it is pavement before turning to dirt. The road doesn't change much throughout the rest of the East Cape – it's jarring, but wide enough (barely) for two vehicles and mostly flat with rolling hills. There is a crossroad out of Vilorama leading to Mex 1, which most traffic seems to take, but we did not. We wanted to stick to the coast and check out the surfbreaks. This dirt road is the road less traveled; so in a few sections, was a bit of a worse dirt road than the upper East Cape dirt road, but not much worse. There were a few spots where the lane narrowed to a single lane due to erosion. But generally speaking it was a “good” back road.

A note on hiking in Baja: OUCH! One thing is for certain. The desert is one big prick. Everything has prickers – every plant, tree, bush, even groundcover. Your tendency when hiking up or down hills is to grab something to steady yourself. BIG mistake. You want to sit down to get out of the sun or to rest – DON'T SIT DOWN unless it's on a rock. I sat on what I thought was dirt one day, and found small barbs in my butt when I took my shorts off that night. Went right through denim. So, you learn to step carefully, watch what clothes you wear (prickers grab nylon, well honestly, they grab about any material....), and take your time going up and down hills.

Just about everything has spikes

We're back in civilization now! What a shock! Traffic! People! Stores! Supplies! Internet! Til next time....

Had to add this sunset photo