Snortblog

As we made our way to Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S.A., we stopped for an exercise break at Oasis State Park, just across the border from Texas. It was a compact park, with a lake and lots of people fishing. The lake was surrounded by sand dunes, great for short hikes. There were many birds.

We went camping at Mother Neff State Park, the first state park in Texas. It’s a nice little park, with a couple limestone structures built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. It’s close to Waco. We liked spot #12 the best. Area roads made for fine bicycle riding, with little traffic. I even ran into some folks biking from Temple.

After driving to La Paz the preceding day, we checked into a hotel above Mar y Aventura, Posada Luna Sol. We had set up a day trip for the next day to Isla Partida and Isla Espirutu Santo, two islands off La Paz in the Sea of Cortez. After getting equipped with decent masks snorkels and fins, we made our way to a boat in the nearby wharf that had been loaded with the kayaks. We traveled with a family and two women travelers. After boarding the motor boat, we traveled to the northernmost island, Isla Partida. A sea lion colony lives there, spending most of their days in the pleasant but essential work required by biology–eating and sleeping.

We suited up and got into the chilly waters. Soon, the sea lions took an interest in us and came over to play. At one point, I found myself surrounded by 4 baby sea lions. They would spin around in circles, then hang suspended, upside-down looking at me curiously. One of the women in our group couldn’t keep her hands off them. They were frisky and playful. It was mating season, so our guide kept us away from the alpha males, though one aggressive male did blow bubbles to warn our guide away. They look like big lazy blobs when they’re lazing in the sun, but when they get in the water, they’re graceful and very fast.

From Isla Partida, we went to Isla Espiritu Santo for lunch and sea kayaking. The turquoise waters were still and beautiful, perfect for noobs like us.

We met with Wolfgang and his motorcycle gang the next morning. After the crew was rounded up, it turned out that Wolf was the only man of the group to go. He graciously offered to join Melissa and I on our boat. Soon, we reached our first California grey whales. A baby breached some distance away.

I was so excited I started shaking. We went from place to place trying to get near them and were able to spot their waterspouts at a good distance. I would say the adults were close to 15 meters long. Just hearing the spouts from a distance, you could tell there was a huge set of lungs driving the spouts. When we were in the right position, the spouts created rainbows. Imagine watching whales exhaling rainbows.

Bahia Magdelena is rumoured to have the most approachable whales, as we were about to discover. We reached two adult whales who were going in a more or less straight line. They both had white markings which made them much easier to spot underwater. They let us parallel them for a good 40 minutes, our guide seemed pleased. Watching their powerful tails silently propel them through the water, I was simply filled with awe at the indescribable majesty of the whales.

After a full night’s rest, we spent the next day driving to Puerto San Carlos, near the Bahia Magdelena, in Central Baja. It took about 4 hours to get there. We had reservations at the Hotel Brennan. The presumable owner was very nice, and spoke excellent English (much to my disappointment–it’s so hard to speak bad Spanish with someone who knows English so well). The hotel Brennan was occupied by a group of bikers. These weren’t the hell-raising bikers of yore, but hard-working folks who work to ride and ride to work. There were several vets and at least one military subcontractor (who had done a stint in Iraq) in the group. To save money and enjoy other people’s company, we agreed to join their group for whale watching the next day. Wolfgang, aka. “Wolf” (a South African expat) was the straight-acting ambassador of the group and a helpful guy who has been all over the world, he helped coordinate the trip.

We arrived in San José del Cabo, Baja Sur California Saturday, April 1st. No fooling. We stayed at the Hotel Diana, an adequate and affordable hotel in an otherwise overpriced town. San José del Cabo is the respectable sister of Cabo San Lucas. It’s more of a traditional Mexican town and hasn’t been entirely overrun by Californian developers. After chips (totopos), salsa and cerveza at Dantes, we topped it off with dinner at El Alhorcado, or “the hung man”. Outside the restaurant, el Alhorcado was festooned with a swinging man(nequin). Inside, the place was decorated with all the castoffs of industry and then some–license plates, car parts, bones, and all manner of regional flotsam and jetsam. The salsa spread was particularly impressive–each table came with more bowls of salsa then I have fingers. Everything from papas asados to pickled onions, pico de gallo and the standard red and green salsas. It was very good, but we we were already too full to sample more of the menu. We spent the rest of the evening meandering in the streets. After looking at the goods in a number of overpriced shops with high quality merch, I dropped in uninvited to an exclusive hotel, chock full of American expats, who were not reportedly wearing characteristic shorts. There were a number of candlelit tables in the front, the place caught my eye because the interior courtyard had a series of cascading pools with well-arranged great bowls o’ fire lining the walkway. I found out later from my wife that there was a dress code and people weren’t allowed to walk in off the street.  Oops!

In the process of getting ready to go to Baja. I can’t help but think “oh how things have changed”. The last time I went to Baja, I went on the cheap, camping on the beach, living out of somebody elses trailer, off the milk of human kindness, the kindness of strangers.

The Mexican people have plenty of kindness to go around. With more people in the streets of L.A. protesting–ever–the sleeping giant has awoken. I’m embarrassed by how the United States treats people who’ve left behind family and friends and often risked their own lives to meet a demand for work we won’t do ourselves. We won’t do our own dirty work, and treat those who do like criminals.

With that as a backdrop, I feel entirely overprivileged and soon to be unworthy of the graciousness of our Mexican hosts. When I return to the United States, I always feel comparatively ill mannered, ever the uncouth host entirely lacking in graciousness.

As the uncouth host, I must say I’m looking forward to being an inconsiderate guest–without exception, Mexican people have always been incredibly warm and welcoming. I’m sure we’re going to have a memorable trip and I’m looking forward to spending time off the beaten path seeing a little bit of the real Mexico.

We’re getting ready for a trip to Cabo San Lucas, Baja Mexico and vicinity. We’re planning on going whale watching in the Bahía Magdelena area, out of Puerto San Carlos. Next, we’ll be off to La Paz for a full day of sea kayaking and snorkeling. Then we’ll head to Todos Santos.  The trip will end with 4 days at an all-inclusive resort which we’re being treated to courtesy of my wife’s workplace, where she won the People’s choice award for employee of the year.