Showing the kids in Cabo Pulmo a sea cucumber.
Ten years ago tomorrow, I arrived in a tiny village on the Sea of Cortez with dreams of learning to surf and working to protect the most important hard coral reef in the Northeastern Pacific. I’d never have guessed where that move would take me. In my latest post on the Baja.com website I provide some background and information about Cabo Pulmo: The Jewel of Mexico. Click on over and check it out!
This post was originally published on the East Cape Blog of the Baja.com website.
Rain rutted road
The unpaved roads in Baja are nothing like those you are used to if you live in the States, southern Canada or most parts of Europe. They are narrow, pot-hole and washboard-riddled tracks of earth that snake through the desert, up and over rocky mountains and down through washed out seasonal riverbeds. They are poorly and infrequently maintained.
Maintenance consists of running a grader over the rough surface to break up the washboard and fill the holes, but the effects are short-lived, lasting only a few days depending on levels of traffic. With each pass of the grader, the road is cut a little deeper into the desert’s fragile surface and the dirt piles a little higher along the sides. No one applies gravel or removes large, sharp rocks that are uncovered by the grader.
Occasionally the local ranchers will fill in a particularly large sink hole that appears in the middle of the road or a washout that makes it impossible to proceed, but these are rare events indeed. The roads are so narrow in places and often bordered by severe drops on either side that you have to yield to oncoming traffic.
Most of us who choose to live here on the East Cape, however, recognize that a blessing accompanies the cursed road conditions – they keep the maddening crowds at bay.
Most of the folks on the East Cape have a solitary disposition or at least aren’t interested in the type of nightlife Los Cabos is famous for. Stargazing and fires on the beach are more our style. The roads do however wreak havoc on our vehicles and make us keep trips to town to a bare minimum.
Boca de las Vinoramas, where I live, is located at the end of the road. It sits at the crossroads of the Coast Road and the Palo Escopeta Road, which traverses the desert from San Bernabe near the San Jose International Airport out to the coast. From Vinorama, it’s a little over 20 miles North, East, and South to the pavement. But that is no ordinary 20 miles—it’s a dusty, bone-jarring, filling-loosening, neck-wrenching stretch of road, no matter what direction you go.
So we go to great lengths to reduce the number of trips we make to town. We bought a second fridge to have greater storage capacity. I store all our produce in special “green” bags that preserve them longer. I eat broccoli for several nights in a row so it gets eaten before it goes bad. And we keep a large supply of gasoline in jerry cans in the garage.
The East Cape requires adaptation. It challenges one’s resourcefulness and ability to tolerate what has to be one of the bumpiest roads on the planet. I need a chiropractic adjustment after I make the trip to town, but what’s the point of getting one while I’m there if I’m just going to get all shook up on the ride home?
Nevertheless, when I get home, shake the dust off and walk out onto the patio as the sun sets behind our house, I am greeted by the spectacular view of the sky and Sea of Cortez turning various shades of pink, coral, turquoise and indigo, and I am reminded why I choose to live here.
View of a Baja sunset from the patio
How about you? Have you got a good Baja back roads driving story? I’d love to hear about it! Post them in the comments section below.
I’m a little bit behind the eight ball these days. It seems that the pace of life has left me in its dust over the past month or so. Christmas and the travel that comes with it are partly to blame (must we go there?), but I too have to acknowledge my part in the lack of blogging evidenced here of late. But enough of that because there are some exciting things afoot.
Way back in September when I was still sweating 24 hours a day under the heat of a tropical sun, I got an email from a lovely lady representing a web site dedicated to promoting Baja as a tourist destination that was under construction. She told me they were looking for bloggers, or as they termed it “Amigos” from each of 15 different regions of the peninsula, that they liked my blog and my writing style, would I be interested in becoming the East Cape blogging representative for their new web site? Well! Tickle me every shade of the rainbow! I was thrilled, honored and excited to be getting some serious validation of my writing skills.
BAJA.COM was launched over the holiday and I’m not sure why I didn’t run over here immediately to let you,the faithful readers of this blog, know, but I’ll blame the coma-inducing turkey chemicals and vats of my hometown Beau’s All Natural beer that was going down at the time. After getting to know the site a little better and reading the web site’s CEO and creator Jim Pickell’s blog launching the site, I am even prouder to be part of this endeavor. It quickly became apparent that they’ve earned their claim to being “the most comprehensive source of Baja travel information that has ever existed.”
So here it is folks! My very first official post on Baja.com as their East Cape Amiga. I hope you’ll stop by often, chime in with your comments, questions and observations of your own and perhaps start planning that trip to Baja you’ve been thinking of taking.
Dawn Revealed 