Emily's Travels: Baja Blues (Jan 21-Feb 1)

I flew into La Paz on Saturday, Jan 21. The arid landscape dotted with cacti in southern Baja California reminds me of southwest US and parts of souther California. I felt a bit like I was arriving somewhere a little more familiar, a little closer to home than the place I left. It was a nice feeling.

Then I got to the Pension California, my hotel, and the warm fuzzies left me. It is the cheapest La Paz hotel in the Lonely Plant book, and was described as having “quirky charm.” I almost screamed and ran. The room locks with a padlock on the outside, the beds are mattresses on a raised concrete rectangle, the bathroom is separated by the room by a short concrete wall and a shower curtain door, instead of a window there is some louvered venting next to the door, the concrete walls are crumbling in many places, the nonmatching bedspreads are full of holes and the pillows... -shudder- eeeughh -- I brought my own, thanks. And its dirty -- an accumulation of thick dust along every concrete bed and wall, dirty markings on the walls, and I don’t even want to think about when the counter and sink were last cleaned. The best part is you can hear and smell the toilet flushing from the shower drain in the middle of the bathroom. Mexican plumbers don’t share my appreciation of the drain trap. But its cheap and I´m going to be in La Paz a week or so because Floyd got delayed in Ensenada. I left immediately after putting my bags down and locking the padlock behind me, and went in search of the second cheapest hotel in the guide book.

The next day I moved to the Hotel Lorimar (the second cheapest), which was very nice. I met Mike and Linda, a friendly Canadian couple, at the coffee maker the next morning. After talking a while we decided to meet for dinner that night. They had recently retired and sold their house in the city (Edmonton) to downsize into their cabin on the lake, and then decided to go backpacking through Mexico for a few months. They’re fellow veterans of the Mexican long-distance bus system, and we swapped some stories over very tasty chile rellenos stuffed with shrimp.

The clean sheets and better plumbing of the Hotel Lorimar was pushing my budget further into

the red, so I moved to a cheaper place not mentioned by Lonely Planet that rents rooms for $70/week. I checked it out, and it seemed fine. I opted for slightly more expensive $95/week (that’s only $13.50/night!) room which included a fridge, TV with four channels of Spanish language programming, and a GREAT view of the bay and sunset. After checking into the new hotel, the morning got even better as I bought a liter of freshly squeezed orange juice for $1.80 from a guy selling them from a truck. So good. Then I stopped at an electrical supply store, hoping that I’d be able to communicate with my limited vocabulary and a few hand gestures that I want an adapter plug so that my three pronged computer could use a two-pronged outlet. Miraculously they understood, and I walked away with an eighty-cent solution to my computer power problem! Then I got a $5 haircut, and was very glad to get rid of the last couple sun-damaged inches of hair. The lady was very nice and cut enough, but not more than I wanted (which was quite a feat given the language barrier), and blew it dry and gave it some style at the end. Such a deal. Next, on to a free trip to the history museum. All in Spanish, but very understandable.

Nice view from my cheap hotel room

Brief note on North American history: I hadn’t really given much thought to the Mexican-American War before… The event that really caught my eye was that when the war was over in 1848, Mexico ceded Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and Alta and Baja California to the US. The Baja Californians put up a big ruckus about this, and the US relented and let Mexico keep it. Or maybe there was another smaller war over that, I couldn’t quite tell. Anyway… this wasn’t mentioned in the museum, but the discovery that launched the gold rush happened within the next year. A huge find, in the territory that was just acquired as the result of what was (to my recollection) a war we probably didn’t need to have. Ouch for them. Anyway… I’m looking for a clarification of this form an English-language book. End of historical observation.

The orange juice wasn’t enough to fight off a bug that was going around town, and I was moping around with a cold for a few days not doing much but drinking plenty of fluids and peeing often. It could be worse. I was glad to have a nice room to hole up in for a day. I listened to the cruiser morning net, and started making friends at the marina. I joined the group that plays dominos at the nearby bar on Mondays and Thursdays. They’re a fun bunch and I had a great time talking trash with them whether I was winning or losing.

I met Ayn, who had just sailed to La Paz from San Diego. What a neat lady -- her work as a radiologist allows her a lot of flexibility and she can get a job just about anywhere. Apparently there’s a worldwide shortage of radiologists. When I asked how long she planned to cruise in Mexico, she said for as long as its fun. Great answer. She’s got a ton of experience and has done the Pacific Cup race from SF to Hawaii six times. Her calm doctor-voice and precise selection of words reminds me of Martha Stewart. We went to dinner, and after a while she asked what the name of boat I was waiting for was. When I told her it was Malulani, she said she had been parked next to him at Ensenada for a couple of days. Small world. I volunteered to help her on a maintenance project, as she didn’t have an extra set of hands since her crew had to fly back home. I’m not sure how much I helped, but she was grateful and said she’d be happy to have me crew for her if things with Floyd didn’t work out. Always nice to have a backup plan. Actually… by the time I left La Paz, I’d been offered 2 more crew positions on other boats. Cool.

By Saturday Jan 29th, I’d been in town for a week, and was starting to get antsy to get out. Still no Floyd. I took the bus up to Balandra Bay, a few km up the road from La Paz. It was gorgeous. The water was so clear and the desert landscape untouched by development. The tide was really low due to the new moon, and I was able to walk across the bar of the inner bay to the other side. That was cool, though when I was about half way across I really wanted to get out of the water. Of course the only way out was to slosh back the way I came 10 minutes or press on another 10 minutes, where the water was hopefully as shallow as it looked. Walking long distances up to your knees in water with no immediate exit is a bit disconcerting after a while. It gave me a new appreciation of how much it would suck to be the victim of a flood, traipsing about in murky water for extended periods of time (see picture of bar below). I saw the famous mushroom rock, a precarious-looking naturally occuring rock formation. Well, quasi-natural... it apparently gets knocked down by drunken locals occasionally, and has been reset and reinforced by rebar.

Looking back across the bar that I walked across. The water was so clear at the shore, turning darker shades of blue as the depth increased.

On a walk one day I stumbled upon the Moorings office, a company that rents out boats. One of the mechanics let me take a look inside of their 38’ catamaran. Very nice. With three cabins, two bathrooms, a large salon and galley, this would be a very fun boat to sail around the Sea of Cortez. I started planning the vacation already… 6-8 people (including myself), one week of exploring desert-meets-clear-blue-sea water anchorages, snorkeling, kayaking, eating much guacamole and drinking beer with lime and salt. Mid-April to May would be the best time, and I think it could be done for as around $600 per person. Let me know if you’re intrigued.

Sunday Jan 30th, Ayn and joined 10 other people for a trip to Magdalena Bay to do some whale watching. From early Feb to March, the grey whales come to Mag Bay to have their babies. It's a pretty big deal. In fact, the day we went was during the "Festival de la Ballena Gris," and in addition to many people going out to see the whales in little boats, there was music, and a carnival going on. Fortunately, the whales didn't seem to mind all the commotion. The open panga boats got within 10 yards of a mama and baby. It was really amazing to see these enormous creatures swimming along, surfacing for air now and then. The mothers were probably 60 feet long and the baby’s were about 25 feet long -- about the same length as the boats we were in. And there were plenty of whales. I think we saw about 7 pairs of mamas and babies, and a few loners that were showing off how high they could breach.