Baja 2022

Flying down to Loreto and meeting up with my brother who drove down two weeks ago from ABQ with his dog and Sprinter van.

At the LA airport right now.  Cell service will be sparse from here on out, but the beach we are camping on is near a fancy yacht marina and you can get cell service if you hike up the hill.   According to my brother, there is a giant ass yacht beached on some rocks near an island offshore. Will try to post pics when I can.

^^^

Chiapas is on the bucket list.  They say don't go in the rainy season.

Clinbed up cell phone hill to check emails but can't post  pics.   The yacht is still stuck on the rocks.  150 footer called the "vixit".   They pumped all the fuel out and are waiting for a salvage barge.  Otherwise pretty peaceful at Rattlesnake Beach and have been taking the zodiac out.  My brothers dog has found a new arch-nemisis - pelicans.

Finally able to share some pictures.   This Baja trip was focused on camping on Rattlesnake Beach (aka Playa el Quemado) about 30 minutes south of Loreto on the central coast of the Sea of Cortez.   Stayed there a couple nights last time I was down there.  No frills rustic camping, but at only $4 USD a night, a real bargain considering the epic scenery and the spacious campsites right on the beach:

My brother had been down for two weeks before I showed up with his dog Tuco and well-equipped Sprinter camper van:

The beach is in the shadows of the Sierra de Gigantes range:

Another perk about Rattlesnake Beach is that you can get cell service (albeit weak) if you climb a steep hill.  Good for checking emails, but not for posting pics.  The hill also offers killer views of the beach below:

Spent five nights just being a beach bum.  My brother has a small inflatable Zodiac with a six horsepower four stroke motor, which we took out seven times until we ran out of gas.  Good for putzing around and fishing:'

Tuco came out with us a few times, but he has developed a serious hatred of pelicans (fine with other birds) and would try to leap out of the boat every time he saw one:

Here he is facing off with a pelican back at the campsite:

Did some snorkeling too and on one of our last days found a killer wall that went 20 feet straight down from some rocks in a little cove.  Tons of fish.   We tried spearfishing with my brother’s new speargun, but we were novices and after the third shot, the knot tied to the spear came undone and the spear sank in 50 feet of water.  Doh!

Here is the boat pulled up in the cove:

The other campers are mostly quirky Canadian retirees who come down year after year for three to four months at a time.   The campsites are spread out, but it is not unusual for fellow camper to just show up at your site to say hi and shoot the shit.   Sort of like the way neighbors just pop in on situation comedies.   They might bring by fresh baked goods or fresh fish they caught out in the bay. 

A German couple gave us a couple barracuda they caught in that cove mentioned above and we turned them into fish tacos:

Of course, the talk of the beach was the mega-yacht Vixit stuck on some rocks offshore.   Rumor has it they were using some very old charts that didn’t show the rocks. Thing rents for $200,000 per week so sure somebody was not happy.  It was stuck a few miles offshore, but you could watch the salvage operations with the binos.  On the one of last days there, they were able to finally get it off the rocks and it limped back to the nearby fancy yacht place for repairs.   Here it is docked.   You can see it is still listing a bit and the Mexican coast guard placing booms around it to capture any leaked fluids:

There were even bigger yachts coming out of the port.   On out last morning on the beach, we saw a helicopter land on one.   Never seen that before.   

After five nights of hanging on the beach, we did an overnight trip inland to the little Mission village of San Javier up in the mountains:

The town is located at an oasis and was relatively green:

We found a nearby campground nestled in a 300-year-old olive tree grove planted by the Jesuit missionaries.   Tuco made fast friends with some of the local dogs and spent the night running around with them barking at rival groups of dogs and random people passing by.

After that, we went into Loreto last night and stayed at a walled gringo RV park, with running water, flush toilets, and hot showers.  Got on a plane this morning and now stuck at the Phoenix airport for the next six hours. 

>>>>my cousin has been living in los barriles

I went through Los Barriles a few years ago during a trip down by the cape.  Looked like a nice town.   If you go there, check out Cabo Pulmo, which is about an hour or so southeast of Los Barriles.    The road to Cabo Pulmo is shitty, but once you get there there, you will find a world class reef right off shore that you can easily swim out to.   Never seen so many fish in one place in my life.  In fact, it is a UNESCO world heritage site.   The town is off the grid, has more dogs than people, and has very few amenities aside from a fancy dive resort, but we ended up camping in Pepe's back yard for $5 USD per night partying with an interesting cast of characters   Pepe is a local fixture and also runs dive trips to see the Whale Sharks, which is something I still need to do.  Check it out of go see your cousin.