Five Months in Mexico: Part 1

Part 1: Across Borders

Vancouver to Tecate

John retired in October 2018. He has spent the past year planning a five month trip for us to Mexico's Baja Peninsula. The plan calls for us to:

• Camp and kayak on the way down and back
• Stay for six weeks on the Sea of Cortez in El Centenario near La Paz
• Stay four weeks on the Pacific Ocean at Bahia Asuncion
• Take many adventures hiking, touring, and exploring the culture in between.

We left Yaletown, Vancouver BC on Nov. 1, 2018 and spent the weekend in Olympia, our former hometown, visiting old friends. We had moved our kayaks out of storage in BC to our friends Greg and Lori's house in October and retrieved them on our way south. I got to see my dear friend Gary for a couple hours and John and I had lunch with former colleague Dorothy. I made a lovely dinner for Lori, Greg, Eric, and Kirsten at Eric's house on Eld Inlet. The night before we left Vancouver John and I attended a Writer's Fest event with chef Yotam Ottolenghi and got his new cookbook, SIMPLE. I made two recipes he said were his favourites, and they turned out great. Eric has agreed to check in on our condo periodically and Dorothy plans to stay at our place in February.

Leaving Olympia, our next overnight stop was near Roseburg, Oregon where we did some wine tasting at Abacela, one of our Oregon favourites.


On to California, where we spent a week with my sister Molly and her wife Holly at their new house in Santa Rosa.

Frosty mornings at Orr Hot Springs

While there, we did an overnight to Orr Hot Springs then visited our old friend Melissa at Sugar Loaf State Park where she lives and works. I made dinner for Molly and Holly and several of their neighbours that Friday night--it was a challenge with several dietary restrictions, but it turned out well.

Casualty of last year's fire at Sugar Loaf

Satellite view of Camp wildfire

The horrible Camp wildfire that burned down the town of Paradise northeast of us started filling the air with thick smoke on Thursday. By the time we left on Saturday, people were wearing masks or not leaving their houses. The smoke was terrible all the way to the Central Valley.

Our second international border crossing

We made it to Bakersfield that day, then to El Cajon the next. In between we ran into friends Barb and Ana at a rock and gem show in Hesperia where they were displaying their jewelry. Finally we crossed the border to Mexico at Tecate on Monday, Nov. 12. John had pre-printed our visa forms, so it was a breeze to get them stamped. The customs guy offered an array of hot sauces for sale and we obliged. It was a short distance to the Valle de Guadalupe where we spent a couple of days at a sweet B&B called Terra del Valle, did wine tours and supped on gourmet meals.

Valle de Guadalupe to Cataviña

The Guadalupe Valley has really grown up since we were last here. This is Mexico's premiere wine region. There are nearly 200 wineries now--highly designed architectural showcases, many on the dusty hillsides up dirt roads, others among the humble homes of the area's agricultural workers. We tried some old favourites including Monte Xanic, and newer ones like Las Nubes.

On the ropes at Monte Xanic

Our most memorable meal was at Corazon de Tierra--a five course dinner that included lightly roasted Kumamoto oysters, smoked tuna tostadas, almond and avocado mole, pork belly with mustard greens served with a lentil empanada, nopal/mint salad, and a fig tamale with fennel ice cream.

It was a day's drive from Valle del Vino through Ensenada, the last big city, the huge farms of San Quintin, to El Rosario, a village just up from the ocean where you can gas up before turning inland toward the Valle de los Cirios. Our destination was one of the most special places in Baja to camp--Cataviña.

Catavina is a magical place. Boulders and boojum trees (cirios) 

Mammoth granite boulders carved by the wind into Henry Moore sculptures. Curved and rounded, piled in tall haphazard mounds. Gritty, pitted surfaces that look so smooth, but will skin a knee or hand at the slightest touch, though boots grip to them and make for easy climbing. A thousand desert plants sprout in the crevices: boojum trees, cardones, palo adan, mesquite, creosote bush, red-headed barrel cactus, Baja nightshade with lavender flowers, four or five kinds of choyas, jojoba, an abundance of yellow flowered shrubs. Coyotes, jack rabbits, and caracaras. The stars, the stars.

As John posted his photos online, I composed haikus that might accompany them.

Cardon silhouettes
Against Sonoran sunset
Baja, we are back

Baja  California Sur (BCS) to San Basilio

Our next leg took us across the time zone into BCS. The divide is at Guerro Negro, the big bay on the ocean. By dusk we had traversed the rocky Vizcaino in the middle of the peninsula and reached the flanks of Tres Virgenes, three extinct volcanoes. I have never seen the desert so green. Two hurricanes came through the month before and dumped tons of rain. It takes about three days for plants that normally look grey and dead to sprout lush growth. Even the grasses were green. Instead of setting up the tent again for one night, we stayed in a very inexpensive eco-lodge cabin not far from geothermal power plant and got an early start the next morning.

The road to San Basilio

Hot desert highway
Coyote tiptoes across
Tarantula, too.

There is a huge hill that descends to the old mining town of Santa Rosalia where you get the first awesome glimpse of the Sea of Cortez. On through the palm tree oasis of Mulege, past the huge cardones of Bahia Concepcion, we drove over rough dirt roads to our week-long camping destination, Ensenada San Basilio.

You have to know how to get to San Basilio by land, there are very few maps and the gated entrance from the highway is not easy to spot. But it is paradise. A few gringos moor their boats here. Several great paddles, lots of tropical fish. The beach is well cared for.


Sea of Cortez camp
Eight ospreys rule the cove with
eight anchored snow birds

Bright Venus sunrise
Raptors peer from craggy cliffs.
Fishes for breakfast




I think pelicans
are underrated. What grace
as they glide and dive

"The Poking Stick"

A scorpion crawled
under my empty boot but
John shooed it away

Sparse-leafed mesquite trees
provide more than enough shade
for a hot cook stove



We are so happy to be back in Baja.

Next part: Rough roads--Loreto, our harrowing drive to San Evaristo, and on to La Paz.