Diver - 9-7-2005 at 05:13 PM
A few years ago we were camping at La Ventana for a week or so and decided to pack up and head south to Cabo Pulmo for a night or two.
(BTW, for those that travel with kids and need a little break, La Ventana campground is friendly, has flush toilets and showers, is fenced-in and has
lot's of kids/moms to share the duties if you need a kid-break !)
After leaving a bit later than planned (Baja time !), we gassed up in La Ribera a few hours later and continued south.
We followed the graded sand/dirt road and eventually came to the beach camping area just north of town. The place was fully jambed with all manner of
campers, tents and junk ! Needless to say, we decided to keep going. After a beer and a few tacos at the new (then) beachfront stand in town, we
headed farther south and tried the dune-top camping area about a 1/2 mile from town. This place was amost packed solid and the dirty looks we got from
the existing squatters made the camping seem even more unlikely. Not our kind of place !
Unsure of where we would find to camp before dark and Los Frailles, we peeled our eyes and looked for likely side roads. A little further south, the
third or fourth side road looked promising (some fresh tracks) so we took a chance and pulled in. A few hundred yards down the drive, the sand road
forked left to a casita/hacienda. We slowly continued past the fork, inviting anyone to see us from the house. As we rounded the next curve, we
realized that we had pulled down into an old arroyo and were about 50 yards from the water. A test for soft sand got our pick-up camper within 50' of
the water, nicely tucked in a 150' wide arroyo flanked with 10-20 foot high stone walls on each side and an endless beach to the north. We set up
camp, ate some leftover shrimp we had gotten from a trawler that anchored off La Ventana the night before, and crashed.
Sleep was heavenly with the ocean breeze and the little breakers lulling us all night !
I woke up the next morning to find my younger, fitter half had gone off for a morning hike with the dogs. She had gone north along the low bluff and
since I was feeling friskie, I went looking for my sweetie. I found her sitting near the water in the middle of a beach/bluff full of huge "dinosaur"
egg, shaped boulders. What a cool place ! ......
...........later that day (after my nap), we took out the two-seat kayak and cruised down the coast towards the huge egg rocks. What we couldn't see
from land was that they continued for quite a ways down. We spent the rest of the day (or three) sunning and snorkelling off the beach. Too bad I had
to leave my pole spear in the truck ! (For those of you that don't know, my wife does a mean mother nature routine.....marine preserves, recycling,
organic veggies, tree hugging and all !)
Two days later, we still weren't ready to leave our new-found spot, but needed supplies. We made a quick trip to town for ice around 11:00am just as a
few pangas hit the beach. We waited and watched until they had secured their boats and then smiled like tourists and asked "se vende pescado, senior
?", using a full 10% of our spanish vocabulary all at once. My wife picked a nice 4-5 lb snapper for a smile, two beers and a few pesos that we took
back to camp as quickly as possible. (I'm starting to admit that the fish is a lot cheaper when she wears her bikini top; I thought it was my
bargaining skill, yeh right.)
We got back to camp and found it empty, just as we left it !
Hooray ! Grilled snapper with garlic for dinner that night on the beach. Snapper, eggs and onions for next day brunch burritos, tacos y pescado for
dinner that night ! Mmmmm!
Early to bed catches the awsome sunrise in the morning !
We finally left almost a week after arriving when a van from Colorado showed up. We wished them well but smiled when we passed another truck pulling
in to join them ! We love to be selfish about our camping privacy !
We stopped at Los Frailles to buy another fish from the pangeros and ended up staying above the beach to surf fish the next day. Just before evening
that next day, the Colorado van showed up to camp 100' away. Well, time to share the beer, fish and stories ! They turned out to be really nice folks
with lots of beer and a shortage of ice so we were forced to stay another day to help them deal with the unfortunate situation !
Two mornings later, we left and continued down through Cabo (very quickly as our recent beach time caused us to squint at all the new development),
and headed north along the Pacific in search of another worthy spot to camp.........
elgatoloco - 9-7-2005 at 05:32 PM
Fun times. The best Baja 'plans' are the ones made up as you go along!
bajajudy - 9-7-2005 at 05:54 PM
I love that area!
Did you do any snorkeling? If the wind is favorable, there is some wonderful snorkeling around those rocks, near where you were sitting.
Great Tale!
Baja Rules
Diver - 9-7-2005 at 06:15 PM
Judy,
Snorkelled all over the place (mostly in the water !) 
It was really nice and all in less than 20 foot depth.
2 years later, we camped at the same spot for a week with two other adventurous types and windsurfed 25-30 knot winds for 2 days !
If it gets big enough, there is a nice break just north of Pulmo and a few scary ones (near the rocks) closer than that.
I was just thinking what a nice spot that would be for a small, well-kept campground or B&B. We could........
[Edited on 9-8-2005 by Diver]
Now that is what Baja is All About
Baja Bernie - 9-7-2005 at 06:53 PM
Thnaks for sharing.
David K - 9-7-2005 at 08:12 PM
Yes, thank you Diver!!!
I was last at Cabo Pulmo in 1974... I don't think I would recognize the place!
bajalera - 9-8-2005 at 01:26 PM
Good one, Diver!