jrbaja
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For those interested in travel to other places
Here's a story I put on here a couple years ago. It is from a trip for www.confluence.org and that site has many adventure stories from around the globe.
GPS coordinates.
Pretty much everyone knows my feelings on posting GPS coordinates about historic places in a country you don't even live in. I have been discussing it
with Profepa and INAH in fact.
In spite of this, I will post the story of one and even give the coordinates.
The Baja Search and Rescue Confluence expedition.
Some of you may be aware of www.confluence.org and I have been in contact with these people for some time now.
Jose and I left San Luis after his advice to bring the camp gear because nobody knows what is out there and how long we will be gone. This made the
adventure sound even more exciting so I was pretty happy. We stopped at his cousins ranch and picked up Izekiel, who was a little more familiar with
the area we were heading to but hadn't actually been to the area we were going.
After driving for hours through the mountains, we were stopped by soldiers in the most remote area I have seen thus far in my travels. We hadn't seen
a ranch or sign of habitation the entire trip as I was told that only hunters come here. Even the le?eros don't come out here as it is to bad of a
road to bother with.
After an hour with the soldiers inspecting all of our stuff ( they didn't know quite what to make of 2 Mexicans and a Gringo out here in no-mans land)
but they decided we were ok after receiving a box of Playboys. And I bet they were all feeling pretty ok themselves after such an extensive library
being delivered to their outpost.
On with the trip and finally come to a more used road where we headed to the first ranch to inquire about road conditions. By then it was getting dark
so we were invited to dinner and to stay there for the night which we were more than happy to accept the offer.
After a dinner of Machaca de Venado, cheese, beans, rice, and the usual fare in the mountains, we sat around the fire killing Tarantulas and
discussing our expedition for tomorrow.
Our new host decided since he was closer to the area and knew some of the people back in there he would accompany us which we were very happy about.
He likes adventure as well as the rest of us so now we are a party of 4 and 2 dogs.
After driving a few more hours and showing these guys that this 2wd van can go where they haven't taken their 4wd's, we finally come to a spot that is
the end of the "road" for vehicles. And this is not the spot where any of my maps show the road ending.
And not only that, there was never a road there and never has been! The walls of the canyon and huge boulders everywhere would have made it impossible
for a road to have ever existed there. Cartographers ? What's up with that. This isn't the first time I have seen discrepancies on the maps. And it
doesn't come as a big surprise because according to my guides, when a certain point of our expedition was reached, no white guys had ever been there
before. Two of my 3 guides hadn't been this far before either so I am pretty sure that those maps aren't entirely made by actual researching other
than perhaps from a plane.
We reached another rancho where we talked for a while while one of the goats freaked out about Big n Andi. Dogs, now being used to being around about
every animal imaginable including Peac-cks and Turtles are ignoring the goat while it is jumping, kicking and going wild while under it's owners
leash.
Now, the owner is holding the rope of this full size goat that is bucking and kicking and just going nuts while standing there perfectly still holding
a conversation about Confluence Points and multi colored whacko's wanting to hike into that country. We didn't pick up any more guides at that rancho
but did learn of one more farther up the river.
After about 8 Kilometers of beautiful hiking with many stream crossings (dog heaven!) we come to probably the most primitive and remote rancho in Baja
where we meet the 65 year old owner and his wife.
We had noticed a couple Kms. back a number of fully loaded orange trees along the stream. When we arrived at this ranch and made introductions, the
owner brought out a bag of oranges that would put both California and Florida oranges on the sour fruits list. We each ate about 6 oranges they were
so good.
While we were eating our oranges, the owners wife was tending to his foot. About a month ago he had a cactus spine go in between his toes and it had
been one ugly mess with infection. He had also lost the sight in one eye because of a splinter from cutting wood for carbon about a year before. Not
an easy life in these hills but damn, do they ever eat well.
So, we chat for a while and discuss his foot problem and medicine and our destination. I tell him that I will get one of the ranchers to bring him out
some Hydrogen Pyroxide which I have back at the van when we return from the confluence point.
We set off in the general direction of the point which the GPS says is about 2 miles away. We are hiking along and had taken a wrong turn into a
canyon when who shows up but the rancher who had just been able to barely walk because of infection. And he has his sandals on with bare feet. This is
not easy hiking territory. Both mine and Jose's arms are bleeding from cactus spines in about a hundred spots on each arm and the boulders are loose
so you really have to watch your footing as well as the cactus. And at this point, we were still on a deer trail.
El Se?or turns us around and shows us a much faster, easier and more direct route through the cactus and kept us on a deer trail to within about 150
yards of climbing up a fairly steep grade through every sticker known to man. And following our new guide as best we could, ( I accused him of being
part Venado ) he led us to the confluence spot with very little help from the GPS.
All of the locals understood what a confluence point was and their significance globally. They have a keen interest in the rest of the world,
especially in keeping it at a distance.
We celebrated with canned pineapple, string cheese, and some oranges, took pictures and notes for Confluence.org and headed back to the rancho.
Mrs. Venado then cooked us lunch of guess what, Venado stew, tortillas, beans, cheese and fresh squeezed orange juice. And then she brought out a hand
cranked phonograph and played 45's while we were enjoying lunch. What a hoot!
Well, after seeing all of their collection of things and some of the prettiest hides of deer, goat and vaca as well as hand made saddles, presents
were exchanged and I said I would have the medicine sent out and to use the aloe vera regularly after he had cleaned it with hydrogen.
Nope, I don't need to have it sent out because he will walk back to the car with us to get it. Now this trip turned into 12 miles round trip through
the nastiest of territory and he had just done about 4. And now he wants to go another 8 miles in his sandals. These are some humans!
He naturally led us the whole way out with our trying to keep up with him. We blamed it on the backpacks we were carrying and he said that we didn't
need those either. hahahahaha
This was a wonderful trip with many new friends being made and more flavor discoveries. Also successful in logging the most difficult to get to
Confluence in Baja.
25.00x 111.00
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Neal Johns
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Registered: 10-31-2002
Location: Lytle Creek, CA
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Good trip, JR. About 20 years too late for this old guy, though.
My motto:
Never let a Dragon pass by without pulling its tail!
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TacoFeliz
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Most excellent trip write up JR. Thanks for posting. TF 
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Sharksbaja
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5814
Registered: 9-7-2004
Location: Newport, Mulege B.C.S.
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I must be psychic....
I posted on your other thread about the GPS and made a funny but I had not seen or read the thread yet. hoooooooooooooo weeeeeeeeeeee
Scary! Must be workin' too hard!
OPh! Awesome story and very interesting JR. Especially how these hardened people exist. I can visualize them.
[Edited on 7-31-2005 by Sharksbaja]
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rpleger
Super Nomad
Posts: 1087
Registered: 3-12-2005
Location: H. Mulegé, BCS
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Mood: Was good.
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Great post.
Thank you very much
Richard on the Hill
*ABROAD*, adj. At war with savages and idiots. To be a Frenchman abroad is to
be miserable; to be an American abroad is to make others miserable.
-- Ambrose Bierce, _The Enlarged Devil\'s Dictionary_
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