Trip report: El Rosario and Bahia de los Angeles

July 20, 2005 Trip to El Rosario Festival and Bahia with Cory

Prologue: This trip is with my 16-year-old son, Cory, who will be a senior in high school this fall. When summer started I told him he had to make this trip with me as my usual Baja Buddy could not make it - he was very apprehensive as he hates long road trips and does not enjoy fishing as I do. About 6 months ago he started changing, maturing fast - you know, growing his hair/beard, listening to '70s rock (Alice Copper for goodness' sakes!), beginning to look at his dad as an old fart instead of the guy who can do everything. To be honest, I was a little apprehensive myself not knowing how we would get along for 10 days cooped up together.

Day 1: Leave NorCal about noon after packing quickly - not my usual thorough pack with checked-off list - kayak on top and pulling a 18' boat. Slept just north of the border as I was fading fast.

Day 2: Crossed at TJ at 6:00am, waking the emigracion officer to get our pre-paid FMTs stamped (Vags). Like last trip, the office near the inspection area was closed and we had to walk past the construction to the boarder office. The construction of this area is coming along and should look very nice when completed. Officer didn't blink at the pre-paid FMTs - they must be used to seeing them now. Finally found the ATM at the first toll booth (missed it the last 2 trips), got my usual $3000p and boogied on down the road to find the cafe behind the Chevy dealership in Ensenada. Part of my goal was to re-visit some spots that my father took me to, kind of a grandpa memorial trip, as I can see his memory fading in my son's eyes whenever I bring him up. Cory is not a breakfast person (doesn't like eggs/hot cakes) so I was not sure if this would work, but he ordered papas fritos w/ chorizo and loved it. Cool.
Visited the gringo trailer camp near La Bufadora that dad spent his last year, alone. We stopped for a few moments in front of 'his' space, now occupied by another old fart. I made sure Cory was looking the other way as I quickly grabbed a tissue and pretended to blow my nose - good cover for wiping tears but I don't think it fooled him. A quiet, pensive drive back to Mex 1.
Pulled into Cielito Lindo about noon, got room 5, unhooked the boat, aired down, threw the keys to Cory (newly licensed) and told him to drive to Gypsie's and the fish camp. His first 'off-road' driving, good and muddy from a recent high tide, he was very proud of getting the truck dirty. He made me promise not to wash the truck until we got home so he could show mom. Cool. Polished off a plate of cracked crabs each and hit the sack.

Day 3: Breakfasted at Sta. Isabelle, pink spot in the middle of town on the east side of the road. Good place. Pulled into Baja Cactus about 10am, met Antonio, Cindy and got our festival T-shirts, and checked into Room 106. Antonio has done a very good job on his motel - as an ex-builder, I loved the details and furnishings. I still can't figure out why beams in Baja can span greater distances than the same timber in Sacramento but what the hell do I know? Rate was only $67, 'merican, for 2 nights. No way will Antonio be able to charge this when he's done - my guess is $50-70 per night and will be worth it. Unhooked boat, kayak and lunched at Bajastone. Shrimp for Cory and fish tacos for me. Aired down and let Cory drive to La Bocana beach where they were setting up for the night's bonfire/story-telling. Got lost on the way back and had to back-track to the beach and follow our tracks back to the main road. Made the opening ceremonies at the first mission site and went to the rodeo. Holy moly! Imagine a 100 foot circle, fence out of sticks and old plywood about a foot off the ground, pickups backed up to the fence with chairs and coolers of beer, radios going, horses and cows everywhere in a general panic, dogs going in and out of the arena under the fence, cowboys getting thrown every time in a cloud of dust, young girls in tight tank tops and some very serious, but fun riding and roping going on all at once. We loved it. On the ride back to the hotel that evening Cory mentions that he's not really missing his computer games like he thought he would. Early sack for me while Cory stays up and reads.

Day 4: I'm up at 5:30 and start my search for coffee. Remembering the Starbuck's logo on the side of Baja's Best Bed and Breakfast and the east side of town, I head that way and am surprised and suspicious at the 'Obreto' sign at 6:00am, but the front door is open so I walk in. Sumb-tch is grinding fresh beans - I am not making this up. I have a really good cuppa joe and a new friend. About 9:00am we meet up with a bunch of other Namadians to take a guided tour to the cordon forest in the San Jaun de Dios drainage, back to the El Rosario drainage and over to El Sauzalito mine site, back to Mex 1 at R. Los Martires turnoff and back to El Rosario. Full trip about 3 or 4 hours. Very good trip with good people. Cory did want to know who the old guy was but I quickly changed the subject ? no sense in sending him down that road at a young age . I finally told him it was Neil Young of CSNY but don?t tell anyone as he just wanted his privacy ? I think he bought it. Cory is not hungry from constant snacking so I dine at a taco stand and we are asleep by 9:00pm.

Day 5: Back at Baja?s Best for my coffee and huevos mexicana. Roust Cory and the man with the keys to the compound where my boat & kayak are parked, leave a box of baseball gear with Antonio for JR, load up and hit the road to Camp Gecko. Road to Bahia de los Angeles is perfect, even has huge turnouts for goodness sakes - I guess so you can get around the huge yachts? Gassed up at the new Pemex, got supplies, e-mailed mom, aired down and made cabin #1 by noon. Set up camp and hit the water with the snorkel stuff and kayak. Cory spends the next 4 hours snorkeling in front of our cabin and comes back with the announcement that he will always make sure he snorkels for the rest of his life. I, of course, am readying the boat and fishing gear for the Dorado hunt over the coming 4 days. Doc says that no one as seen any Dorado but over the last week the south wind has made the cannel unfishable, so maybe they?re there. We?ll see. This day is calm and hot (100 degrees) with low humidity so maybe the Cortez will lay down tomorrow. Cory, who is quickly becoming a good cook, makes BBQ ribs for our dinner and some incredibly hot fried potatoes with dried peppers ground into a paste. We agree to go a little lighter with the peppers tomorrow. Cots out under the stars by dark, we pray for a breeze and see who can spot the shooting stars first. The reflected lightning from the mainland is constant and produces ?did you see that, Dad??.

Day 6: I?m up at 5:00 most mornings, but the first dawn on a fishing trip gets me tossing and turning by 4:00. First light and the coffee?s going, I do my usual Gecko walk to see the lessee?s building progress, and get back to camp by 5:45, dumbfounded to find Cory already up. We have the boat in the water by 6:30 and are fishing the wall just inside of Punta Don Juan ? a sure fire place to take a newbie ? something will get your Rebel on every pass. Cory hooks three before I get bit and he starts talking junk ? where did he learn that? As the Canal las Ballenas is flat we head out into it a 4 or 5 miles, checking all sargasso, chum lines and floaties. All hold bait fish but no dodos. Temps are right at 80 ? 81 degrees and the water is still green. Not warm enough per Doc. We finish the day in Don Juan cove with our trout rods catching small bass on nearly every cast. Cory says he likes this kind of fishing and I swear I hear can hear Neil Kelly laugh.
We lunch on fried fish and somewhat cooler potatoes ? that kid can cook. Bounce our way back to town for boat fuel and Cory wants to know when will they pave this section? Dinner is a gift from our camp neighbor, Edwardo, a mechanico from TJ who is there with his family. Fresh cerveche from trigger fish ? very good and comes with an hour?s conversation too. Only cost me 2 beers. Cory is rechristened ?Cora? for the native peoples in Sonora but is slightly taken aback when Edwardo gets up to take his leave, walks right to Cory, and asks: ?Why the long hair, Cora?? Cory stumbles, but says he likes his hair that way and Edwardo laughs and admits he too had long hair in his youth ? namely because of Carlos Santana. I nod my head in agreement but Edwardo waves me off and looks right at Cory. He tells the story of how he did not know his parents and was drinking beer and tequila by the time he was 11 and his struggles with alcohol until his early 40s. Now he has a good business and family and tells Cory that the important thing in life is to be kind to those you meet. With that, he is off to bed and so are we. As I count my last shooting star Cory says he likes Edwardo. Me too.

Day 7: This day we give a lift to the 2 young men from LA who are in #15 next to us: we haul their double yak and free-diving gear to Don Jaun cove and agree to pick them up at 2:00pm. We head to the north tip of horsehead and get into a school of bonito ? a ton of fun on 15# rigs. We then follow a hunch and go to 7 mile reef, north of Smith, to see if the camp rumor that the dorado have staid to the outside of la Guard and are circling back south on the inside has any truth to it. If so, we couldn?t prove it. In fact, Guadalupe reef produces no visible signs of life at all ? no birds, nothing scoped, not even a damn sea lion. The ?can?t miss? bass hole just south of Isla Alcatraz produces nada. Very sad. We snorkel for the next hour in Bahia Guadalupe and Smith Island and go get our yakers at Don Jaun. As we pull up to them they lift their stringers full of 5 to 10 pound groupers and pargos and ask how we did. We reply that this was really just a snorkel/exploring day and I make a mental note to wake up in the middle of the night and slice their tires. Gonna have to do something about those SoCal freedrivers.
Dine at the El Sol and wonder what happened to the place: the marggies where some kind of cheap mix and the torilla chips were the round ones right out of a bag. I?m talking Frito-Lay for Christ?s sake. In fact, they ran out and had to send a kid next door to the market for another bag. Good grief.

Day 8: Today?s the day ? if there are dorado between us, Barnabe and the tip of la Guarda we?re going to find them. We round punta Don Jaun at 40MPH to see a flat sea and we know the morning is ours. 5 miles off Punta Pescador I turn to working birds and we come upon an enormous school of feeding dolphin. Soon a small pod of fin back whales are mixed in and we spend the next hour completely enthralled ? we have loads of fun just watching them play in our bow wave. Cory can not believe the size of the fin backs and even I just want to watch. After an hour, Cory says I can troll for dorado and he doesn?t even care to go snorkeling today. By 11am we have found none and a booger of a south wind comes up in a hurry and chases us back to Gecko. Retrieving the boat?s a mess but we manage somehow. Make the ?run? to town for gas, supplies, check e-mail. Cory comments that the road is still not paved and why doesn?t somebody do something about it? Funny kid. As the sun sets, we call on Beach Bob to enquire about the status of the Drunken Dolphin project to find it?s in about the same stage as the Escolera Nautica. Must be the Environmental Impact Reports are slowing things down. It?s more fun to drink and talk about it anyway.

Day 9: Morning dawns very hazy and humid. Clouds over Smith and Guarda ? strong South wind building. I make Cory a deal ? we will go to the north of Smith for yellowtail (I?ve got to get him a fish of some size), jig iron in the stifling heat for 2 yours, snorkel for an hour on the west side of Smith and leave for home that afternoon instead of the next morning. OK by him and he gets 2 yellowtail before I get bit. Perfect. Firecrackers but that?s OK for this trip. We break camp and head home by 2 pm, stopping for the night in Ensenada. Cross the border in TJ in 35 minutes on a Friday morning, and that includes secondary. They just have to look in every nook and cranny of my covered boat; however, they never bother to climb up on the roof of the truck to check the holds in the kayak. Good spot to hide something, seems to me. We have the obligatory burger, fries and milk shake to get re-acclimated to real food and settle in for the 9 hour drive home.

Summary:
T-shirts - $45
Gas - $450
lodging - $392;
licenses and fees - $85;
food, beer, cokes, gatoraides - $350;
boat & truck - $60,000
rods, reels and lures ? don?t know and don?t care
spending 10 days getting reacquainted with with my youngest son - PRICELESS

[Edited on 7-31-2005 by Santiago]

[Edited on 7-31-2005 by Santiago]

WOW!

Great trip report! Reminds me i must give up this work nonsense and spend more time by th water with family and friends.

You betcha!

Outstanding, Santiago.

Santiago, Great Trip Report !!

Sheesh!!

Enjoyed your report, especially the subtle interaction between you and your son. A report by Cory would be an interesting read.

Santiago, ever hear the term CODE RED ?

Skipjack

Gracias!