Baja Adventure: Part One, Border to Bahia Asuncion

Baja Adventure: March 2007
Part One, Crossing to Bahia Asuncion

I'm about tenth in line just before the gates open at 6am. The crossing at Algodones is usually very easy. I proceed south, winding my way through the ag fields until I hit Mex 5. Onward to San Felipe for fuel and cerveza. The road south is now paved to Puertecitos so the days of the man-sized potholes are, at least for now, gone. As usual, the road from Puertecitos to Gonzaga Bay sucks. It's a slow drive, but I like what the Baja has to offer here, so I just take my time and enjoy the view. At Gonzaga Bay I stop at Alfonsina's for lunch, and top off the tank. There is an old rule that you never "pass gas" in Baja. You just never know about availability.

I proceed south to Coco's Corner, but don't stop, taking the road east toward Calamajue (pronounced Cal-a-ma-way). I had heard from a Baja Nomad about a road that takes off this road to a beach south of Calamajue. That was all I really knew, though I did find a road on Google Earth that gave me a rough place to start looking. Sure enough I find the road. It's a good road only requiring low range in a few spots because of a necessity to go slow, not because of any challenge. There is one hill climb, then a short drive on a knife ridge, then a steep drop into another drainage. From there the road follows in a wash bottom to the Gulf. A nice camp was found at the south end. This spot was identified as Ensenada Grande later by Sr. Coco.

The fishing here was great. I caught 4 cabrillo (?), one stripped bass, and two barracuda before dinner (second one bit me trying to remove the lure, bastard). They were all released. Ensenada Grande is a gravel beach, composed of medium sized cobbles. There were whale bones everywhere, along with lots of trash. Sea of Cortez was glassy calm.

During the night I kept hearing boats off the bay, mostly between 2-4am. Ummmm.

The next morning I'm up and try fishing with no luck. So I pack up and drive out. That one steep climb was not much, though the locker (ARB) was armed just in case. I arrive at Coco's Corner at 10am local time (PST). I walk in and Coco asks "coke or beer." I think a minute and reply "cerveza" ruling that it's really 11am MST, where my watch is set, and that's late enough. Coco saw me drive off toward Calamajue yesterday, and asked where I stayed. So I tell him. He looks perplexed, so I pull out the map and show him. He says the place is Ensenada Grande then proceeds to tell me it's used for narco drop-offs. I tell him about the pangas at 2am, and he said they were not fishing. Ummmmm.

Drive out was 9.65 miles to the Calamajue road. Took 1:07 hours with a moving average of 8.6mph.

After the cerveza, I proceed to Mex 1. The road from Coco's to the highway wasn't too bad, just some lousy washboard. I take the turn-off for Bahia de Los Angeles (BOLA) with the intent of camping off the Yubay wash road. This road takes off at the Laguna Agua Amarga dry lake bed, goes north across the playa, then drops into a wash draining into the Gulf. I've camped here several times, mostly at the northern end near Bahia Guadalupe. This time though I wanted to explore a sandy beach I could see from Bahia Guadalupe to the south. This place is labeled Ensenada Alcatraz on the map. Google Earth showed a road to this beach.

I turn south toward this beach, pass several other small bays, and realize that in order to get to the sandy beach on the far south side I would need to drive on a slightly wet playa. After getting stuck on Boca Grande last year, I was gun shy, and it wasn't going to happen. I turn around, and find one of the other small bays just to my liking. In fact, I liked it a lot, a whole lot. Water was calm and clear and there was a great view of Bahia Guadalupe and La Guarda. The fishing was not good, and there were sting rays swimming around me as I fished. Sunrise was great and I blasted a bunch of film and pixels here.

Birds were good too. Great blue heron, Pacific loon, some kind of merganser.

I start to pack up and realize my sandels, which I set out to dry yesterday, were missing. I notice coyote tracks all around the camp and sure enough they picked them up. I found them about 20 feet away on the dunes. I drive back out to the BOLA road and drive into BOLA for fuel and tortillas. Only one station was open, and they only had one pump working. It's too early for the Museo, so I continue south on the dirt road ... Boca Grande, El Arco, the pavement at Mex 1, then south to Bahia Asuncion.

I arrive in Bahia Asuncion late and I have no clue where the Blowhole is. I've seen pictures, and just start navigation by gut feeling. I ask a few local about Casa Juan Arce, and they have no clue. Finally a pickup is coming toward me, and he stops. He says "Shari" and I about come out my window. That was the magic word and he points me off in the right direction. I arrive just at the tail end of Juan's birthday party, meet his sister and niece, and Shari and Juan get me settled in. They market their place as a B&B, but in reality it's just their home. I stayed in Shari's daughter's room, who was off at school in Guerrero Negro.

The next day Juan takes me out fishing. Fishing was slow at first, then Juan moves the boat to the west end of Isla San Roque. Juan grew up on the island when he was very young. Again, things were slow at first ... then we both were hooked up. They were fighters and turned out to be bonita tuna. By the time the day was over we had reeled in 10 bonita, and one sealion who tried to take one from us. Juan had a fight on his hands with that one, pulling the fish in as the sealion would grab on and try to pull it away. In the end we had the fish, slightly scared up.

Juan's brother works as a caretaker on Isla San Roque three days a week (light house). On our way out he was fishing for calico bass off the north end of the rocks, and pulling in a fish every time. He talked with Juan and Juan agreed to swing by on our way in. Some of those fish were for his brother's family in Asuncion.

I told Shari the day before that I had no intention of keeping any fish, and anything Juan and I caught would stay in the village. I would guess that those fish provided about 60 pounds of flesh. That was a lot of fish! Juan took a bunch of it to his sister. I had some for dinner the next day.

The next day I went exploring along the beach north of Bahia Asuncion to Bahia Tortugas. There were several good beaches with camping potential. I also saw several plants that I had only seen in gardens. At noon it was 88*F. There was fog off and on all day.

Google Earth track at: http://ratstew.home.comcast.net/bajamarch07.kml
Slide show at: http://ratstew.home.comcast.net/partone.pdf (4.8mb)

[Edited on 3-25-2007 by Pappy Jon]

[Edited on 3-25-2007 by Pappy Jon]

Great report. The slide show was excellent.

Ya, funny ... your wife was driving.