Summer trip report June - Aug. '07

Dern, Cody and I took off for Baja shortly after school let out in June. We hung out together at the house in Punta Banda for a week before Cody and I flew out to Texas where she remained for the rest of her vacation.

Our friends Matt y Barb generously offered to pick me up in San Diego on July 5th, and return to Punta Banda. We kayaked one day over at Arbolitos. Dern and Barb fished while Matt and I collected floating trash. Barb bought fresh sea urchins from the divers and we feasted on the best Uni ever that night. We all hung out at the house for almost a week before they had to head back stateside.

We had a couple of days after they left to get a few maintenance chores done on the panga and trailer. Dern installed a new pump and hooked up the bait tank Roberto gave us a couple of years ago (thank you again Roberto, what a difference that makes.) Then the lug nuts would not come off of the wheels on the trailer because the bolts were spinning, so we towed it down to Mateo Pabloff’s shop where he tack welded the back side of the bolts to get the lug nuts off. We then dropped the trailer off at Eddie Fisher’s garage and drove into Maneadero to get new studs/bolty things. They were pressed back in at Eddie’s and we were good to go.

The next day Dern loaded up the truck and hooked up the panga, ready to head out the next morning for Bahia. As he was doing his usual truck service check up that night, he found a tear in one of the back sidewalls. This was our second problem during this trip with our new BFG projects. After many unsuccessful attempts at repairing the first tire, which we were going to use for a spare, we knew we couldn’t do anything about this second one. We now had two bad tires and were driving on our spare, so we had to make a return trip to Chulajuana to buy 4 new BFGs before heading south. Many thanks to Matt for being our stateside Yellowpages.

After returning from the states with our new tires we had to then re-pack the truck, hook up the panga and we were finally on our way to Bahia on July 14th, where we spent the majority of our time. When we weren’t fishing we visited the whale sharks, there were about five different ones in the south end of the bay.





I got a pretty good rash on my left arm and thigh from riding them, but it only lasted about a week. We took our friends out one day to see the whale sharks. They had never seen them before. Bruce kept saying it was like going on a snipe hunt until we found one and everyone got at least one turn going for a whale of a ride.

Pablito riding surf style:





This one had a bad prop cut on it's back.


Everyday after fishing, or just boating around we would drive the panga into town, pull it up on the sand in front of Casa Diaz, buy a six pack of Tecate and a bag of chips and talk about our morning. It was a nice tradition. We caught smaller Yellowtail, and the usual bottom fish. There were a lot of dolphin and even manta rays. We’d then motor back to the trailers to pull the panga out, clean the fish if we fished that day, feed the birds and take a nap.







The Yellowtail bite was wide open while we were there. No dorado though. (They were starting to show south just before we left, and as of a phone call I got two nights ago, they are up around Smith Island now. Maybe next year….)

We drove into town almost every afternoon to hang out at the Diaz fish cleaning station to trade refreshments and stories with the pangueros. We had office hours with our friends Bruce and Pablo, celebrated Pablito’s birthday, and checked out the whale bones from the Blue whale that washed up around June.



We pulled an all nighter with Doc. (Next time he is bringing a smaller bottle of rum, and don’t worry Doc, Dern lost all the photos) We also met some very ugly Americans who were fishing out of Diaz, but that is another story.

Around July 24th we thought we’d take a break from the weather to head over to the Pacific side, spending the night at Abreojos, then on to La Bocana, Asuncion, then to San Roque for lunch. On our way out of Asuncion we came across an elderly local gentleman, his wife and two young ladies. They had a very flat tire. We tried to offer help as did another truck that came along, but his lug nuts had rusted onto the wheel. While we were stopped we had a chance to chat with the man. After confirming that we did not have a place in either Abreojos or Asuncion, he confided in us that he felt there were too many Americanos moving to Asuncion. He was not very happy with that.

We got more $ and fuel in Guerro then headed off to The Wall. We made camp in the big rock house, cleaned out the rock oven where we cooked dinner while enjoying c-cktail hour at sunset. We were the only ones there. We walked the entire area, checking out the different rock “houses” and interesting formations. Dern fished for Halibut the next day and explored a few arroyos before heading up to Rosalillita to check out the marina, then on to spend the night at Diablo.

There wasn’t much of a break in the weather on the Pacific side, it was wonderfully warm. I would have liked to spend a bit more time at each spot, but we knew we had chores waiting for us back in Bahia and I didn’t want to miss the fiesta. There are no photos to share of this part of our adventure as someone was playing with the camera and lost all 300 of them...

After three nights on the Pacific we were back on the Sea of Cortez and ready to celebrate Bahia de Los Angeles Days. We went to the rodeo twice, watched the horse races, and made the dance the last night of the festival. We could hear the music all the way out at our place, 5k from town every night till about 3 am.





Camp Gecko was empty. We took a stroll over there to check things out.



We’d like to fix up our trailers, about time after 15 years of neglect. There are a couple of places over there that have done things right, so we took photos and notes.



We reluctantly left Bahia on Aug. 6th to return to Punta Banda. After a quick stop in San Quintin to drop off a baby gift, we thought we were making good time until we came across an over turned truck blocking the highway on the back side of the Santo Tomas pass, heading south. Traffic was stopped on both sides for about 45 min. Even with that delay we made it back to the house in Punta Banda in about 9 hrs.

The next morning I took 5 king sized pillow cases stuffed with dirty laundry to the lavamatica in Cantu. For $225 pesos we were the cleanest smelling we had been for weeks. After unpacking everything Dern was back to working on the house.



He took a break one morning to kayak fish at Arbolitos with our friends Jeff and George.



Another week flew by before we were driving up to San Diego again on Aug. 17th to pick up Cody and my mom from the airport. Fortunately they were put on an early flight due to Texas weather, so we were back in Punta Banda by 3pm.

Gordo’s Chili cook off was the next day. Dern and I were judging again, so Cody and Nana did the tourist shopping walk. We saw Jose, bought him a beer and gave him the photos we’ve been carrying around in our truck since last Christmas. Cody has had her picture taken with him since she was three years old. He has the original photo in his trailer and brings it out every once and a while to show us that he still has it. He is 78 years old.



Dern finally finished all he wanted to do on the house for this trip so we did absolutely nothing for the last two days before heading North on the 25th. This was the longest time Dern and I have spent in Baja during the summer, and it went way too fast.

Edit: resizing photos

[Edited on 2-9-2007 by Paulina]

P. y D. y C.

Sounds like you had a wonderful trip. Great report and pictures.

(Jejejeje..... Sounds like someone does the same thing that our Camera Gremlin does. "Where'd those pictures go? I always get the reply, "I dunno??":no

Are you going to make it down for the 1000? New Years?


Hope to see you soon.

Bedman

Paulina Thanks for the report and the pictures.

Nice trip report, and enjoy your pictures. My favorite is you biting the fish! Fun pictures, and really sorry you lost so many pix----just have to go back and take them again.

Not counting Shari since she is married to a local, right now in Asuncion there is Paul who lives there full time---that is it. Then there on a part time basis are Dave and his wife, and us. That is changing, however.

We are very aware that while many people in the town have welcomed us, there are those who don't want any gringos in town. For them, the paving of the road is a mixed blessing---easier for them, but it will mean change for the town, and probably more gringos.

Hope you have more time to enjoy that area next trip.

Diane and John



[Edited on 9-2-2007 by jdtrotter]

OK, now I get it. wink wink.

ONce agian we are jealous as hell. Great report!

[Edited on 2-9-2007 by Minnow]

Paulina

What a great report!!! Your photography is outstanding and I love the way you write. Your experiences with the whale sharks were fantastic, I am very envious. We missed you in Morro Bay last week but it looks like you are having a much better time . BTW the Rock coffee shop is now a hangout for Gary and I every morning before the dives, thanks for introducing it to us. Hope the rest of your summer is good. Will you ever be back in MB??

Saludos, y un gran abrazo,

++Ken++

Well Paulina.... this trip report is just too much fun! The minute I saw you'd posted it, I was excited... went to the kitchen and mixed up s little tequila/lime/ice, took off my sandals and got real comfy... a terrific read plus pix was comin' up! And you did not disappoint. It just all looks and sounds like so much fun!

Seems you've got a regular get-close-to-the-sea-life fetish, amiga. First you showed us a photo of you pulling and poking around an old dead whale... and now we see you involved in a minor fish orgy. Try to remember this is a family board.

Honestly, Paulina, your return is Baja's loss but our gain. Thanks for sharing an excellent vacation.

Nena

Thank you everyone for such nice replies.

Bedman, we are not sure about the 1000, but you can count on us for New Years. How's retirement treating you?

Baja Bruno, thank you for the geek info. I'm going to look into it. Until then, Dern's not allowed to touch the camera!

Ken, call us the next time you're up here, we'd love to meet you and Gary at the Rock again.

Diane y John, this was our second time to Asuncion, it's a nice town, has a good vibe. That whole area is just beautiful. Asuncion is a bit too big for us, we're more the fishing village type people.

Minnow, Jealous? You get to spend more time down there than we do. Get over it. Ja ja ja. Let me know if you enter the chili cookoff next year...we'll be SURE to judge that one.... Hello to Yho.

Nena, thanks for the kind words. I left out the "other" fish photos keeping the famiy content of the board in mind...it got pretty wild after that!

Here are a few more photos. I hope I'm not going to have to edit and fuss with the photo sizes again. Crossing my fingers...

P<*)))><

Too much fun wore them out.


Whale shark cruising by


Head on shot, I love the Remoras, how they would let go and fuss about when out of the water.


Three whale sharks in one shot

Jaripeo

It was $5. per person. The first night we both didn't pay to go in. Dern parked the truck along side the make shift fence with most of the locals and he watched from there with a couple of friends. I paid the $5. and walked in. The next night this area was roped off by the policia.

The second night after we watched the horse races from our truck (with binoculars) we drove a whole 100 yards from where we were parked and paid to drive in for the rodeo. We parked right up next to the pipe corral and walked across the street to have dinner at Las Hamacas, getting back in time for the jaripeo to start. We sat on the front bumper/hood for the event. We shared the hood of our truck with a couple of little boys until their interest went from bronco bulls to inventing a wrestling match that took place all across the hood of the truck.

It was very entertaining. The band from the dance was there and played between riders. A town local, Kiki, gave it a shot. He rode the brahma very well, staying on longer than the cowboys could. My camera batteries died so I didn't get very many shots.

Kiki climbing aboard













[Edited on 4-9-2007 by Paulina]

Thanks Paulina for the photos you share... Wonderful to see Baja from other's eyes on Nomad...

It was fun bumping into you guys in Asuncion, too!

Nice stuff. Felt like I was right there. At least for part of it. :

Quote:

Originally posted by elgatoloco Nice stuff. Felt like I was right there. At least for part of it. :

Weird, kinda felt like that for us too....

Tom,
I have a Nikon D50. I'm still at the point and shoot level, as if it were a 35mm in my hand. Someday I'm going to study the destruction manual and learn how to do fancy stuff.

Joe,
Your kids will love it. There are turtles next door to Campo Archelon for them to see, but there is a fee now to see them. I was told that Antonio retired and the program was taken over by the Government. I believe the charge is $2 - $5. but I'm not sure.

If you get a panguero to take you out to the whale sharks, you should go before 9 am. If the water is choppy you will have a very difficult time finding them and once you do, you won't see as much. You have to hit the back bay when it's "oily glassy" before the wind chop comes up.

The dorado are still there, according to a friend of ours who lives there.

I understand the "leave town NOW" syndrome. We suffer from it daily.

crusing by the panga






Enjoy your trip and show us your photos when you get back!
P<*)))><

Thanks for the report Paulina. The whale shark pictures are cool. It's great to know ‘the Bay’ remains alive and willing to share its’ treasures from time to time.

And the yellowtail picture, well that provides the final piece of data to complete the long standing research project which when published will be titled:

"Long term effects of eating beer batter pancakes in the Midriff Islands, Sea of Cortez”

Quote:

Originally posted by Wiles And the yellowtail picture, well that provides the final piece of data to complete the long standing research project which when published will be titled: "Long term effects of eating beer batter pancakes in the Midriff Islands, Sea of Cortez”

I'll take the bait, Paulina, do we get to hear it???

++Ken++