BajaNomad - Baja Spirit-----What is it?

Baja Spirit-----What is it?

DENNIS - 11-2-2007 at 07:32 PM

We all have been lured to the ambiance of Baja for so many different reasons and have mentioned them here variously but, we need to gather them together as we do ourselves for comfort.
My reason is the beauty of the land, followed closely by the comfort of this site as a network of friends. Thank you all.

Al G - 11-2-2007 at 07:40 PM

There are so many places in Baja that do for me...you are not stuck to a single place. That is the major draw for me. Second...I really feel I get to start life again at 63...

Paulina - 11-2-2007 at 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DENNIS
We all have been lured to the ambiance of Baja for so many different reasons and have mentioned them here variously but, we need to gather them together as we do ourselves for comfort.
My reason is the beauty of the land, followed closely by the comfort of this site as a network of friends. Thank you all.

Awww Dennis, I love you too.

But, to answer your question or to put words to your inquiry I find a very difficult task. I don't think I could pin point it to one or two reasons why I'm lured back to Baja. What "The Baja Spirit Is"

Yes, the land is beautiful, but there are many other places in the world that are just as beautiful. What is it about the beauty of Baja that draws us back? I can't put a finger on it.

The internet, in my opinion, hasn't increased my love of baja, but has made me pine for the days when there wasn't so much information readily available. I miss the days when you had to go find out what was on the other side of the hill for yourself. The days when everyone didn't know your name or your plans, or what you are driving, what fish were biting with what lure, or who said what about who between the rounds at the cantina.

Baja was more of a challenge back then. Maybe it was the challenge that drew me back?

I remember waiting every week for the Western Outdoor News to come out so I could read the Baja Editor's column. That was the only news available, and it was exciting. I read it and then tested it, and learned from it. No trip reports needed.

Granted, over the years I have met lifetime friends via the internet from the old Amigos board. For that reason the internet did serve a purpose, and the Nomad board still does help to connect people to each other. But as I said, I think the internet has also taken some of the "spark" away from Baja.

The other friendships I have made in Baja from just walking up to someone, putting out my hand and saying, "Hi, my name is Paulina" has worked just as well, if not better. Maybe because there are no preconceived notions about who "Paulina" is because of something they read on the board, but because we had to use our judgement and personal, face to face experiences to make these acquaintances which then grew into friendships.

I know that some people like to fuss romantically about the difference between Mexican people and Gringos. I don't. They are different and I can't tell you why. A good heart is a good heart, I think you can find those hearts in both people, in all people, but there is something endearing about some of my friends who live in Baja. Is it cultural? Beats the hell out of me. So, another reason I return to Baja is because of my Mexican friends.

I also like being able to be alone in Baja, in the middle of nowhere. Maybe I could do that in the States, but I haven't found that here yet.

I like the smell of my tennis shoes burning when I stick my toes too close to the fire, that can happen here, and when it does it makes me think of baja. Cows walking into my camp from out of nowhere. That only happens to me in baja.

Caballeros on mules wearing handmade leather chaps, trotting into my camp asking for water, that to me is special. Dirt roads that seem to lead to nowhere, but in fact end at a rancho with people who are happy to see you and welcome you home, that only happens in Baja.

Riding on the bow of my panga with dolphin under my feet. Digging up stinky whale bones that we buried a year ago. Taking bets on where the moon will come up over the mountain ridge.

Finding a sea turtle swimming freely, or digging up clams only to put them back. Riding a whale shark or laughing at joke made under the fish cleaning station at the local panguero shack.

I could add to the list, but I think you get the gist of my post. I just can't put a finger on it. I can't tell you what makes Baja special to me.

I don't think that anyone who has the baja dust in their lungs can do it in just a couple of words.

It's there and I'm stuck with it.
P<*)))><

[Edited on 3-11-2007 by Paulina]

docsmom - 11-2-2007 at 08:58 PM

Well my first intro to Baja was by my first husband. Because he went there, I went there. He didn't love it, just went annually to Ensenada to fish and I didn't love it either. I was just a follower.
I've always been a beach baby and as a So Cal native the beach was always available. I spent the first 20 years of my life belly boarding at Santa Monica Beach and hanging at the handball courts at Venice Beach (Dad was a national handball champ).
Those were beautiful years and I didn't have any reason to look beyond that geographical heaven.
Life being what it is, I left the coastal heaven in the mid '70's. In the late '80's I married Docsdad. I hadn't been to Baja in about 15 years but he re-introduced me. He'd built a house at Bajamalibu in the 70's, lost the house in his divorce, but never lost the lust for Baja. How lucky am I to have found Docsdad and that he introduced me to the place that my heart lives! Maybe I'd never found it if he hadn't shown it to me...........
So what draws me to the place of my heart?

1. The coastline
2. The people (maybe this is #1)
1. The simplicity (maybe this is #1)

I found Baja long before I found Bajanomad. What draws me to this site? All of you!

docsmom - 11-2-2007 at 09:10 PM

Paulina,
Thank you dear. You said so beautifully what I am feeling but can't seem to say. What I feel about Baja is not easily put into words. It's about experiences and emotions. I feel them so deeply that maybe the only way I can express them is with the smile on my face and in my eyes.

Dave - 11-2-2007 at 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DENNIS
Baja Spirit-----What is it?

DENNIS - 11-2-2007 at 09:14 PM

Paulina......
I think you should save this as the intro to your first Baja Book. Look forward to reading the rest.

Docsmom.....Actually, you're #1. You mentioned a "Lust for Baja." Thanks.

docsmom - 11-2-2007 at 09:26 PM

Yes Dennis,
"Lust for Baja". As I wrote those words they took my breath away. If you have it, you know it, and there's almost no way to explain it. It's visual, it's visceral, it's larger than life. Like I said before, I can't really explain it, I can only feel it. I wish we were standing face to face right now so we could experience it together, we would smile!

DENNIS - 11-2-2007 at 09:27 PM

Dave......

A man after my own heartburn.

docsmom - 11-2-2007 at 09:28 PM

Dave,
Cabo Wabo-- NO!
Don Julio Blanco -- YES!

On the other hand, any port in a storm

DENNIS - 11-2-2007 at 09:29 PM

Docsmom....

Cabo Wabo?

Dave - 11-2-2007 at 09:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by docsmom
Dave,
Cabo Wabo-- NO!

Hey, I wouldn't drink that swill but it has a Baja name, sorta. I thought that was the topic of this thread. There's a Baja beer but I didn't think that qualified as a spirit. Besides, it's brewed in Guatemala.

I have a friend here who makes moonshine but he made me swear not to tell.

Paulina - 11-2-2007 at 09:51 PM

"The internet, in my opinion, hasn't increased my love of baja, but has made me pine for the days when there wasn't so much information readily available. I miss the days when you had to go find out what was..."

...the best spirit/tequila for yourself. That was done at the bar at Hussongs, when you could walk in and find an empty seat at the bar, with good friends and the smell of pinesol in the air.

P<*)))><

DENNIS - 11-2-2007 at 10:16 PM

Pinesol???
Are you sure about that? I'd been going in there for five years before
somebody told me they had a restroom.
Those WERE the days.
Un Peso = 8 cents.
Tres Pesos = 1 Beer

docsmom - 11-2-2007 at 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dave

Quote:

Originally posted by docsmom
Dave,
Cabo Wabo-- NO!

Don't lie Dave! You'd drink it! So would I! Remember I said earlier, any port in a storm :lol:

But when we all get together in a refined setting, Don Julio Blanco. I'll bring the bottle.
You bring the moonshine!

[Edited on 11-3-2007 by docsmom]

Paulina - 11-2-2007 at 10:24 PM

I think that Pinesol was introduced to overpower the smell of the pee that came from the room that was in the far right hand corner that was assumed to be the bano....

P<*)))><

docsmom - 11-2-2007 at 10:29 PM

Dennis & Paulina,
:lol:

DENNIS - 11-2-2007 at 10:35 PM

"That Room." Jeezo....it was terrible. And that was the ladies room. The macho room was much worse. Way back when, you could just step outside. No buildings on the west side or out back. That's what I did. Well, me and about a thousand other guys. You squatty type folks just had to hold your noses and tough it out. If you parked your car anywhere around Hussongs, you had the cleanest wheels in town.

Paulina - 11-2-2007 at 10:52 PM

The spirit of baja? The dirt lot behind the Hussongs of old....we "squatty types" could take care of business if we had a good beau.

P<*)))><

Paulina - 11-2-2007 at 10:56 PM

Oh My Goodness! I didn't realize that admitting that I peed behind Hussongs a long time ago would make me a "Super Nomad".

I feel special. Not many people can say they are super because of that.

P<*o)))><
(That is a astonished fish)

DENNIS - 11-2-2007 at 10:58 PM

Ahhh yes........A field of chivalry it was.

DENNIS - 11-2-2007 at 11:02 PM

Again, another star is born.
We're posting all over each other. G'nite.

amir - 11-3-2007 at 02:18 AM

A most excellent bedtime story.

Thank you all for your thoughtfullness, poetry, humor and the rest...

:yes:

Viva Baja!

:spingrin:

Hook - 11-3-2007 at 11:06 AM

My memories of Hussong's are of strong diesel smells mixed with the Pinesol.

Anybody tried the Tres Generaciones Blanco.............man, that stuff is good!

For a blanco, of course.............

DENNIS - 11-3-2007 at 11:39 AM

Diesel? That's one of my primary aromas of Mexico. Forty years ago, standing downtown Mazatlán and the air was thick with diesel exhaust and sweet smoke from Delicados cigarettes. It was wonderful.

Paulina - 11-3-2007 at 12:22 PM

I know someone who lives in Baja who uses diesel to wash his patio floors. It repels the bugs and gives the floor a nice shine.

I haven't been inside Hussong's in years. Does it still have that same smell?

P<*)))><

Paula - 11-3-2007 at 12:26 PM

That is a great question you started this thread with, Dennis. Paulina had a beautiful reply, and I'm finding it hard to come up with an answer. The less materialistic lifestyle is a big part. And there is some quality about so many of the people I've met that I just can't seem to define. Whatever it is I might like to be more that way myself. And there are colors, the soft reds and greens of the mountains, and that amazing blue over white sand in the sea. Smells-- mesquite, and the fresh smell of laundry washed here and hung on the line. Maybe not the sewage stench on Juarez street. The way that homes and towns are so charmingly disorganized. The sound of Norteño from a passing car. And the fact that it never snows in Loreto-- never!

vandenberg - 11-3-2007 at 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Paulina
I know someone who lives in Baja who uses diesel to wash his patio floors. It repels the bugs and gives the floor a nice shine.

P<*)))><

Paulina,
That's an old trick. However, it's not straight diesel as far as I remember, but about a quart to a small pail ( 3 gallons ? ) of water. It does make the floor shine and is not slippery.

DENNIS - 11-3-2007 at 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Paulina

I haven't been inside Hussong's in years. Does it still have that same smell?

P<*)))><

It's imbedded in your memory banks. It will never change although they do repaint occasionally.

DENNIS - 11-3-2007 at 12:43 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Paula
And the fact that it never snows in Loreto-- never!

Maybe the Spirit of Baja is as much in what we leave behind. For sure, it is a different world.

Mexitron - 11-3-2007 at 01:40 PM

Beyond the incredible natural beauty, Baja's spirit for me is untamed freedom and a wonderful slowing down of time, each day there becoming more like molasses on a frozen sidewalk until it almost stands still. Why its like that I'm not sure--its not just Mexican manana. I suspect its the energy of the place--the long waits between rains, the patience and resourcefulness of the plants and animals to exist in that terrain. Wildflowers burst out after a thunderstorm and quickly go to seed, perhaps having to wait another five years to come to life again. The Boojum and Cardon store their water for the long wait, patiently meting out their stores during the drought; after a prolonged spell I imagine they are not fully awake anymore but in some kind of dreamtime; the Elephant Tree though, merely drops its leaves and goes back into a deep sleep, back to the source, to be an anchor of non-time for us all too engaged travellers.

Cardon and Pila - Punta Lobos Road - Todos Santos.

amir - 11-3-2007 at 07:39 PM

Picture taken in August of this year, before Henrieta.

The desert here is still green from this chubasquito. :bounce:

How it started

Skipjack Joe - 11-4-2007 at 12:19 AM

It was 1978. We were camping on the shores of Puerto Escondido. Every evening I would light the coleman lantern and row out in the darkness to the 'waiting room'. There we sat in the stillness with the light illuminating the dark water below. We were fishing for mackerel, but that didn't matter. I just remember the stillness. The hissing from the lantern. And the occasional bird song from the mangroves from the shoreline nearby. Ocassionally I would look up and see the myriad of stars stretching from one side to the other. I knew happiness then. I had found it. And I've been coming back ever since.

[Edited on 11-4-2007 by Skipjack Joe]

baitcast - 11-4-2007 at 06:42 AM

P<*o)))><
(That is a astonished fish)

I always wondered what that was.

BigWooo - 11-4-2007 at 07:49 AM

Baja Spirit is...

Life…walking on the beach looking for fish in the faces of the waves, finding shells; discovering the biggest lobster molting you’ve ever seen, looking a what’s trapped in the tide pools. There’s shorebirds, whales, dolphins, butterflies, lizards, snakes, and bugs you don’t see anywhere else.

Silence.

Thunderstorms

The people...more alive, happier, and friendlier.

It's surfing without having to fend off a pack of 50 or 60 other surfers just to get one or two waves(Although crowds are getting more and more difficult to escape in Baja too, unfortunately).

This has all been lost where I live in Southern California.

comitan - 11-4-2007 at 12:53 PM

I dunno, its something I lost a long time ago. I do get it back when I'm showing a newbie around. :biggrin:

Bajafun777 - 11-5-2007 at 11:50 PM

Could it be the loss of that tightness in your chest lifting when that ocean smell overtakes your senses on your arrival to the Baja Beach? Added to that the different cold ones popping one after another as you B.S. and B.S. some more with friends. Ah-------------a sense of "Easy on the Easy!!!" Later--------------------------------- bajafun777

bajadock - 11-6-2007 at 07:26 AM

The spirit can be found in mexicanas. No mas gringas por me.