BajaNomad - Baja Adventure April 2015

Baja Adventure April 2015

Pappy Jon - 8-29-2015 at 08:38 AM

Better late than never, I guess. The wind was unbearable this year. My last night in a canyon the wind hit 30+mph. So, not as many pics as I would usually take.

Cardon flowers.

Yellow-footed gull.

Urinated on by a perro.

Splashing in Calamajue Canyon.

Camp at Bahia San Rafael.

Pictographs.

Senita, lagoon, Bahia San Rafael.

Rocky beach.

Another camp at Bahia San Rafael. As a buddy told me, "you can't have enough shade in the desert."

Grouper. It's what's for dinner.

What do they call a dead rabbit alongside the road?
Answer: A TV dinner. I kept telling this bird I wasn't dead yet.

Red volcano sponge.

[Edited on 8-29-2015 by Pappy Jon]

StuckSucks - 8-29-2015 at 08:42 AM

Better late than never - cool photos, thanks!

Ateo - 8-29-2015 at 08:49 AM

Looks like you like it desolate! Thanks for taking us along. You have a cool camp set up with solar and shade. Nice photos. Looks like some fine hiking.

Gracias.

David K - 8-29-2015 at 09:29 AM

Thank you Jon... I enjoy your photos very much... Any more?

Pappy Jon - 8-29-2015 at 09:39 AM

Quote: Originally posted by David K

Thank you Jon... I enjoy your photos very much... Any more?

Not too many more. Let me go through the folders and see what I can find. These were what I already had up at Flickr.

Pappy Jon - 8-29-2015 at 10:13 AM

A few more.

Mesa Yubay

Ospray nest.

Bluff over Bahia San Rafael.

A windy, dusty day.

Yubay tinaja.

Another tinaja in Yubay.

Another Bahia San Rafael camp.

Horses.

Montevido rock art.

David K - 8-29-2015 at 11:59 AM

Fantastic!

chuckie - 8-29-2015 at 12:10 PM

Thanks

Whale-ista - 8-29-2015 at 12:28 PM

lovely images- thanks for posting.

Maron - 8-29-2015 at 01:29 PM

STUNNING

thks

BajaBlanca - 8-29-2015 at 02:01 PM

very nice!

fdt - 8-29-2015 at 10:43 PM

Beautiful pictures, gracias por compartir.

Pappy Jon - 8-30-2015 at 08:57 AM

Some photospheres.

Yabay tinaja

Montevido rock art site. Canyon was blown out.

Bahia San Rafael lagoon.

woody with a view - 8-30-2015 at 09:11 AM

hard to believe people drank out of those pools way back when!

David K - 8-30-2015 at 09:13 AM

Wow, Montevideo has had some massive flash flood since my last visit (2006)!

DianaT - 8-30-2015 at 09:25 AM

Enjoyed your photos! The first one is my very favorite.

Thanks for posting these

bkbend - 8-30-2015 at 09:30 AM

Quote: Originally posted by David K

Wow, Montevideo has had some massive flash flood since my last visit (2006)!

Odile was pretty massive and a lot of the landscape has changed.

Ateo - 8-30-2015 at 10:09 AM

Why would anyone go to Baja? These places looks horrible! :biggrin:

Pappy Jon - 8-30-2015 at 12:44 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Ateo

Why would anyone go to Baja? These places looks horrible! :biggrin:

I always tell people not to go. Corrupt, military check-points with armed teenagers, the bugs, snakes, scorpions, rabid coyotes, lots of cactus spines, it's always unbearably hot, you can't drink the water, drug runners, the roads suck, desolate, and lonely.

That way it leaves more room for me.

Ken Cooke - 8-30-2015 at 02:06 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Ateo

Why would anyone go to Baja? These places looks horrible! :biggrin:

I hear it's unsafe there. :biggrin:

basautter - 8-30-2015 at 02:19 PM

Cool pics. Thanks for sharing! :bounce:

Pappy Jon - 8-30-2015 at 03:54 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Ken Cooke

I hear it's unsafe there. :biggrin:

This is ironic. As much as I love Baja, this was the most unsafe I have ever felt. Re: drug runners. Let's just say I was "encouraged" to get the heck off of Bahia San Rafael with both land and sea intimidation.

Ken Cooke - 8-30-2015 at 04:05 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Pappy Jon

Quote: Originally posted by Ken Cooke

I hear it's unsafe there. :biggrin:

Next time, you'll spend your money the right way, and stay in a clean, KOA campground! :yes:

AKgringo - 8-30-2015 at 04:40 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Pappy Jon

Quote: Originally posted by Ken Cooke

I hear it's unsafe there. :biggrin:

Wow, that needs a little more info added. Encouraged by who....Federales, growers, shippers?

I have camped there a couple of times, and never saw anyone other than Pancho, and on one trip there was a guy down the beach from Pancho. He was in a tent, and appeared to be guarding some fishing gear, but he was friendly and totally unconcerned about me being there.

Pappy Jon - 8-30-2015 at 04:46 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Ken Cooke

Next time, you'll spend your money the right way, and stay in a clean, KOA campground! :yes:

Only if the US and Mexico close the border. Baja is plenty big enough.

Pappy Jon - 8-30-2015 at 04:58 PM

Quote: Originally posted by AKgringo

Wow, that needs a little more info added. Encouraged by who....Federales, growers, shippers?

Both ends of the supply chain. Involved 5 fishing boats, one that put very bright spot lights on me at 2am, then played a game of cat-and-mouse intimidation when I didn't leave that day. It also involved a semi-flat bed truck parked at the beach just west of my camp ... and a kid in a Toyota pickup, along with 4 young men who mysteriously appeared at dusk walking into my camp from the direction of Punta Ballena.

The Toyota returned east towards Punta Ballena, then turned south towards San Francisquito on the other side of the lagoon.

AKgringo - 8-30-2015 at 05:45 PM

That would be disturbing! From four thousand miles away it would be easy to say 'Stand your ground', but 'Know when to fold them' comes to mind when I think about camping there alone.

My guess would be that you were camped in the middle of an illegal fish harvest, rather than drugs, but the end result is the same.

Thanks for the information!

David K - 8-30-2015 at 06:58 PM

Sorry that happened to you, Jon!
We camped one night on the beach a mile or 2 north of Pancho's (in 2012) and only a coyote or two came into our camp!

Well after sundown...

Next morning...

South:

North:

Pappy Jon - 8-30-2015 at 07:30 PM

Quote: Originally posted by AKgringo

My guess would be that you were camped in the middle of an illegal fish harvest, rather than drugs, but the end result is the same.

Could have been illegal fishing. They did catch a sealion pup. They shot it so I knew they were armed. The mom spent the entire morning calling for it. It was pretty sad, especially since I knew what happened.

Thing is, when I woke up after dealing with the kids in the Toyota there were three pallets of "stuff" at the far end of the lagoon that was not there the evening before

Quote: Originally posted by David K

Sorry that happened to you, Jon! We camped one night on the beach a mile or 2 north of Pancho's (in 2012) and only a coyote or two came into our camp!

I think I've camped on that same beach a few times. It really blew out in the hurricanes last summer. Great spot.

[Edited on 8-31-2015 by Pappy Jon]

David K - 8-30-2015 at 07:38 PM

Didn't you have a 'close call' out on the beach east of Arroyo Calamajué or was it just Coco warning you about it?

Too bad about poachers and drug runners screwing up the one last desert wilderness next to the sea!

Pappy Jon - 8-30-2015 at 07:55 PM

Quote: Originally posted by David K

Didn't you have a 'close call' out on the beach east of Arroyo Calamajué or was it just Coco warning you about it?

Too bad about poachers and drug runners screwing up the one last desert wilderness next to the sea!

I really didn't have any issues at the beach south of Calamajué a few years ago. Coco warned me about this beach and said it wasn't safe. I did have a fisherman make me uncomfortable that trip, but I didn't feel threatened.

I stayed there this last trip. Fabulous. Coco told me it was better a year ago because Calamajué had fewer people. I did see a lot of pangas on the water in April off this beach, so I wondered if there were more people at Calamajué. Nobody had driven to this beach since the hurricanes. I was blazing new tracks.

bacquito - 8-30-2015 at 08:22 PM

Great photos, thanks