| Pages:
1
2
3 |
Cortezrock
Newbie
Posts: 3
Registered: 12-29-2004
Member Is Offline
Mood: QUI LEO
|
|
Lurked for many years,never posted.
So very happy for this board. Own many
tee-shirts and stickers.
|
|
|
Bajagato
Nomad
Posts: 129
Registered: 4-19-2004
Location: Laguna Hills
Member Is Offline
|
|
me and hubby Bajaddict were Amigos. Met all the good folk at I think it was BBB3 or 4, at Cielito Lindo.
|
|
|
Neal Johns
Super Nomad
Posts: 1687
Registered: 10-31-2002
Location: Lytle Creek, CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: In love!
|
|
I'm not sure.... but if looks count, then I'm the oldest Amigo! ....It was fun and so is this board.
My motto:
Never let a Dragon pass by without pulling its tail!
|
|
|
Paulina
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3810
Registered: 8-31-2002
Location: BCN
Member Is Offline
|
|
Hi Whistler,
You have a pretty good memory there, mister! I had forgotten all about that until now.
Yes, we will be at the Fred Hall show this year. Missed the last one as we were living in Baja at the time. Not working the show this year, just
pushing my way through the crowds like the rest of them! We will stop in for a visit. It's been too long.
Saludos!
Paulina<*)))><
|
|
|
bajalera
Super Nomad
Posts: 1875
Registered: 10-15-2003
Location: Santa Maria CA
Member Is Offline
|
|
I stumbled onto Amigos accidentally, and discovered that a lot of friendly, interesting people shared my interest in Baja California. Not long after I
started lurking there the Amigos board tanked, but I was eventually lucky enough to find Nomads. Posts here seem to have more individuality than those
on Fred's board, and fewer personal attacks than another Baja site I visited only once.
Add my thanks to all those others, Doug.
bajalera
[Edited on 1-31-2005 by bajalera]
\"Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest never happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.\" -
Mark Twain
|
|
|
Pops
Nomad
Posts: 173
Registered: 3-26-2004
Member Is Offline
Mood: Therianthropic
|
|
I also was an "Amigo". Started posting probably about the time David K. did. I don't remember all of my login(s) Mike Supino, DFW and ???? I believe
that I may have been the one to talk them into getting XXXL T-shirts ( if you have a big tool, you need a big shed!). I enjoy this board immensely;
thank you Doug!
|
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 65198
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
Pops = Mike Supino?
Is that you Mike? Good to see you here... I bet you are getting ready for the San Felipe 250!
Here is Mike and his esposa at Viva Baja 4 (2/03)...
|
|
|
BajaVida
Senior Nomad
Posts: 541
Registered: 9-1-2003
Location: Motown, Califas
Member Is Offline
Mood: muy cool
|
|
Viva Baja 5
never having attended one, what is it?
I am worried if I go, my picture would show up here courtesy of David K
only two posters know who I really am
No se apure y dure.
Don\'t hurry and you\'ll last longer.
|
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 65198
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
Hola Baja Vida,
One of the purposes of Viva Baja is so we can see the people, in person, we have been 'talking to' on the Internet. It also validates that we are not
'mental' for being so crazy about the Baja peninsula and all that is on it...
The photo you see above was taken by Bedman (who takes most of the Viva Baja photos)... IF you don't want your photo taken OR being posted on a web
site or this board for others to enjoy... Just ask me... I honor all such requests. I met Packoderm at Camp Gecko 4 weeks ago, and he wanted to remain
'unseen'... no problema!
Viva Baja is the name I gave to the get-togethers I hosted following the San Clemete Pier meeting I showed some pics of recently.
Go to my web site and scroll down and you will see a section of links to my 4 Viva Baja parties... There you will see what we Amigos, Nomads, Authors
and Baja Business owners look like. There are LOT'S of Photos in those sites!
Here is something very special to me... Choral Pepper asked me to read this to my guests at Viva Baja 2... She had hoped to attend, but the cancer was
just too far along. Choral was the publisher of Desert Magazine in the 1960's and traveled on many of the Gardner Baja expeditions. She has authored
over 20 published books. Her Baja book is a classic that is worth over 50 times its original price!
Anyway, here is what Choral had to say to my guests:
--------------------------------------------------------
Dear Baja Buffs,
Behind his back, I call David "the new Erle Stanley Gardner." His love for Baja shares the same dedicated clarity and eagerness to share it as did
Uncle Erle's. I am fortunate enough to have been one of those recipients in both cases. Erle shared it with his books. David shares it with his Viva
Baja adventures.
I have reached a stage in life in which there is more to look back upon than forward to. It is not depressing. What I have to look back upon was so
filled with adventure, learning and beauty that nothing in my limited future could surpass it. There are very few places in the world that I did not
explore during my exciting years as a nationally syndicated travel columnist after selling Desert Magazine, but of all the places in the world, Baja
stands alone. Not just because it was more isolated in those days (places like Yap and Zamboanga were isolated, too), but because there is a spiritual
quality about Baja that seeps into the very soul of those who respond to it. Everyone doesn't., but you who are here at David's Viva Baja event
tonight know exactly what I mean.. We Baja buffs share a space foreign to superficial types unaware of the peninsulas unique nature, mysterious
history, and tantalizing lore.
During my early days of exploring the desert, I found that the public can be induced to respect such backcountry areas as Baja -- not by rules and
regimentation, but by education. And the education begins by making its history exciting and adventurous. When someone goes looking for a lost
treasure, for instance, they are forced to thoroughly research the area. They aren't just spinning wheels over meaningless, empty land. With
knowledge, comes respect. You all who participate in David's Viva Baja are doing your part to insure a secure future for Baja. I salute you and would
love to be sharing this evening with you
Sometimes when you are out there trampling through dry, rock-studded arroyos or watching the moon rise above a cardon forest, send a thought to me.
I'll be sharing it with you in spirit.
Choral Pepper
[Edited on 2-1-2005 by David K]
|
|
|
BajaVida
Senior Nomad
Posts: 541
Registered: 9-1-2003
Location: Motown, Califas
Member Is Offline
Mood: muy cool
|
|
I was just joshin' about not getting my picture taken
looks like fun
thebajarunner and I talked, but not too seriously, about going last time
maybe this year
No se apure y dure.
Don\'t hurry and you\'ll last longer.
|
|
|
BajaNomad
Super Administrator
Posts: 5005
Registered: 8-1-2002
Location: San Diego, CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: INTP-A
|
|
Definitely an Amigo from early on.
From a Baja-Internet standpoint, Earle's weekly fishing reports were the most counted on updates from across the peninsula - and being on the
Internet, they were the most timely as well.
http://bajanomad.com/bajanet/
...and thank you everyone for your kind words about - and participation at - bajanomad.com.
--
Doug Means
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
– Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
We know we must go back if we live, and we don`t know why.
– John Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez
https://www.regionalinternet.com
Affordable Domain Name Registration/Management & cPanel Web Hosting - since 1999 |
|
|
thebajarunner
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3734
Registered: 9-8-2003
Location: Arizona....."Free at last from crumbling Cali
Member Is Offline
Mood: muy amable
|
|
Baja Vida is really....
Arnold Schwarzenegger.....
never thought you would find that out, did you??
Baja Arriba!!
|
|
|
lizard lips
Super Nomad
Posts: 1468
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: EARTH
Member Is Offline
|
|
I was there also for a period of time. I remember once that I responded to a question regarding an Insurance matter and when I posted someone got
really peeed off at what I had said and couldnt believe that I posted that response. At that time I told the board that I would not post again. I got
a response from all of the old timers that they thought Lizards had a thick skin and not to listen to that person. It really made me feel great and I
continued to post. Those were the good ol days. There was alot of fighting which I did not like but ESL keep us checking the board frequently with his
takes on BCS and property issues. Does anyone know what happened to the guy who lived in Tecate who knew everything about everything? I cant remember
his name but he was about the most knowledgeable person I have ever ran across.
|
|
|
Paulina
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3810
Registered: 8-31-2002
Location: BCN
Member Is Offline
|
|
David Eidel? nfm
|
|
|
M_Man
Junior Nomad
Posts: 60
Registered: 8-22-2003
Location: Truckee, CA
Member Is Offline
|
|
I started posting in '97 or so. I sure wish the Fishing Report Archives had ended up on a mirror sight somewhere on the web. They were an invaluable
resource for trip planning!
|
|
|
lizard lips
Super Nomad
Posts: 1468
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: EARTH
Member Is Offline
|
|
Thats it! David Eidel. Whatever happened to him?
|
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 65198
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
Here is David Eidell (on the right) with El Jefe at Viva Baja 2...
The most recent reports about Eidell I saw were posted on the Radio Free Mazatlan forum... some people are looking for him, and it wasn't nice.
I have been to his former trailer home in Tecate, CA a few times and he was our guest passenger on the Viva Baja Van tour of 7/01 http://vivabaja.com/van1 (several photos of Eidell there).
|
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 65198
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
David Eidell's Article in People's Guide to Mexico
http://www.peoplesguide.com/1pages/chapts/notebks/archive/20...
Search peoplesguide.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Baja Aficionados Cyber Gathering
by David Eidell
One of the more active bulletin boards on the M?xico web site circuit is Amigos de Baja. Amigos started out as a website devoted to fishing and
traveling the Baja peninsula. Over the last seven years, however, the site has also attracted many loyal "Desert Rats", folks who don't necessarily
fish but who love to explore the land and meet the hardy breed of Mexicans who call Baja California home.
The desert rats communicated with each other on the extremely popular Amigos "General Discussion Center" bulletin board. Before long friendships began
to be formed. A planned casual meeting between two participants expanded in a blink of the eye into an invitation-only dinner engagement for forty
people. This first "Viva Baja" get-together was held in San Clemente, California and was a wild success. Six months later another was planned. It
included slide show presentations by author Graham MacIntosh. Graham actually walked the entire coastline of the seven hundred mile peninsula, then
recorded his adventures in an exciting book, Into A Desert Place. Also present were noted Baja webmasters Fred Metcalf of Fred Metcalf's Baja
Discussion Board , Hugh Kramer from Discover Baja and of course the webmasters trio from Amigos de Baja itself: Earle, Eric and Trish Robitaille.
The success of these first get-togethers led to the planning of a "Boojum Buddies Baja Bash" (the Boojum is a curious upside-down carrot like plant
endemic to Baja California). By far the most ambitious of the cyber get-togethers, the "BBBB" was held in early July, 2001, at the Cielito Lindo Hotel
in San Quintin, Baja California.
The Cielito Lindo Hotel turned out to be the perfect choice for such an event. The sprawling restaurant-bar and hotel complex was near enough to the
beach (1/4 mile) and far enough away from town to offer BBBB participants a mini-vacation.
Seventy participants straggled in over the first day. They came by automobile, bus, taxi and airplane. Some had motor homes and others brought
trailers and pickup campers. It was a perfect representation of the character of folks who call Baja and M?xico "A Second Home".
A special Saturday "comida" featured carnitas, oysters on the half shell, rice and beans and stacks of flour tortillas. Blenders whirred and beer
bottle caps popped as the festivities roared and swayed. I was amazed at the level of congeniality and genuine warmth that was present. The average
age of the participants was around fifty years and camaraderie was at a very high level. Stories were exchanged, spontaneous cheers and revelry ruled
and the day passed all too quickly.
When it was suggested that a group photograph be taken, one thing led to another and a talented artist in the group made banners for Amigos de Baja's
logo, and "Wherever You Go There You Are" for The People's Guide to M?xico. The BBBB'ers are a "Can Do!" group!
One of the principal architects of the Viva Baja and Baja Boojum Buddies get-together is a man by the name of David Kier. An individual whose spare
time is utterly consumed with Baja California, David acted as "information central" for all of the Amigos. In addition, this human dynamo is working
on a revision and update of a book on early Baja Spanish missions. David is also partners with another Amigo in "Viva Baja Tours". The Viva Baja tour
vehicle is a brand new one-ton 15-passenger van with four-wheel-drive.
For most folks the three day long BBBB celebration would have been enough recreation to last through the summer. But David Kier wanted even more
adventure. So he planned a jaunt to a really remote area of the peninsula, to look for a fabled "Lost Mission" site first reported by early Baja
explorers Earle Stanley Gardner and Choral Pepper.
So... early Monday morning, five of us plus David's two young children waved sadly goodbye to fellow Desert Rats at the Cielito Lindo Hotel and struck
off southward for new high adventures.
The Viva Baja tour van is a wonder in itself. Special dual-air conditioners kept the inside cool and dry even though we left the sea coast far behind
and climbed onto the high desert plateau, baking under hot under the mid-summer sun.
As we motored down the Transpeninsular highway toward Los Angeles Bay, David explained that the lost mission wasn't really a mission at all but a
trial experiment that had been built by the Spanish to check out available water supplies and crop lands, and even more importantly, to prepare
heathen Indian souls for conversion to Christianity.
Hours later we found ourselves at an outdoor patio restaurant having supper. Even though the sun had gone down the temperature was still near a
hundred degrees and a fierce wind was blowing. There was no doubt that mother nature was reminding us that Baja California can be less than hospitable
in the summer. We repaired to a campsite at water's edge and after awhile our group fell sound asleep.
The next morning a local businessman, "Doc Abraham", happened to mention that he knew of an elderly campesino who was born and raised near the
supposed "mission" ruins. We soon found ourselves at a remote rancho where we met Jesus "Chuy" Flores, skinny as a rail and dressed in his tattered,
best Sunday Go To Meeting Khakis. Doc warned us that Chuy tended to say little if anything -- and what little he said would be in a mumble. I also
knew from long experience that Mexico's campesinos tend to beat around the bushes two or three times before they get to the subject.
Leaving Chuy's rancho with another four-wheel drive vehicle following, we headed south on the trail to Bahia de Las Animas. Jesus promptly fell asleep
under the cooling blast of the air conditioner, but David had a pretty good idea of how to get to the area in question. As we drove further and
further off the beaten path, signs of civilization became fewer. Huge Palo Verde trees shaded sentinels of cardon cactus. Other cacti included Barrel,
Pitahaya, Prickly Pear, Cholla, and old man (bearded) cactus. To our right the escarpment of the central Sierra de San Jose reared up, purple and
imposing. Jesus stirred and suddenly became quite animated. "Unnuahh" he grunted, pointing a gnarled forefinger across the lush desert vegetation. The
others immediately wanted to know what our guide was trying to say.
"Jesus, what are you pointing at?"
"Flores"
"Flowers?"
"Flores, the town!"
"What about Flores the town"
"That's where it is"
David explained that Flores is now a ghost town but back in Jesus's prime, it was a roaring silver and gold mining town. Cowboys and miners kept the
cantinas filled and banditos kept the mine owners worried.
We soon came upon a fork in the trail and took the lesser of the two tracks, off to the west. Jesus kept pointing vaguely off to the right where there
were no tracks and muttered vaguely, "Uuuy!"
"What's that Jesus? "
"My mula (mule)"
"What about your mule?"
"He was very stubborn."
"Oh yeah?"
"He pulled me through those cactus more than once."
Eventually we butted up against the mountains. Billowing white cumulus clouds were piling into serious cumulonimbus formations.
"Mrrhmmph"
"What's that Jesus?"
"Nubes"
"Clouds?"
He wagged a bony forefinger back and forth in warning. "Los arroyos son peligrosos".
"I think he's trying to say that there's going to be a thunderstorm. There's a real danger that the arroyos are going to become flash flooded.
The land and vegetation outside the van's tinted windows was utterly wild. With civilization far behind, the trees and cactus lived and died without
the hand of man rearranging the look of the land. Giant mesquite trees grew in clusters, huge limbs of deadwood drooping onto the ground. Cardon
cactus fell over to reveal the hollow lattice-like hardwood heart that is almost never chanced upon in civilized areas.
Jesus urged us to enter the mouth of a steep canyon and so we left the faint track and struck off cross country. The huge vehicle barely left a set of
it's own tire tracks as David deftly steered around bushes and stately cactus. By trial and error we made our way deeper into the canyon and then
suddenly came to a stop before a large boulder cluster.
While the six adults, two children and Jesus ambled up the canyon grasping cameras and water jugs, I decided to stay behind because of a recurring
back problem. The passenger of the other vehicle was on crutches but John Perko and I were soon counting our good fortune. In front of us over the
crest of the Sierras, the flaring clouds had taken on an ominous shape reminiscent of a cobra displaying its hood.
An hour passed. The clouds advanced eastward and were now overhead. A distant peal of thunder rumbled past and we started to talk about the
eventuality of a flash flood coming down the vertical walled canyon. We decided on an escape route just as the first drops of rain spattered on the
dusty windshield. Suddenly John cried, "There they are!" . Within minutes we'd backtracked the van to open terrain and relative safety. On the way
home the thunderstorm inspired us with frenzied flashes of lightning and the booming cadence of pulsing thunder.
Did our friends find the Lost Mission? Well... what Jesus had thought to be the site actually turned out to be a "tinaja" (water seep) that did play
an important part of the history of this area of Baja California. That's Baja for you... the lost mission is waiting for a future expedition to be
rediscovered.
[Edited on 2-3-2005 by David K]
|
|
|
Bedman
Senior Nomad
Posts: 523
Registered: 9-4-2002
Location: Orange County, CA.
Member Is Offline
|
|
The Old site revisted...
Yeah, I was an Amigo too. It all seems so long ago (1998 for me) and yet, very fresh in my mind. Sure, there were some people that made a few ripples
in the water. I remember how slow the site got when it had'nt been archived...took forever for the dial up connection back then.
ANYWAYS...here's a cool website that maintains archives of some pretty old websites. Yhis link will take you directly to the Bajanet.com pages.
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://bajanet.com
Bedman
|
|
|
| Pages:
1
2
3 |
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
