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Fatboy
Senior Nomad
Posts: 801
Registered: 6-28-2005
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What is it about Baja?
So what is it that makes me long to be back in Baja? I have lived in the desert before and while I have liked it, I have no particular feeling to go
back. I liked living in Arizona, I also enjoyed living in the Pacific Northwest and yet I do not have the same desire to return to either of those
places anywhere near as bad as I want to return to Baja.
Could it be that I just ?visited? and that is normal to want to return to places that are associated with good times? I have visited other places
such as the Mexican Mainland, most the western US and the select portions of the East and Southeast along with a couple of weeks spent in Italy, yet
none of those place can compare with the pull Baja exerts over me. Almost all of these trips have been for fun or a combined fun/working trip and all
are special to me and yet it is Baja I long for.
Perhaps I need to spend more time in Baja and the novelty will wear off? After several trips and all of them lasting from 6 to 26 days one would be
hard pressed to consider it a new experience. While not quite the experienced traveler as many of you are, I am also not a first time visitor either.
Baja is in my soul and where I wish to be.
The ocean, could that be it? Growing up in California and spending most of my adult life in California, Oregon and Washington has given me ample
opportunity to visit the ocean and I have had a few years to explore the Puget Sound. It would appear the ocean itself doesn?t have that much of a
pull on me, not nearly as much as Baja does.
How about the people? Sure they are nice but I am not really a people person and I am just as happy camping on a deserted beach with my family and
friends as being around other people. Come to think of it, outside a small group of friends and family I can do without crowds of strangers. Even a
couple of strangers can be too much at times. So people should be crossed off the list. When people get to be too much, Baja is the place I dream
about.
Maybe it is not one thing or even one overriding theme? It could just be the right combination of things. Each aspect brings its own magic to the mix
and that is what makes me want to return time after time. Like a recipe that brings together individual ingredients that each alone would have little
or no interest, yet, when combined in a certain manner creates something mouthwatering. While I have little desire to eat spinach or slice up some
Ricotta Cheese to snack on, they take on a completely different life when made into Lasagna. Baja has so many places and sights I long to share with
friends and family, hopefully, to make it special for them also.
What is it? The quiet, pristine beaches? The beautiful sunrises over the Sea of Cortez with the equally stunning sunsets over the Pacific? The
lonely back roads that beg to be explored? The old ruins, mines and missions to walk among and wonder? The snakes, the lizards, the birds, the bugs,
the fish, the octopus, the coyotes, the rabbits, the whales, the dolphins? The clear blue skies with the wide-open vistas of the desert? The brief
and infrequent rain showers that bring out the flowers and colors of the desert? Snorkeling with our son? Beachcombing with my daughter? A ribbon of
blacktop stretching before you as far as the eye can see?
It is all of these things and more. Much more and the individual moments add up to create something stronger and richer. Reading our old journals
of past trips, surfing the web for Baja related items makes me long for more. Looking through our stacks of Photo albums and visiting forums such as
this one help to keep the memories fresh and alive.
So what is it that makes you long to be in Baja?
[Edited on 12-9-2005 by Fatboy]
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TacoFeliz
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A fish taco is always so much better with Baja wrapped around it.
When I think about it (which seems to be fairly often) everything seems better with Baja wrapped around it, whether it's just a moment in time or a
special place or being with a friend or meeting someone new or just looking around and being amazed.
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Barry A.
Select Nomad
Posts: 10007
Registered: 11-30-2003
Location: Redding, Northern CA
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Mood: optimistic
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Fatboy------
-----I cannot add anything to what you say here---you nailed it, at least for me. And you did it eloquently, and with style.
Very nice!!!!
Now, for some trivia:
(Do you know that your "name" here, "Fatboy", is the same name as the "bomb" dropped on Nagasaki by the B-29 "Bocks-Car"?)
(I own a used canoe that was, and is, named "Enola Gay", which is the name of the B-29 that dropped the "bomb" on Hiroshima)
------both just coincidences, I am sure.
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Cincodemayo
Senior Nomad
Posts: 725
Registered: 3-7-2005
Location: Pacific NW
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It's also a Harley Davidson...
Great writings by the way fatboy.
[Edited on 12-9-2005 by Cincodemayo]
Don\'t get mad...
Get EVEN.
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Fatboy
Senior Nomad
Posts: 801
Registered: 6-28-2005
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| Quote: |
(Do you know that your "name" here, "Fatboy", is the same name as the "bomb" dropped on Nagasaki by the B-29 "Bocks-Car"?)
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You know that is kinda funny, when I first came up with that screen name it was because our cat, A.K.A. Fatboy, was on the desk when I first logged
onto another site. Since then people have wondered if, perhaps, I am overweight. I am not, it least not by much.. 
Some people figured it was because I am into motorcycles and worked the Harley angle.
And now it reminds people of an atomic bomb, go figure... 
I also noticed your location-Redding and here I am typing this in the sticks just outside of Anderson!
But back to the topic at hand, I really do not know what makes me think about Baja so much and how badly I want to return and share it with others.
Once at the store I manage a customer came in and the topic got on traveling and I told him about a recent month long trip our family took in Baja.
Camping and exploring up and down Baja with our, then, 2 year old daughter and 7 year old son.
I told him about the beaches and the local people. About celebrating Christmas south of San Felipe, New Years out on Malarrimo beach and our
daughters 2nd birthday on a beach south of Loreto.
He said that was so cool! He said he was going to go. Not thinking much about it he returned 2 months later and told me he just returned from a two
week trip south of the border and it was one of the best things he had ever done!
I cannot wait to return and once every 1 to 2 years is NOT enough!!!
[Edited on 12-9-2005 by Fatboy]
[Edited on 12-9-2005 by Fatboy]
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bajaandy
Senior Nomad
Posts: 769
Registered: 2-7-2004
Location: North County
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Mood: Adventurous
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Fatboy
Each aspect brings its own magic to the mix and that is what makes me want to return time after time. |
A nicely written description of why so many of us love Baja. Your sentiments are shared by myself and many of the other nomads here at this board.
I have often said that Baja has a way of getting into your heart, and once it's there you can't remove it. And everytime you return, it grabs just a
little bit more of you. Some have equated Baja with a mistress, a secret love, a passion... each to his own I suppose.
In any case, thanks for the carefully and creatively chosen words that evoke all the memories and reasons that each of us loves Baja.
subvert the dominant paradigm
"If you travel with a man, you must either fall out with him or make him your good friend."
JBL Noel
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Price
Nomad
Posts: 168
Registered: 8-29-2003
Location: Las Vegas/San Felipe
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Baja gets in your blood !!! The first time we came down to San Felipe we ended up buying a house - that is really crazy - but - we are down here now
full time and loving every minute !!!!!! 
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jerry
Super Nomad
Posts: 1354
Registered: 10-10-2003
Location: loreto
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perhaps i said it before. but i think that baja chooses you and you have nothing to say about it. so go with the flow and have a good one jerry
jerry and judi
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bajarich
Nomad
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Registered: 1-13-2005
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Maybe its the grapefruit with 50 seeds in each half that taste better and sweeter than any grapefruit you can get up north.
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mcgyver
Nomad
Posts: 444
Registered: 8-22-2003
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Its the smell!
Its that charcol,roasting corn, taco smell that lowers my blood pressure in the first two blocks as I cross the border.
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jrbaja
Ultra Nomad
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Registered: 2-2-2003
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Rich
The pink grapefruit I am growing down south has only a fraction of that amount of seeds. And when I bought the property, I was planning on replacing
grapefruits with Papaya. Not anymore. I now love these grapefruit so that's not it.
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bajajudy
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6886
Registered: 10-4-2004
Location: San Jose del Cabo,BCS
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I have ruby reds almost ready for picking. I also have papaya, guava, oranges, limes, guanabana, granada, coconuts, dates, mangos, passion fruit .
Have not had any luck with bananas nor avocados but heck, how can you complain
I love many things about Baja, my garden is in the top ten.
Baja grabbed me on my first visit, over 20 years ago and I worked hard to get back every year for many after that. It is really hard to explain to
someone who has never been here but once they come no further explanation necessary.
Arent we supposed to be keeping this a secret
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Barry A.
Select Nomad
Posts: 10007
Registered: 11-30-2003
Location: Redding, Northern CA
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Mood: optimistic
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Mcgyver------you just hit on a BIG part of it---
-------THE SMELL -------I love almost all the smells of Baja, but especially the "smokey" smell-------- and the smell of the desert after a light
rain, or on a dewey morning-----and the smell of the "sea"------fish frying in camp, etc.
It is like the smell of campfire smoke in the National Parks-----wonderful smells that bring back so many good memories, but your right, that special
smell of the Mexican cooking fires is impossible to beat, and hard to duplicate.
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Mike Humfreville
Super Nomad
Posts: 1148
Registered: 8-26-2003
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For me...
It's the simplicity and the lack of fritter and hubbub. When we?re at our house in Bahia de Los Angeles I awake to thatched shadows dancing, gulls
squawking, tiny wavelets sparkling and the reflections of pelican vee?s drifting across the sandy beach. It?s total tranquility. The simplicity of
sky, sea, sands and sounds
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DanO
Super Nomad
Posts: 1923
Registered: 8-26-2003
Location: Not far from the Pacific
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It's funny, I've had many friends come down with me who could take Baja or leave it. They have scant time for leisure and little tolerance for
anything that's not the advertised image of the perfect vacation -- a Corona commercial (not that I have anything against staring endlessly at the
horizon on a tropical beach, with a cold one in hand and my bikini-clad wife at my side). They don't dig the dust and heat, or the cold and damp.
The desert is boring and the wind drives them nuts. They don't trust the food or the people. They imagine banditos or a police shakedown around
every corner.
We Baja fools, on the other hand, like it hot and dirty (the desert, I mean). We love the smell of dust and way it settles on everything (except
brakes). We don't mind when the wind howls, and when it doesn't, we revel in the majestic silence of the desert, punctuated by the sounds of birds,
bugs, boots crunching on gravel, or the shout of a little kid chasing a lizard. We'd spend an entire day poking around at the tidepools -- wasting
time -- if the damn tide would just stop coming in. We like things that have strong, memorable smells -- kelp on the beach, taco stands, desert sage,
wood smoke, fish camps, even truck exhaust. We welcome the cold and the damp because they draw us together as we sit and talk around the fire
(instead of staring mindlessly at a TV).
We Baja fools are idiots who enjoy the challenge of a flat in the middle of nowhere, or figuring out how to fix broken suspension parts with pvc pipe,
pieces of inner tube and hose clamps. We think splitting firewood is cool. We like to camp. We are happy there are no power lines, because we make
our own electricity. We don't care if the water's not potable -- that's what beer is for (I'm still looking for a beer-flavored toothpaste). We
always have a pot of beans on the stove. Always. We dig being alone, but even so, we're hospitable and friendly with our neighbors, because that's
how humans act in Baja. We trust people.
Baja makes us this way because it triggers something in us that is attracted to and responds positively to extremes of sensation and situation,
instead of rejecting them or putting on blinders. I like the idea that Baja chooses us, but I think there's another element to it. People like us
are predisposed to become obsessed with Baja. It just waits, beautiful, stark and timeless, for us to wander into the trap.
[Edited on 12-10-2005 by DanO]
[Edited on 12-10-2005 by DanO]
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Mike Humfreville
Super Nomad
Posts: 1148
Registered: 8-26-2003
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What a Thread this is
DanO,
What a beautiful post you wrote.
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bajalera
Super Nomad
Posts: 1875
Registered: 10-15-2003
Location: Santa Maria CA
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Somehow the newness never wears off.
\"Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest never happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.\" -
Mark Twain
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Ken Bondy
Ultra Nomad
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Registered: 12-13-2002
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I've always liked John Steinbeck's answer to Fatboy's question, "What is it about Baja?" This is from the "Log from the Sea of Cortez":
"Trying to remember [Baja] is like trying to recreate a dream. This is by no means a sentimental thing, it has little to do with beauty or even
conscious liking....there is always in the backs of our minds the positive drive to go back again. If it were lush and rich, one could understand the
pull, but it is fierce and hostile and sullen. The stone mountains pile up to the sky and there is little fresh water. But we know we must go back
if we live, and we don't know why."
He wrote that about 60 years ago.
++Ken++
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bajaandy
Senior Nomad
Posts: 769
Registered: 2-7-2004
Location: North County
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Mood: Adventurous
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This is a great thread.
Very nice post DanO. Your words hit home.
subvert the dominant paradigm
"If you travel with a man, you must either fall out with him or make him your good friend."
JBL Noel
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rpleger
Super Nomad
Posts: 1087
Registered: 3-12-2005
Location: H. Mulegé, BCS
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Mood: Was good.
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The best about Baja is that it is easy to spell.
Richard on the Hill
*ABROAD*, adj. At war with savages and idiots. To be a Frenchman abroad is to
be miserable; to be an American abroad is to make others miserable.
-- Ambrose Bierce, _The Enlarged Devil\'s Dictionary_
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