Santiago
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Trip Report to Bahia de los Angeles and San Francisquito
March 2007 Bahia de los Angeles and Mid-riff Area
Andy and I left Monday, March 12, from Northern California and the trip down was usual and uncomplicated. We stopped at Costco in Chula Vista for
Pesos, hot dogs and gas and got my first red light at San Yisidro; however it was only a very short look-in-the-back inspection and we were waved on.
Pulled in to El Rosario and Baja Cactus at 7:30pm, got our rooms – very nice as usual - $400 pesos for 2 king beds and were instructed to back our
boat into the compound area under a large salt cedar. I sent Andy in back to watch for rocks, holes etc and felt/heard a big crunch. We both were
focused on the ground and our windshield on the center consul hit a large branch and now had a 5 degree tilt forward. Yikes! Andy looks like he will
start to cry and I just swallow hard and tell him he can buy the dinner tonight and what-the-heck – it will all become part of the lore of many trips.
Against my better judgment we dine at Mama’s and my fears are realized: chips so salty they were hard to handle, maybe the worst tortilla soup I’ve
ever had, rather indifferent service and prices about 25% too high. Place was packed, but then, so is McDonalds. Note on Baja Cactus: they now have
coffee in the rooms, the TV volume will only go about midway so you don’t have to hear your neighbor but you do have to listen to your nearly deaf
fishing buddy say ‘turn it up, will you?’ all night long. They still are requiring keeping your driver’s license but will fold if you argue as long
as they have something. I gave them a business card and wonder if I can now write off the entire trip as a business expense.
Tuesday, March 13:
While paying the diner bill last night at Mama’s, the clerk said coffee was at 6:30am so we're up and standing at a very cerado Mama’s and I’m
muttering about how Mexican’s just don’t understand the importance of being punctual when Andy wonders if Baja is on the new daylight saving time –
hummmm – good point. We hightail it to Ed’s (Baja’s Best) where we are delighted to find it open and Andy’s wonderings are confirmed – Baja will go
to daylight saving the usual weekend in April. Have a good breakfast, drink coffee rumored to be Starbucks but at least was freshly ground, brewed
with a new filter each time and there’s not a jar of Sanka to be seen. As Andy has recently gone thru surgery, he and Ed have a deep discussion on
the quality of morphine at various hospitals and HMO programs. I pretend indifference but make careful mental notes – my time is coming. The parrot,
by-the-way is just too damn noisy. We noticed that someone has spray-painted “no cloven” or “nocloven” on the back of most of the street signs in El
Rosario – anyone know what this means? We pull into Bahia de los Angeles at about noon, gas everything up (new, new Pemex looks completed but is not
open), air everything down, get supplies, stop at the graveyard and pay our respects to MH and drive on to Gecko. We have leased one of the ‘fancy’
cabins in the second row and spend an hour or so setting up camp. Andy (a pretty serious gardener) spends the next few hours watering the vegetation,
digging trenches around plants while I sit on the veranda in the cool breezes, drink beer and gaze around my compound – it’s good to be the king (M
Brooks). Spend a pleasant evening at Beach Bob’s but find it difficult to find our cabin later on.
Wednesday, March 14:
We launch at 8:30am (late for us but this is entirely Beach Bob’s fault) on a very low tide as it’s only a few days from a new moon, and head to
Guadalupe reef north of Smith Island where we join a flotilla of boats, chasing birds and boils with every body hooked up – this is gonna be good.
Andy gets 2 right away and pretty good size – maybe in the low 20s. Bite’s over in an hour and I never get bit. Yellowtail were caught trolling,
live bait and jigging. The sea glasses out and we spend a couple of hours just cruising the islands getting reacquainted with the area (Andy only
comes down once each year). We spend the afternoon plotting our strategy for tomorrow.
Thursday, March 15:
We get on the water by 7:30, still late for us, and head to Remedios in flat calm seas – even crossing Guadalupe Bay where it will blow if it’s gonna
anywhere. Only one other panga there and they leave as soon as we show up – not a good sign. No fish at all as we work the entire area. We cross
the channel to the north point of Guarda and troll south along the western shore ala Baja Catch and just have a ball catch and releasing over 30 fish.
Mixed bag of grouper, spotted bass to 5 pounds and a first for us, sheephead to maybe 10 pounds. The sheephead were found about a mile or so north
of the shipwreck which had an active osprey nest. We found we could sight cast to sheephead and left me wishing I had brought my 7 weight along. Next
trip. About 2pm we were at Machos on Guardia and could not find any yellowtail so we headed the 30 miles back to camp in flat calm seas. Very nice
day. We clean up, and go into town for fuel for our boat trip we planned to San Francisquito Bay and are dumb struck when we find Pemex closed due to
a failure of the town generator. Maybe in a few hours we are told. We hit our favorite taco lady (next to Lizzeth) where there is large crowd of
teens so it takes maybe 2 or 3 beers before we get our food (consumed out of paper cups, by the way, as she does not want open containers showing from
the street). A school bus full of high school kids cruise up and down the street screaming and waving at the kids eating tacos and Andy and I wax
nostalgic. There’s a lot worse ways to while away an afternoon. By 5:00pm still no power and find that the techies from San Quintin will not be there
until tomorrow so we head back to camp. No one in town sells gas out of tanks anymore so on the way back we calculate that maybe a 1000 watt
generator could run 1 gas pump and you’ld think somebody would have thought about that in the design of a gas station in a town with iffy power and
why don’t they let us run the place but soon the Pacificos take over and we mellow out.
Friday, March 16:
As we are low on boat fuel we make this an exploring day and head to Kilometer 54 where we find the road to the north into 3 or 4 canyons and spend
half the day just walking up the canyons. This is a good trip to take as the quail are very thick and the vegetation is different. Lots of signs of
underground water and flowing water in the near past and what I would swear to be deer sign? Doc says it is very possible as there used to be plenty
of deer in the area and probably are some in the hills west of town. There is only 1 road to the north between kilometers 54 and 57 so you can’t miss
this. I think it is the garnet area for you rock hounds. Going back thru town that afternoon there is still no gas and everyone’s getting paniky.
We stop at the propane place where they used to sell gas and talk to the owner who just completely lamblasts the owner of the Pemex and wants us to go
to him and complain about his being unprepared and uncaring but also tells us that they have called the guys that sell gas at the turnoff and they
will be in town in the morning selling out of their truck.
Saturday, March 17:
I get into town at 7:00am and am second in line at the truck and by the time I am full there are maybe 15 cars behind me. We pack the boat for an
overnighter and launch about 8:30 to head to San Francisquito. I have a full tank (39 gallons) and a 5 gallon spare on board and we cruise at 24mph
as this is my most efficient speed (about 6 mpg). The trip, in flat calm seas and extremely clear skies, takes a little under 3 hours and is 68 miles
with a little fishing along the way. We pull into the small Cala about noon and are dumbfounded to see a floating dock where we tie up and walk across
the hill, along the runway to the restaurant. We have lunch and notice that the there are people renting the palapas and cabins and everything looks
open for business. This is good news for those of you that were wondering what would happen after the death of the owner. We walked back to our boat
and asked permission to camp at the abandoned fish camp from a retired American firefighter who has built a pretty impressive compound for his firemen
buddies. We fish the cliffs along Punta San Francisquito and I get into a hole of huge (for me) spotted bass – on 5 successive drops I hook 4 bass
that are in the 15 pound range and another sheephead, about 10 pounds. These were the largest bass I have caught and get payback for being
yellowtail-less as Andy gets squat. Later, we double anchor the boat as this will be an extreme tide night and set up our cots and try to sleep under
the stars but the Milky Way is so bright it’s hard to sleep. This, of course, is exactly why we come down here.
Sunday, March 18:
We break camp at dawn and motor around to the resort, stopping at what is now known as the BFBH (Big Freaking Bass Hole) but they are no where to be
found. Maybe we dreamt it. We buy 40 liters of fuel and 2 cups of coffee (I’m using the term loosely) for $42 ‘merican but are glad to get it and
head to the what we are told is a yellowtail hole off El Barril with visual markers in our brains (no GPS coordinates) and run into a very thick fog
bank. WTF???? Now what? With no coordinates we pull out the charts, guess where the reef will be, plot a course and chug our way very slowly the 6
miles to it. Of course, it’s a complete failure and about noon we head back to San Francisquito, the fog lifts, a south wind comes up and we decide
to beat feet back to Gecko. It takes a little over 3 hours as we can only go abut 19 mph without beating ourselves to death. Fortunately, the wind
stays from the south the whole way back so at least we’re not getting wet. We were not able to go back along the mid riff islands as we planned so
that will wait for the next trip. Total trip was about 160 miles using about 33 gallons of fuel. I highly recommend this trip with maybe a 2 nighter
to further explore the area and camp on the outer islands 1 night. Doc stops by in the late afternoon to go over the lease agreement and Andy and I
go into full gringo negotiating mode only to cave to every single item on the lease as it is clear we are in way over our heads. When you want what
the other guy has way more than he wants what you are gonna give him you might as well just admit it and sign the damn paper and write the check. We
do. Hands are shaken, tequilas are drunk and we spend the next few hours trying to figure out what it is we have done, exactly what the nature of
this ‘ownership’ is and convincing ourselves it was the right thing to do.
Monday, March 19:
A quiet day spent making drawings, measurements and generally figuring out what to do with what we have. That afternoon Doc stops by with full bee
keeping suit and gear as a swarm of bees has set up shop in someone’s boat and Doc wants them in his hives. Doc has never worn the suit before but
has he recently had some swelling to the last few bee stings he wants to be protected. I have pictures of this but have been told under no
circumstances to post them; thus adding to my collection of Baja photos that the subjects have denied permission to post – I assume someday they will
be worth a lot of money.
Tuesday, March 20:
As I am without any yellowtail and the camp is muttering about no fresh fish we head to 7 mile reef at dawn at the lowest tide of the month to find
ourselves alone in wild seas: no wind, standing waves of about 2 or 3 feet as the current rushes in and hits the reef (think of a wall of water of
about 1000’ hitting the reef of about 200’). For those of you who have not seen this we are talking about what looks like a river going over
submerged rocks – thereby creating waves that don’t propagate or move but just stay in the same place. There are upwellings of smooth water, about
50’ across that is maybe a foot higher than the water around it creating eddies and whirlpools at its edges. Wild stuff, a little scary and of course
is unfishable, thus explaining why there are no pangas about. We head to Remedios and join the pangas fishing there and get 2 yellowtail, again
running about 20 pounds or so. Not WFO but we’ll take it. 2 hours later we figure it’s slack tide and head back to 7 mile to find flat seas, no wind
and no fish. On the way in we go along the east side of Smith and coming around the point we see the fin of a finback whale and slow down to
hopefully get a better few. No more that 75’ off or portside bow the whale comes completely out of the water, turns in the air and splashes down. A
full breach. We are completely beside ourselves on what have just witnessed, realizing we may never get that close again. We also realize that we
are at the mercy of these huge creatures.
All in all, a great trip, one of many more, we hope.
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Ken Bondy
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Great great report Santiago. Muy buen dicho! Glad to hear that it is pretty much business as usual at San Francisquito, even after Genaro's death.
A floating dock in the little keyhole bay??? Jeez, the world is passing me by. Thanks for the report, ++Ken++
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Santiago
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Ken: had some long talks with folks who live there letting them reminisce about Genaro but did not want to post those. I never met the man but I
could tell he was loved by many. And yes, the floating dock was a mind blower.
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DianaT
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Thanks for taking the time to post your trip report. I enjoyed reading it.
| Quote: |
set up our cots and try to sleep under the stars but the Milky Way is so bright it’s hard to sleep. This, of course, is exactly why we come down here.
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On our next trip down in April, we are considering driving out to San Francisquito and look forward to being there.
Thanks Again
Diane
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Minnow
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Classic post Santiago, Thanks! What size boat are you fishing off of. I want to make that trip one day and wonder if I have enough boat. Please spare
no details.
Proud husband of a legal immigrant.
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Santiago
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Minnow: www.fistrite.com go to Baja XL. I have the smallest one, the 18' with a 115hp Mercury 4 stroke saltwater. I have no complaints as it tows easy,
launches and hauls out easy but as with all boats it is a compromise. I would have done this trip in my smaller valco but would have stayed near shore
for saftey with plenty of provisions. Weather or not you ned a buddy boat is up to you - we felt ok without one. We will do the circumnavigation of
Guarda on our next trip or so but not without at least one other boat.
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Cypress
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Thanks for the report.
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Paulina
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Hola Santiago or if I may be so bold, "King Fancy Cabin",
Congrats on your new 2nd row lease holding! Hope that all goes well for you and that you have many happy years of trying to find it after enjoyable
evenings spent with your neighbors...ja ja ja.
Thank you for the trip report. I like your style of reporting. It was interesting to read the part about the power outage. I don't know how Jose Luis
could have thought that Sergio should have been prepared for the town generator's transformer blowing, but hopefully with the up and coming
electricial power to the town that won't be a problem in the future.
We have talked the talk about taking our panga to PSF, but never walked the walk. I think that you were lucky to find fuel there, and at the price you
quoted, you got a good deal. The floating dock is a good thing to know. We are planning to make it happen this summer.
Regarding Bee Keeper Doc, As you know, I have nothing to hide, so if you happen to send me photos of Doc in his bee suit and I accidently posted them,
then what harm could come of that??? Other than you might be out of a few retirement $$$ funds in your piggy bank.
Thanks again for the report and glad that you and Andy had another good adventure.
P<*)))><
Edit: spelling
[Edited on 24-3-2007 by Paulina]
\"Well behaved women rarely make history.\" Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
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capt. mike
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thx so much for that. PSFO is one of my favorites in the whole world. I will stop in on my way to El Barril in a few weeks and check things out.
Genaro is hard to replace, that's for sure!
Going by boat sounds like a lot of fun. i like the idea of breaking it up with an overnight.
formerly Ordained in Rev. Ewing\'s Church by Mail - busted on tax fraud.......
Now joined L. Ron Hoover\'s church of Appliantology
\"Remember there is a big difference between kneeling down and bending over....\"
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marv sherrill
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Great read, Santiago!! - Three years ago, I was leaving LA Bay at 5AM and was stopped about 3 miles out by 4 beautiful deer in the road!! I guess
they were mule deer - very small - One male, 2 females and a young-un - no pictures though...
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4baja
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great report jim and good to see you as a neighbor. will be down in may for the contest and june-july for the two weeker. we will be doing basicly the
same trip thou we will be doing the islands off barnibys reef and around the large island on a three day trip. i beleive david a and phill nisbet will
be joining us on that trip. if your around lets buddy up all our boats and do the trip together . by the way that was phills old boat that had the
bees, hope doc didnt get stung too bad.
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RockhouseTom
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Thanks for the Great report Santiago
Good to see you get in on Camp Gecko. Which Cabin did you lease? Both Phil and I are taking our families down for 10 days or so early next month.
Hope to see you there soon!
Tom
\"FREEDOM\" William Wallace
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