Baja Paddling Epic

Iris Publishing
Baja Paddling Epic
by Sarah Richards

The Beginning

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

Day Five

Day Six

The End

One rainy February evening while sitting around Jan and Jim's dinner table in the Coast Range rainforest a warm sunny yearning swept over the group. That started almost a year's worth of planning to get ten people together to kayak in the wilderness of the Baja California peninusula.

Al had taken sea-kayak instructor training from a couple who run annual trips down to Baja. So we contacted Roger Schumann and Jan Shriner of

Eskape Sea Kayaking to book our trip.

Al was nervous because he wasn't sure that our group would be able to paddle well enough for the rigors of the trip, and he wasn't sure that we'd all get along. It turned out he was just wasting his time hanging out with fears like that.

Arrival in
Loreto
Baja California Sur, Mexico
Loreto is a town of about 8,700 people in Baja California Sur. It has an airport that brings in one plane from Los Angeles a day and a couple from La Paz (a city of about 150,000 to the south). We met up with our friends (Jan W. & Jim, Kathie & Greg) at the baggage claim between flights. It was good to see these old Corvallis friends.

Aero California, a somewhat ramshakle DC-8, carried us safely to Loreto where a palm frond covered walkway guided us into a breezy customs area. Because we pressed a green light in their inspection lottery system, they didn't look at any of our stuff. They just smiled and said welcome to Mexico. Thirty pesos per person later (about $3.00) and a ride through town, we pulled up to Los Trojes, a bed and breakfast that the fourth couple to kayak with us (John and Chris) had found.

Los Trojes refers to graineries that had been dismantled in mountains on the Mexican mainland, moved and reassembled on the beach in Loreto. The boards are held together with magic and mortar, I guess, because there are no nails other than those pounded in to hold pictures on the walls. Rafael greeted us and brought us around to the back of the building where our rooms faced a lovely pathway through sand to the water.

It's very dry, parched earth, sand, and stones are all we see. There are some cactii and palms to break up the flat yellowness of the terrain. Our kayak guides, Roger and Jan, met us for dinner that night at Chili Willie's. Roger said that Cortez took three years to conquer Mexico, but that it took 150 years to take over Baja. The Spaniards tried to build a mission and get the locals to work there. But the nomadic people of Baja knew that to stay in one place meant certain death, so they were not inclined to be enslaved in this way. Finally, a stubborn missionary built a mission in Loreto that lasted - due mostly to his tenacity and the building of supply links to the mainland. After Loreto, the settling via missions progressed northward until all of California was occupied.

The beaches are rough, pebbles, thick shells, dead puffer fish, and trash. There are some fancy houses (gringo houses) from time to time, but they have gates and fences around them. Scattered between those houses are empty patches with Cordone cacti, a small hotel, hut, or crumbling concrete pad.

Drinking the water here is said to be less worrisome, only once in a while does someone get sick.

Iris Publishing	Baja Paddling Epic by Sarah Richards

The Beginning Day One Day Two Day Three Day Four Day Five Day Six The End	One rainy February evening while sitting around Jan and Jim's dinner table in the Coast Range rainforest a warm sunny yearning swept over the group. That started almost a year's worth of planning to get ten people together to kayak in the wilderness of the Baja California peninusula. Al had taken sea-kayak instructor training from a couple who run annual trips down to Baja. So we contacted Roger Schumann and Jan Shriner of Eskape Sea Kayaking to book our trip. Al was nervous because he wasn't sure that our group would be able to paddle well enough for the rigors of the trip, and he wasn't sure that we'd all get along. It turned out he was just wasting his time hanging out with fears like that.
Arrival in Loreto Baja California Sur, Mexico	Loreto is a town of about 8,700 people in Baja California Sur. It has an airport that brings in one plane from Los Angeles a day and a couple from La Paz (a city of about 150,000 to the south). We met up with our friends (Jan W. & Jim, Kathie & Greg) at the baggage claim between flights. It was good to see these old Corvallis friends. Aero California, a somewhat ramshakle DC-8, carried us safely to Loreto where a palm frond covered walkway guided us into a breezy customs area. Because we pressed a green light in their inspection lottery system, they didn't look at any of our stuff. They just smiled and said welcome to Mexico. Thirty pesos per person later (about $3.00) and a ride through town, we pulled up to Los Trojes, a bed and breakfast that the fourth couple to kayak with us (John and Chris) had found. Los Trojes refers to graineries that had been dismantled in mountains on the Mexican mainland, moved and reassembled on the beach in Loreto. The boards are held together with magic and mortar, I guess, because there are no nails other than those pounded in to hold pictures on the walls. Rafael greeted us and brought us around to the back of the building where our rooms faced a lovely pathway through sand to the water. It's very dry, parched earth, sand, and stones are all we see. There are some cactii and palms to break up the flat yellowness of the terrain. Our kayak guides, Roger and Jan, met us for dinner that night at Chili Willie's. Roger said that Cortez took three years to conquer Mexico, but that it took 150 years to take over Baja. The Spaniards tried to build a mission and get the locals to work there. But the nomadic people of Baja knew that to stay in one place meant certain death, so they were not inclined to be enslaved in this way. Finally, a stubborn missionary built a mission in Loreto that lasted - due mostly to his tenacity and the building of supply links to the mainland. After Loreto, the settling via missions progressed northward until all of California was occupied. The beaches are rough, pebbles, thick shells, dead puffer fish, and trash. There are some fancy houses (gringo houses) from time to time, but they have gates and fences around them. Scattered between those houses are empty patches with Cordone cacti, a small hotel, hut, or crumbling concrete pad. Drinking the water here is said to be less worrisome, only once in a while does someone get sick.