Punta el Pulpito to Punta Rocosa, April 20th 2003.


We launched and started across Bahia Pulpito. Everyone that I had talked to about this trip had warned me that this was a dangerous crossing. It looks like a calm bay with an uninteresting shore that you are tempted to skip by taking a shortcut across. But the uninteresting shore is a low area of Isla Angel de la Guarda that funnels the prevailing wind an turns it to blow you out to sea. So everyone recommended hugging the shore and taking the long way around. The water was calm and as reflective as a pond for us. We plotted a course that cut off some of the shoreline but kept us at a distance we could sprint in an emergency. About halfway across we figured there was no reason to be shy and turned to cut some more time off this bay. Eventually we made it completely across with no problems. We could have ignored the warnings and just gone straight across!

We stopped at a little lagoon called Ensenada las Cuevitas and walked along the berm that created a natural breakwater here. On this north facing rocky berm I found lots of interesting bones from animals that had been washed up by the prevailing wind from the north. There were small porpoises, sea turtles and many sea lions. I was on a mission to find a nice sea lion tooth but most of them were pretty chipped up from being banged up on the rocks. The lagoon was in an area called Punta los Candeleros with several points facing north on a shore running east-west. One of these points had several striking rocky formations on it, and one of those looked like a candelabra! I’m guessing that this is the source of the name of this area.

Our original plan was to camp at one of the beaches at Punta los Candeleros but our next day was going to be a long one. So we passed up the recommended campsite and kept looking for another one. Up ahead we could see Punta Rocosa (sometimes called Punta del Diablo) dropping straight into the sea so we knew there would be no campsites there. A long cobble beach stretched out next to us and ended at the start of the cliffs. But where the beach ended and the cliffs started it looked like something interesting happened. The map didn’t have quite enough detail but the beach seemed to end on a rock not connected to the cliffs. I guessed that there would be a tiny cove behind the rock and convinced Patrick to paddle 3 more miles to try it out. Of course it is never hard to convince him to paddle a little farther, slowing him down is the usual problem!

The end of the beach turned out even more wonderful than I had hoped. The cobble beach thinned out and turned into a gravel beach, very easy to land on. The gravel curved out to meet the rock then piled up in berms well above the high tide. I had my favorite gravel berms to camp on. Patrick found a sandy spot for his tent. The bushes inland from the beach were covered with orange butterflies. On the other side of the rock the gravel dropped steeply into a beautiful little cove with green water. Where the gravel met the cliff there are a few caves. From rocks piled up at the entrances and from piles of trash we could tell that local fishermen also use this spot.

The first fly in the ointment here was the bo-bo flies swarming all over us when the wind died down. These flies do not bite, but they can become very annoying. To avoid them we went for a long walk up the beach in the afternoon. Patrick wore shorts to “get some sun” but in addition he also got hundreds of no-see-um bites. These bugs are not annoying while they are biting and popular myth says that they have an anesthetic that prevents you from noticing the bite until later. Until they have had time to bite you again and again and again. Whenever I am in Baja I cover myself up from wrist to toe to hide from the sun. (I hate putting on sunscreen). As a result I didn’t get any of these bites while Patrick was miserable and had difficulty sleeping.


All text and images Copyright © 2003 by Mike Higgins / contact