Baja, LA Bay to San Francisquito, April 15th to 29th 2000.


Two years ago I went on a wonderful kayaking trip in Baja. On the long drive back one of the other kayakers, Don Fleming, commented that it was a nice trip, but the drive down was too long and tiring and the kayak trip was not worth the drive. Apparently two years is long enough to forget how bad the drive was and remember only the good things, because Don himself suggested that we do another trip. Many of the same group from last time arranged to come along, and a few new people like Maryly Snow. After weeks of getting Mexican auto insurance, Mexican fishing licenses, Mexican topographic maps, and general packing of gear we were ready to go.

Penny suggested that we continue where our last trip left off and go from Bahia de Las Angeles (LA Bay) to the next resort south, San Franciscito. She researched the area and talked to Ed Gillettes, an outfitter who does tours down in Baja. He said that this section of coastline is rarely paddled by kayakers because it is somewhat boring. He recommended that we go someplace else. We were intrigued to go to a place that few others have gone and figured we would explore and look for interesting things anyway.

We all met the night before at Joe Petolino’s house in Palo Alto and started the long drive early Saturday morning. With three people in each car we could have made great time to Baja. But Penny likes to take her time on a road trip and she starts looking for a motel and a restaurant around 4:00 PM in the afternoon. If I was driving alone I think I could go twice as far in a day. If I had another driver to take over while I dozed I could go three times as far. However, it is not recommended to drive at night in Mexico, so it could still take two days to get to Bahia De Las Angeles (LA Bay). Penny’s way took three days. Maryly, for one, loved the road trip for it’s own sake and loved stopping and spending a whole morning at “Lobster Village”, even though the lobster was deep-fried. I got a little impatient for the kayaking to start.

Finally we drove into LA Bay. The hotel we wanted to stay at was full, so we had to move down to “Camp Gecko” a few miles south of town. Then we had to drive back into town to buy enough water for our trip. This turned out to be a miserable job as we had to transfer the water out of 5 gallon jugs into our mylar water bags by hand ourselves. We were not done until long after dark.


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All text and images Copyright © 2000 by Mike Higgins / contact