I was with the folks who run the Baja Kayak Fest.
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| The bunkhouse and living room |
This is my second year going back here, and its absolutely the best rock gardening location I have ever been to. I capsized almost every day, my bracing is not what it should be, it all seems to be going fine, and then I'm drinking saltwater and looking to roll back up hoping I don't smash my head. Because its so deep it is not all that dangerous, most of the locations that they let us go in would flush us somewhere safe if we wet exited.
We saw all kinds of conditions from cold rain the first day to hot sun by the end of the week.
A highlight of a visit here is a trip out to the lighthouse on Todos Los Santos island and that is where I let the bottle go. I slept in the top of the red and white lighthouse. Its always a little chilly, but the views are amazing.
The Island was full of lush plants and flowers because it had recently rained a lot, but the locals said that might be it for rain for 9 months. Last year everything was brown and dried.
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| Dawn from lighthouse |
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| This is an old-school light but still works. |
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| Dropped the bottle out near Todos los Santos Mainland in distance. |
On the day we paddled out to the Island there was huge 12 foot swells.
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| I needed a shave by the end.. |
The locals net Bluefin Tuna alive, and then put them in huge free floating pens to fatten them up. One day we paddled over near the pens and we watched as the divers and fishermen wrestled the fish up the side of the boat for slaughter, it was sad but really dramatic.
Two men get in the pen with them, one grabs the tail the other puts a huge hook through the gills and they drag them aboard and kill them. The fish are huge and must weight 300 pounds or more and are all muscle. We were told that they must be killed and gutted in 2 minutes, all the dudes were covered in blood.
The most dramatic paddling was at the location called the "Slot of Boom". This is a very long rock slot facing the sea. The swell was too big to safely go all the way through but we could paddle into it to play and then feel the rush of huge waves rolling down the slot that would flush us back out.
As usual I capsized at one point, but fortunately I made my roll to get back up. From this picture I can't tell if Im on my over or way back up!
At the end of the trip we had a nice day of goofing off and drinking in San Diego:
Truth:
Its always worth going back to a beautiful place.
