CAVE PAINTINGS
We met up with our friends, Bob and Nancy from Tucson, and had a great meal out on the water at Chili Willie's.
We talked them into joining us the next day for a 4-wheel drive trip and canyon walk to see 7,000 year old petroglyphs and pictrographs. We went with the same guide, Victor, and started to get to know him pretty well.
He was a very ambitious thoughtful man who cared a lot about Mexico and it's future. We really enjoyed him. That night we met up with Sue and Clar and we all went to dinner at Las Flores restaurant. We ate on the rooftop! They have a pool
on the roof as well, that has a glass tile floor, so when you are below, you can look up at the swimmers.
KAYAKING AND CAMPING
The third day we met up with our kayak guides, Edgar and Jeremy, from Sea & Adventures, a Montana-based Tour Group. We were signed up for 4 days of kayaking and camping. We drove to the marine park launch site, gathered our gear
and set off for a 4 mile paddle to Danzante Island. Danzante is located a bit south of Loreto in the Sea of Cortez. We weren't 10 minutes out when we spotted a large group of bottlenose dolphin with 2 babies. They were feeding so we
got to watch them for quite a while. We made it to camp, where our motorized skiff had already arrived. Our tents, mess tent, lawn chairs, ice chest, porta-poddy and other essentials were already set up for us! Now that's camping.
We weren't 5 minutes into our camp instructions when someone spotted whales spouting off shore. We all jumped into the skiff and headed out. There were 2 fin whales
we followed for a while. They are very long, blue and have a small fin (or whatever whales have). They are the 2nd largest whale in the world! We made it back to camp just in time for happy hour; a huge bucket of margaritas and oysters.
Next, dinner of tortillas, chicken mole and rice, with flan for dessert. The food was fabulous.
DAY TWO
After pancakes, fresh fruit and coffee, we paddled leisurely up the coastline. The water was blue-green with visibility up to 20 or 30 feet. It was like snorkeling without getting wet. We landed in a pretty little bay with a beach and lots of viewpoints to climb to.
We spent the day there snorkeling (even though it was 80 degrees out, the water was cold and required a wetsuit), hiking, lazying around and eating. We didn't want to miss happy hour so we paddled back in the late afternoon just in time for
a big bucket of pina coladas and popcorn. Dinner was steak burritos, guacamole, salsa, cooked cabbage, baked onions, and of course, tortillas. After dinner, the three men who were cooking and keeping camp, brought out a cake for Sue's birthday.
They sang to her in Spanish. It was really cool. We never did figure out how they produced the variety of food they did. They had no electricity, but boy could they cook.
DAY THREE
We had a spanish breakfast of quesadillas and fixin's the next morning. We needed something to stick to our ribs because we were facing a 4 and 1/2 hour paddle to our next camp. The sea was intermittently choppy and then swells. Although
it was hard paddling, it was kind of neat. We all were pretty exhausted, so they let us stop just before we reached our destination and revived us with juice and cookies. (Can you tell they took good care of us?) We finally got to camp and unpacked.
We then took the skiff and headed to some hot springs formed in some lava rock surrounded by surf. It was great. We watched an osprey work on his nest as we soaked our bones. Happy hour was chips, guac, rum and coke. Dinner was pasta
prima vera and garlic toast. Plus outrageous lemon bars for dessert that were gone in two seconds flat.
We had a full moon the whole time we camped and that night Butch and I laid out on the beach for a couple of hours, as the whole place was lit up!
DAY FOUR
The next morning cold cereal and that wonderful fresh fruit could not seem to help us muster up enthusiasm for our last day of paddling. We could see we were facing a strong head wind. Finally Edgar offered us a ride to a lunch spot and we all jumped on his offer!
They loaded the kayaks on a scaffolding rack on the skiff and then took us to a cool place, where we spent several hours hiking, lunching and enjoying tide pools with creatures we'd not seen before. We then got picked up again and returned to our launch site.
Being out 4 days was a perfect amount of time. Although our hotel room had no hot water, the shower still felt good. Our guides met us for dinner that night and the next morning, we all went our separate ways. Bob & Nancy did the whale tour and Sue and Clar headed for a few days in LaPaz. It was a great vacation. I may have to go back and do Sea & Adventures Magdalena Bay tour. I cannot imagine another tour group doing a better job and would definately use them again.
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