We stopped for eight days to kayak and hang on the beach. The Conception area is just south of Mulege and is a very large bay with about 8 quite sheltered camping access beaches and a number of small islands so if we were to find a place to kayak this should be it. We had never stayed at El Coyote before so thought we would give it a try. It was fabulous! Similar to the West Coast of Vancouver Island, the wind usually gets up about 11 am so we needed to be up and on the water early to get in a good paddle. The second day we went out we were not far from our beach when we were suddenly blasted with a big wind! and I mean big! And it wasn´t even 10 am yet! It was a bit startling for us newbies to say the least so we quickly paddled to shore, fortunately it was blowing towards land so we had the wind at our backs and not too much water in our boats, lots of whitecaps all around and breaking over our bows. My boat felt good tho and it wasn´t more sea than we could handle so that was good.
We had heard the wind can pick up quickly here but we had no idea it would be quite like this, dead calm one second and then pow! We learned these winds are called buffaloes, good name. We also discovered that a fellow named Gary broadcasts the weather for the area over the VHF (marine band) radio every morning at 8. He lives at the next beach over (El Burro) and weather is his hobby. He let us know that we now had a few days to wait for really flat water and to expect big winds (buffaloes) every day.
We spent some time hiking, there are some great hikes to do around this beach, up and over the desert hills to the next beaches and into beautiful valleys. We also hiked along the old Baja road and into a lush valley, very nice. Read a few books and soon it was time to do some serious kayaking. Last Monday dawned with the water like glass, kayaking was amazing, it was like moving over gentle shimmering folds of silk. It was so clear we were looking into a tropical aquarium with lots of interesting fish to see. The water was quite warm so I also enjoyed swimming and banging up my shins practicing wet exits. Couldn´t get Lorne it tho. We did find a fairly large red jellyfish, fortunately not while I was swimming.
The first few days I was buttoned up tight in my life jacket and thinking we really should have our skirts on, Lorne of course had his jacket on but not zipped and was totally opposed to the skirts as it was really quite warm. By day 3 Lorne´s lifejacket was strapped to his deck and by day 4 so was mine! We really didn´t go any further off shore than what we could easily swim and the water is warm so, we dressed for immersion - swimming suits!
ElCoyote is the beach that our friends from Santispac, Chet and Marida have moved to so we had a few good visits with them. They built a new, almost identical palapa and moved their whole kitchen and stairway over from Santispac. They don´t own the land but pay $10 per day all year for the privledge of renting the land, plus they have services that they didn´t have at Santispac - water and sewer - so they are reasonably happy and settled now. It was quite devastating to them when they arrived at Santispac this year to be told they had to move off the beach by the end of January. Six of their friends from Santispac have also moved over to this beach. Santispac looks quite different now with almost all the palapas gone. Apparently it has been bought by someone who plans to put in a resort... A Baja dream or??
We are now in Guerro Negro, working our way north. The desert today was in bloom and so aromatic it was wonderful! My plant book tells me the flowers were lupins, a type of poppy and an incense flower. We´ve bought a big load of camerones and scallops to take home, the freezer is full! We´ve also got a few bags of delicious San Ignacio dates and a container of their yummy honey too. We should be in LA by next Monday where we will visit Miguel to have him give the GMC a once over before heading home. Depending on how things go we should be home by next weekend.
Time to cook - as once again I am not doing the driving on Baja!
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