Puertecitos to Bahia de los Angeles

Pavement was definitely behind me as I followed the main road along the coast south of Puertecitos. The desert met the shore here, but was still relatively barren — punctuated by more signs of life only in the river washes I passed through. in the washes were these trees, hosts to some kind of parasitic growths — the bright yellow stringy meshes pictured below.

Las Encantadas

The next place with any kind of population was right before this road veered away from the coast, inland back towards the paved Route 1. Here, I investigated the seashore community of Las Encantadas, which seemed to consist of quite fancy buildings... and this little upturned shack.     29.9071, -114.4411 

Punta Bufeo

I explored the dunes of Punta Bufeo, just to the southeast, and stopped for lunch. This was the first time I'd encountered turkey vultures — which would later turn out to be quite common. These large black birds with bright red heads were warming themselves on the hot sand of the dunes. I tried to take a close-up photograph of a far-off bird by holding a digital camera up to binoculars, and was surprised that it worked at all!     29.8993, -114.4407 

Calamajué Road

Continuing inland, I stopped at the next sign of human life, the famous Coco's Corner, for a refreshment break, and admired the beer can art. Coco's Corner is situated at the intersection between the 13 mile road that goes southwest back to the paved Route 1, and a road that goes 20 miles northeast to the seaside settlement of Calamajué.     29.5171, -114.2911  My map showed that there was a longer way to get back to Route 1, on a road going south. This turned out to be a sometimes faint track following the Calamajué streambed as it passed through the Sierra Calamajué range. The map also indicated that I'd pass by a mine and the ruin site of the Misión Calamajué. I spotted no ruins, but there was definitely a sign of mining in the past — many years ago, apparently.     29.4201, -114.1987  (I would actually find the mission site on a later trip .)

Once south of the Sierra Calamajué, I was greeted by what was almost a forest of lush desert life, including my favorite Baja plant, the boojum, and this 10 foot tall asparagus. The asparagus was actually a Mezcal Agave bud, just about to flower. After flowering, the whole plant dies, as in the last photo below.

Bahía de los Angeles

Returning to the paved Route 1, I headed south to the Bahía de los Angeles intersection     29.0453, -114.1524 , where these guys were selling gasoline out of a drum in the back of a pickup truck. Desiring to be with people for New Years Eve, I headed east to Bahía de los Angeles on the mostly paved (potholes!) road east, and where I stayed at the gringo-occupied Camp Gecko (now closed), which is marked by this misplaced Interstate 5 freeway sign.     28.8995, -113.5315 

The next morning, I was a little slow to get going — not because of a hangover, but because I was distracted by the sunrise! It took me over an hour to finally leave Bahía de los Angeles. These early-rising turkey vultures warming themselves on a cactus also seemed to be slow to get moving.