Driving San Lucas Cove-Los Barriles

After 7 days in San Lucas Cove, it was time to head south and see what was going on down at the East Cape. The destination was Los Barriles, an area famous for its marlin fishing near the southernmost tip of Baja, about 60 miles away from a less famous place named Cabo San Lucas. Leaving at 8 or 9a, we sped past beautiful Concepcion Bay, Loreto, Ciudad Constitucion (not necessarily beautiful), past an alarming number of cows and goats (on the road) and into LaPaz.

We followed the signs to Cabo thru LaPaz, which left us in a momentarily misdirected state until we eventually popped out heading south on the right road. Another hour later and we came over the hill into a friendly looking Los Barriles and its bright blue Sea. We easily find Martin Verdugo’s RV park and wobble over to the office to pay for a tent site ($12) and talk about the fishing (slow). This would be our furthest point away from home, and it was kind of sad that there was no more new country from here on out, but it was also a relief to know that we no longer had to retrace our steps in the opposite direction. With 2091 total miles on the odometer, it wasn’t tough to convince my butt to get outta the truck.

The East Cape

A little warmer weather greeted us for our first day of fishing off Punta Pescadero. But let’s back up a little – we had to get the boat in the water first (there is no launch ramp) - so Greg The Main Man at Martins explained that he could hook up their huge tractor to the boat trailer and launch it over the soft sand into the ocean, but it would be $25 and another $25 to get it back…..yeeouch! He also explained that we were free to launch ourselves on the beach with our own truck, and then when we got stuck he’d charge $25 to pull us out. We chose option 1 because at least we’d end up with the boat IN the water. I was still a little skeptical until I drove down onto the beach to drop off the boat and promptly sunk it to the springs. Luckily, unhitching the trailer allowed me to drive away in 4WD, and I had no further doubts that the tractor was the only way to roll.

For the next two days we trolled and we trolled and we trolled, well, you get the point. Set the throttle at 6-9 knots and start driving around from 2 miles offshore to as far as you can get (about 13 miles for us), put the surface chugger squids and feathers out on the face of the third wake, and keep an eye out for anything that might indicate fish (birds, dolphin, a tidal rip line, floating trash, gut feel, a pair of dice whatever).
Finally, out of the absolute blue (Steve was fully asleep in the bow) my Torium blew up with a big BUzzZZzzzzZZZZzzZZ and we had our first Dorado ever. Stunning fish. The colors of green and blue are unbelievably deep and vibrant and, as with everything tropical, looking twice as cool in person than in the photos. We were elated – all the planning and web surfing and tackle and money and work on the boat and driving and talking and worrying just evaporated into thin air and suddenly WE HAD DONE IT. We had driven the right truck to the right spot, launched the right boat into the right bay, trolled the right speed in the right area with the right lure attached to the right line on the right reel mounted on the right rod, and brought the fish right into the boat. That’s a lot of stuff to get right, and if it wasn’t for Mr. Dorado flopping around wildy in the bottom of the boat, I probably would have cried on the spot.



The action in the area was a little slow (ended up with only two and a quarter more Dorado), but each day was fill with new things to see and do and eat. It was the first time I had ever seen flying fish, and we were both amazed at how far they actually fly through the air. We also got up close and personal with dolphin, bat rays, sea turtles and mantas. At around 10 miles offshore we began to see leaping marlin off in the distance every now and then – whoo boy that’ll get your heart racing. Big big fish gracefully arcing up and over about 6 feet of air. We tried and tried but just couldn’t get their attention. Steve does, however, get the attention of a man o war jellyfish on the swim back from mooring…I offered distant sympathies, but there was no doubt that he was a hurtin’ unit. As prescribed, a Benadryl (one of those cool new tongue strips) and some vinegar on a washrag had him back in action shortly.

Another thing we discovered is that all that trolling uses up boat gas pretty quick. A LOT of gas. Even though we put in 5 gallons before setting out on the 2nd morning, we had to come back early because the old gas gauge wasn’t bouncing off empty very often. Later, when we filled the boat tank with gas, I noticed that 78 liters somehow fit into a 20 gallon tank…..either we were plumb out or the station was tweaking the meter, or most Mexico likely - both. The local food was good because you could pick an Americanized café (burgers at Buzzards and Starbucks at Roadrunner) or the good stuff at a local place like Simon’s. Awesome big burritos at the end of a dirt road next to the car mechanic shop, it doesn’t get much more Baja than that. The camping overall at Martin’s was great, with clean showers and bathrooms just for the tenters. Also nearby was a coin-op laundry machine, so a couple of loads provided each other with some much needed aromatic relief. Turns out that a person really only needs to do one load per 23 days, which is a lot less than I would have guessed. Somehow Shanna’s ‘stinky boys’ comment comes to mind.


Our East Cape experience ended too soon, with wind and water temps pushing us back north to Loreto in hopes of tracking down a striped marlin, but it was well worth the drive. You'll have to ask Steve if it was worth the pain (I think he'll say yep).

Maximum Vehicular Utilization

One thing that’s easy to notice when driving Mex 1 is that while Americans are famous for under-utilizing mass transportation, the Mexicans are at an all-time high. The variations of vehicular antics are unending. Check out this video from the Border Patrol to get an idea of how many people really CAN fit in a minivan.

If two of you are heading in the same direction (50% percent chance!) then just hook your cars together so you can chill with each other on the long drive.

When it comes to building roads, make sure that they are only as wide as they need to be - to save asphalt and the environment. Three extra inches for each lane should be plenty, because really, what are the chances that this truck will meet himself coming the other direction?

Speaking of semi trucks, I think the government offers a bonus to whomever gets there first. Anywhere first. This one passed us just in time to let the oncoming car have their lane back....and we were doing 100kph!

Why have a billboard on the back of a truck that only a few other cars will see, when you could put massive speakers on the roof and blast your chintzy message right into every home and business within a mobile 4 block radius???!!!

To make sure everyone stays awake and upright, put big old speedbumps right on the highway just before and after every small town, or wherever else makes sense.

And this dude in LaPaz that bought a new truck on the way to the Super Mercado (grocery store), only to find out that the piece of junk just doesn’t have near the payload he thought it would.

We can also take a good lesson from this fellow when trying to determine if just one more WILL fit after all.
Instead of having drive - thru restaurants, you can save time and gas by just setting up a mini convenience store in that little middle area between lanes. Then promptly hassle your wonderfully captive audience at the border as they wait and wait and wait....

When you’ve squeezed every last ounce of go-juice out of that old truck, set it afire on the side of the road and have one final weenie roast.

You honestly never know what's around the next bend, and that's part of the fun!

People

The most pleasant surprise of the whole Baja experience was the people. This coming from an admittedly anti-social type. For months before the trip, I was genuinely concerned about the general security (or lack thereof) of camping out in the boonies, the soldiers and the legendary banditos, even to the point of almost canceling the trip because I didn’t want to do something irresponsible to my family. So what a relief it was to interact with both the local gringos and Mexicans and discover that, in general, there are a lot more happy people in Baja Mexico than anywhere I’ve ever been (including Idaho). It was so cool to pull into a new campground and literally within minutes be talking to some dudes about their catch of the day and the weather and the ramp and so on. I think having Steve’s boat along helped a lot, as it seemed to be the holy grail of many a do-it-yourselfer and sparked a lot of conversation.
I’m sure if a person tried a little, they could find themselves in a threatening situation, but by default the people you see at the grocery store, the gas station, even on the road are friendly and happy to help. A silent little game we’d play while driving the highway was to wave very flamboyantly to see how big of a wave we’d get back. It seems like that’s all most people were waiting for, because they’d smile and make a big old wave right back. That game ended pretty abruptly once we got crossed the border to San Diego….
Once we got down near Cabo, we noticed that it was the tourists that were not so friendly (and some of the staff that were undoubtedly sick of the tourists) and we grew to dislike the tourists more than the locals. I know what you’re thinking, and no, at that point we were not tourists.
Actually, the most annoying idiot in all of Baja happened to be sitting right behind me at Simons while we ate dinner. Some fly-fishing fluffy haired super sportfishing shirt wearing Jackson Hole elitist who, according to him, single handedly “discovered” the best eateries in the East Cape like some kind of modern day Ponce DeLewannabe. Never mind the fact the he’d only been to Baja for three years and was only fishing for one day on this trip because he was ‘looking for property’. Riiiiiiiight. I think he could only afford one guided day and was waiting for the wind to calm down so he could flip his fluffy little fly at some imaginary Roosterfish while undoubtedly babbling about some bigger fish he supposedly caught last year. Steve told me later that this flake reminded him of one of his favorite sayings: “The louder he spoke of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.” Ralph Waldo Emerson Good stuff. Anyway, I’ve gotten distracted here.
One last little item I will not forget; The little girls at the grocery store. We’re talking about children that are my daughters’ age (maybe 5 to 8yrs) working as baggers and general help. Very polite, never say a word, just a smile and bag the groceries for you, helping carry them out to the truck, load then in the back and then pausing just briefly to see if crazy gringo is going to tip……of course I’ll give ‘em whatever I’ve got because my heart is just, well, let’s not get too emotional here. Too many macho guys reading this blog. Let’s just say I never would have appreciated it without having kids myself. I accidentally gave a $10 peso coin (shoulda been $1) to the cutest little thing you’ve ever seen. She almost let out an audible squeal on the spot, then looked at me like “Mr., you’ve been in the sun to long”....but wasn’t about to give it back and I wasn’t about to try, so we both walked away happy.

Matt going solo
The patient panguero
Rick and Wendy with a real nice fish....It's HER fish

Kevin loaning us poppers for the trip South.One of many a roadside taco stands
He took the wave bait
Steve and Rick, kickin' it

A whale of a good time

Another thing I didn’t expect was the sheer quantity of non-game ocean life. Every day we’d see something new like pilot whales, dolphin, sea turtles, manta rays, seals and unique birds.
The first major sighting was a pod of probably 40 pilot whales that appeared over the horizon, just cruising along in the distance. We fired up the boat and drove so that we’d be in their direction of travel, and then stopped and waited. We were awestruck to hear and see them get closer and closer until about 20 off the bow, when the closest one slipped under the boat and popped up about 50 feet away on the other side while the others just glided around us. Wikipedia says they get to be 20 feet long and weigh 3 tons, and that is enough to make you kind of hunker down in the boat a little and hold on to something just in case…

On the last day, we were able to get pretty close to some huge finback whales, which was just awesome. We could see the spouting mist from a long ways away, and Rick thought that they might be finback’s. Sure enough, as we got closer, the water would start looking funny in a big 25’ patch and then this head and back would just kind of roll up and forward through the water. A big exhale and inhale right before the blowhole went underwater and then the back of the whale would just keep coming and coming. Finally a little shark looking fin and the top of the tail would slip under the water and they’d be gone for another minute or two. Wikipedia lists an average length of 65ft, and I believe it. Suddenly the boat feels really small.


We got some decent video of the pilot and finback whales, and I’ll post it here when I get a chance to shrink the file size. Here are some other random seaworthy items.

Driving LosBarriles-Loreto-SanLucasCove

On 5/17, we got impatient and had Greg reverse the tractor process and pull the boat so we could move North. The plan was to go Loreto to see if the striped marlin were any closer up there, and if not, continue on to San Lucas Cove in time for the Yellowtail Shootout.

The drive to Loreto went by pretty quickly, and we stopped initially at Puerto Escondido which is a massive half-finished port project that appears to have lost all momentum and may never recover. A great ramp and facilities, but for $28US a day, we decided that we might at well go up the road to Loreto and launch at the city ramp for 0$US. This put us in the LaRivera RV park in the center of town ($10/night), where we got word from the locals that the marlin were here, but 35-40 miles offshore. Oooohh, that’s a little too far for our little boat…but we decided to give it a shot and keep an eye on the weather and the gas gauge.


Waking early early the next morning, we launched in the dark and headed out to the bait grounds as the sunrise painted a huge panorama of orange hues ahead of us. Amazingly made bait quickly (we’d heard it was tough) and pointed the bow due East to the northern tip of Isla Carmen (about 10 miles away).

As we came around the tip of the island, there was an odd looking boil about 60ft in diameter that was slowly moving around out in the open ocean. At first it looked like a tidal rip over a seamount or something like that, but as we got closer it started looking really fishy, so Steve chucked a Tady into the middle and wham-o goes the rod. After a really good fight, he finally pulls up our first tuna species, a little Skipjack football. I quickly referred to the Baja Catch to see if we should keep it to eat, but the profile contained phrases like ‘gruesome table fare’ and ‘grey meat’ so back she went into the drink.



After catching a few more, time was wasting so we continued due East in hopes that the water temp would rise. 10 more miles and the only thing that was changing was the gas gauge and the wind, so we decided that it just wasn’t going to be our day for big game. After more inshore fishing, we got back into town pretty early and decided to go ahead and pack right back up again and move to San Lucas Cove. Kind of hard to accept that there were no more unknown magical fishing spots left on the agenda, but it was comforting to know that we’d be finishing the last week of the trip at a great camp with great people, and those awesome yellowtail.