December 25 - January 4 Trip to Playa Malarrimo

For my sixth trip to Baja during the Holidays, my companion and I had only from Christmas day till January 3. I drove like hell from Santa Rosa to LA where we stayed in a Motel 6, then crossed the border on December 26. We bought insurance since I have rear-ended two cars in the past two years and I no longer trust myself to pay close attention to the boring task of eating highway miles. We took the advice found at this Website to get a tourist card in Ensenada -- it's really an easy office to find and we could see our Pathfinder from the doorway. We also took the GREAT advice found here and returned via the non-tourist route in Tijuana.

We made it to San Quintin where I usually stay on the beach by the hotel Cielito Lindo, but it was way too cold this year so we stayed in a cheap hotel with a very smelly toilet, thankfully with a door we could close. Next night, we went down a dirt road off the road to Bahia de los Angeles where there is a seasonal stream. There was no water this year but the isolation and scenery made the sidetrip worthwhile.

On Monday we drove to Scammons Lagoon and camped back from the edge of the water, near a cliff overhang. We could see whales blowing spouts and diving, and at the water's edge we heard them breathing. Another thing we could hear, all night and all day, is some kind of huge installation of machinery thumping thumping thumping near the mouth of the Lagoon -- I suspect it is the Mitsubishi dredging operation or whatever it is they are doing, which will eventually destroy the Lagoon.

We set up camp and shared it with a big brown tarantula who really seemed to want our company since it kept wandering around the fire circle and nearby boulders and bushes. We thought perhaps the previous fire-builders had cooked clams and left scraps which attracted insects which then attracted the tarantula. At night, a very small fox tried to find a way to jump into the back of the Pathfinder where we had food. Our photos of it showed hardly any body -- just two huge glowing eyes practically popping out of the picture.

Next day, Tuesday, we set off for Bahia Tortugas at the west end of the Peninsula de Vizcaino. This road is one very long bumpy ride. The kind of ride where you feel like a cracker jack in a box being shaken up to mix in the peanuts. Our intention was to spend some time in Tortugas and, on the way back, go to the legendary Playa Malarrimo. In Tortugas, again it was cold and we didn't feel like camping, so we stayed in a very clean, well run motel overlooking the bay where we also found a good meal. There were dolphins in the bay close to the dock -- where so many seagulls had visited that the wood was completely white, covered with gull droppings.

On Wednesday we headed back to find the dirt road to Playa Malarrimo. There is a new house at the road's beginning and the whole family came out when I stopped and the mother was very encouraging when I asked if they thought we could make it. She said "Andele!"

So we drove past their corral and headed down the arroyo. The drive took all afternoon, four hours, to cover only 26 miles. We encountered every type of dirt road condition there is -- steep climbs thru rocks the size of melons, deep sand in washes, stretches of needle sharp stones -- it was great! When we finally heard the ocean, we had been driving in deep sand at the bottom of a gigantic arroyo for miles -- in the dimness of dusk plants the size and shape of small conifers made it look like we were in a wintry snow field among baby Christmas trees. We encountered another camp at the mouth of the arroyo, to Kendall's dismay since he wanted us to be the only people on the whole beach. I was not as disappointed since I'd had paranoid thoughts about being stranded down there with some mechanical breakdown.

We set up camp just as night fell and were sitting in our camp chairs quietly resting after the strain of the day's trip, when a coyote trotted regally past, not five feet away. This was as close as any got when we were watching, though at night they dug around in our grease drippings close to our tent, and we saw them coming down into the arroyo at dusk the next night. These coyotes were the bravest I have ever encountered. This was their beach and we were their guests. When I yelled at one in an attempt to make it go away (my paranoia again), it simply stopped trotting, turned its head slightly to give me a cool look and resumed it's pace and original direction. This happened more than once on that beach.

The next morning, after a few hours of hiking it, Kendall wanted to drive down the wide long expanse of the beach. The map showed a small lagoon just before the entrance to Laguna Ojo de Liebre, so we headed that direction. Now, here is where it gets scary. I had read warnings about quicksand which made me hesitant to drive on the beach, but we had walked it and not encountered anything unusual, so I agreed to do it.

We went a little distance past the end point of our earlier walk, and where I had left a marker to pick up the whale vertebra I found, when the tires seemed to be dragging in the sand more than before. It happened off and on so I looked in the rear view mirror and saw that our vehicle had indented the sand enough to make a swath of water appear where we had driven. This was weird enough and I was beginning to panic when we hit a patch where the tires really began to sink in. I screamed and gunned it and headed up toward the dry sand of the mouth of an arroyo and safety.

I parked and we walked back to the spongy area. Kendall put his foot into what looked like regular sand just after a wave had wet it, and it sucked his foot right in! The sand he was standing on was firm enough so that he could put one foot in the soft area and the other held his weight, so he patted the surface with his foot and an area about 10 feet in diameter shook like a bowl of jelly. It was such a weird sight -- I couldn't even get up the courage to do that.

We walked around, over to the lagoon, and saw what could explain the reason for the quicksand. There was a harder clay soil that formed the edge of the lagoon, and the waves had cut away portions to make sharp edges. I envision this wave action carving pockets and then sand filling it, along with water, and since this clay pocket was relatively impervious to drainage, it then acted as a container for the jelly-like quicksand. I certainly am glad I had heard about the possibility of quicksand.

When we got back to our campsite, the other people had gone and I think they found another way out aside from going back up the arroyo. I think there is a connection to the road on the bluff that comes in from the west point of the Vizcaino peninsula. I had tried that route a few years back, but was traveling alone and the road then was all sand-blown and I kept slipping toward the edge of the cliff so turned back.

Not much else of interest occurred, the total of unusual wildlife we saw was: two ospreys building a nest by the gas station in Valle Jesus Maria; one roadrunner, two dolphins, one whale in Bahia Tortugas: one fox, one tarantula, a few whales in Scammon's Lagoon; many coyotes at Playa Malarrimo. We got stopped by the poor lonely Federales about 8 times but only once did they insist on searching our glove box. I, a woman, driving seemed to put them off a bit, especially since I speak Spanish and try to make jokes and the inside of our vehicle is such a mess they probably don't want to even get into searching that. I do feel sorry for them as most are from the mainland and I find that most young Mexican men get terribly homesick.

My newest passion is to research building an earthship in Baja and live sustainably off the grid. (Go to Earthship.org to see what this means if you care and don't already know.)

Regards, and best wishes on your first or next trip to Baja! I love every bit of that place.

Arlie