Returning to Baja

We return to Mulege – 30 years later.

Halfway down Baja’s 1000 mile Highway 1, one drops out of the huge Desierto de Vizcaino through the tops of thousands of unexpected palm trees and lands beside the Rio Mulege. The little town sits at the head of a 2 mile long estuary that links the little river to the Sea of Cortez. We stopped in Mulege and camped on the nearby beaches back in the 1980’s on repeated spring break trips to Baja. For years, our garage in Colorado Springs had a wall plastered with a bumper sticker “Jorge de Mulege” and seeing that would remind me of a quieter place than the steamy politics of Colorado College.

This trip came about because Scott, Annie and kids came to Baja with friends to watch gray whales. At the end of that trip Annie had to return to work but Scott, Liam and Cora could stay another week (their school’s spring break). So we flew to Loreto and rented a car and then rented a house along the estuary of the Rio Mulege. The gray whale watching ended in the lovely colonial village of San Ignacio, home of one of the many historic 18^th century Jesuit missions of this dry and lightly settled country. Chatting with locals in a shady plaza while grandchildren enjoyed the local helado was a fine way to spend part of a morning.

Our days in Mulege alternated among sitting around, reading, taking siestas, riding peculiar tricycles, wandering through the little village, photographing birds, playing with the water toys of our San Juan Island friends, Nan and Steve, who are wintering on the nearby Bahia de Conception or riding horses for miles along desolate beaches.

One day we contracted with local guide Salvator Castro to take us to see 10,000 year old cave paintings in Trinidad Canyon. We had a terrific day bumping through sandy tracks while dodging 20 m cacti. We swam the last 100 meters to then arrive under an alcove decorated with handprints and animal and human forms that have lasted for millenia.