American Adventure

Baja South (La Paz)

Muchos Gracias me Amigos, Tony and Sandy Fox from Wisconsin

Starting on Monday, October 07, 2002, 6:10:58 AM

I awoke, as I usually do, several times throughout the night until it started getting light. As I watched the sun start to come up I could see land and knew that we were getting closer to La Paz. I got some of these pictures of the sunrise and then gathered my things and made my way back down to the vehicle deck.

The port of La Paz is quite interesting as we came in closer to the boat dock.

A wide range of birds were seen flying around. I looked out across the water and saw my first flying fish. It was amazing and, of course I didn't have time to take a picture of it. About two hundred feet from the boat I saw something come out of the water and zip across the surface for about fifty feet and back in. I couldn't believe what I had just seen. There's just something wrong with a fish that can fly. I thought to myself that just defies all logic of nature. Then I saw some of these frigate birds like the second image below. They were fascinating to watch as they soared across the sky. Not an extremely large bird but with a very long wingspan it seems these things can stay up in the air forever.

A few of the small fishing houses showed the dwelling of a local fisherman.

The water was extremely clear and quite beautiful. Looking into the water was like looking down into a clean aquarium. We all got off of the boat and I waited for Tony and Sandy to pass through the inspection. I found it very easy to pass through the many drug inspection stations by showing my leaflet and explaining my trip. The inspectors and guards all seem to get a kick out of the "Loco Americano", that I often refer to myself as. They all laugh and tell me its okay to go and never once searched my bags.

I followed Tony and Sandy to a great restaurant there at a pier in La Paz where we all had a nice breakfast/lunch. A waiter passed by as we were looking out the window at some fish. He went to get a few pieces of bread and tossed them out of the window. The fish went on a feeding frenzy after the bread and looked very much like a wild group of piranhas tearing into the flesh of a poor unsuspecting animal.

After we ate and had a wonderful conversation I went on my way and headed down the highway to the south and towards Cabo San Lucas. Highway 1 runs down to Cabo and then turns to highway 19 to complete a whole loop around the lower part of the peninsula.