The moon phases lined up a little early this year, so our annual April trip happened in March. We left on Friday the 21st, hoping to avoid the spring break crunch. We were running a little early, so we stopped at Ted's El Arco restaurant to have some grub before heading down toward Puertecitos. After traditional visits to the El Arco sub-agencia, the Seven Lleven gas-em-up, Agua Azul icehouse, Horse Market, and Licores Calafia, we made one last stop at a fruit stand and got a pineapple and some strawberries.
We hit the Puertecitos road at about 2:00. It's pretty much the same: nicely paved for the first 32 km; mucho potholes for the next stretch, then the pavement's gone for 10 miles or so north of Puertecitos. I'm beginning to wonder if the Baja government is ever going to repair this road to its pre-Nora condition. We cruised through Puertecitos after driving about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Near Campo La Costilla, I stopped to air down. The Big House at Campo La Costilla was for sale the last time we were down there. It now looks as if it has been sold.
Continuing down the Gonzaga road, the condition of it was likewise about the same: trashed by the Baja 1000. The part through the mountains isn't too bad, but once out on the Huerfanito flats and across arroyo Agua Dulce, washboard prevails. I kicked up a rock and whacked the ornamental thing over one of my rear wheel wells. I pulled it off. The damage wasn't bad; I'll just need to get a few new clips.
We arrived at camp around 5:00, set the place up and had dinner. The next day, we tidied things up, and got the boat ready. Some residual swells persisted, however, the weather was pleasantly warm and calm. A big west wind had been blowing for quite some time before our arrival. Loncho told us that he was surprised Eddie's camper wasn't in the ocean. Later, Kenny of Encantadas told us that the wind speed registered 74 MPH on his neighbor's anemometer. High tide came late, so we launched it around 3:00 PM. Eddie and Donna arrived close to 4:00. At low tide, I photographed a Reddish Egret stalking fish in its peculiar manner. Here, it posed for me.
His buddy, the American Oystercatcher snoozed nearby.
The tides were running such that if we wanted any clams, we needed to get them early in the trip. Sunday, we headed down to Punta Arenas (Alfonsina's) at around 9:00. As usual, we were stopped by the military checkpoint north of Papa Fernandez' village. The machinegun-toting teenager manning his post took down my name and license plate number. Clamming in the estero was good enough. We filled a little over half of a 5-gallon bucket in about an hour. On the way back, we stopped at the store at Rancho Grande and filled up a couple propane tanks. I stopped near the Gonzaga Divide and snapped this picture of some badlands.
In the other direction, the alluvial plain from Punta Bufeo to Los Delfines spread out panoramically ahead of us.
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That night, on the beach, one of our neighbors went by in a sand rail.
The next day, calm seas continued, so we headed out to the seamount. The water was a yukky green, as the spring cycle in the Sea of Cortez appeared to be in full swing. Sometimes the April fishing is spectacular (see April 2000 trip), other times, it's downright abysmal. This trip was closer to the latter than the former. The seas were picture perfect at the Seamount.
We trolled from the Seamount past North La Poma. I shot the Spire off North La Poma. You can see the green yukkiness in this photo.
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