Baja Memories

I'll extend my theme about forgotten files from last week. For that post, I was complaining about how difficult it is to organize digital files, and how easy it is for great photos to slip through the cracks and get lost. This week, I'm focused on the pre-digital age. Remember that? Dealing with film, developing, prints, slides, etc. Yup, the good ol' days!

For four years in a row, our summer adventure was to drive down the Baja peninsula. We would camp on the beach and spend our days fishing, snorkeling and diving. It was just rough camping... no showers or electricity, and it was usually a group of us guys that went down (although wives went down one year). This was in the late '70s and early 80's, so a long time ago. Baja and Mexico in general was a different place back then.

The single road (Highway 1) that went down the Baja peninsula was always in bad shape back then. 1000 miles as the crow flies of huge potholes, washed out areas, detours, and cattle on the highway, which made travel at night a bad idea. Keep in mind, this road wasn't even paved until the end of 1973, so tourist travel down the peninsula was just developing and still relatively rare. Blown tires and even broken axles was a common occurrence. We would drive all day at slow speeds to dodge the potholes, and as it got dark, just pull over to the side of the road and make camp. I can't imagine doing that these days, but sleeping on the side of the road seemed perfectly acceptable back then!

For the first two trips we traveled about half way down the peninsula to a remote location called Punta San Francisquito. I haven't yet scanned slides from those trips. Almost nothing there at the time other than some beach cabanas for shade, a dirt runway and a small bar/restaurant. There were a couple locals that lived in the area full-time. It was mainly a destination that gringos would fly to for some of the best fishing on the peninsula. Very few people drove to the spot because it was 50 miles of nasty, difficult dirt road from the main highway. There was not gas station, but there were barrels of aviation fuel. If you got in a real bind, you could beg on of the locals to sell you some for your vehicle. You may or may not be successful! Driving there was not recommended, but when we heard how good the fishing was, there was no stopping us.

Even back then, I was interested in photography, so I was the unofficial photographer for our adventure travels. I also had an underwater housing and flash for my camera that I took along. I would shoot mainly Kodachrome so we could all get together and have a slide show party after getting back home. The photos I'll be posting today were scanned from slides from my Baja archives (of which there are many!). Kind of cool that the technology makes scanning slides easy, and the quality isn't too bad. The plastic slide sleeves are breaking down, making the slides sticky and attracting dust, so there's a bit of urgency to scanning them now before they are too far gone! 

Stops at the llantera (when you could find a town that had one) was not uncommon. Here you can see my wife and our friend Dave getting a tire repaired. I think this was in Guerrero Negro.

I think this was the hills above Bahia de los Angeles. This is Ron's dad, Ray, who joined us on one trip. If I had to guess I would say that's an old Super 8 video camera. Remember those? Quite a view from this spot! I remember we stopped and camped here for a couple days on one of our trips. It was nice because the side road leading into the area had just recently been paved, so we made good time getting in and out. This area had wide open beaches and very undeveloped back then. I'll bet that's not the case anymore!

My wife in front of an old funky trailer. I have no idea where this is.

My friend Ron, who was really the spark plug behind these trips, learned that there was only one place in the entire Sea of Cortez side of Baja with coral reefs. That place is called Cabo Pulmo, and the rumors back in the day (remember this was before internet) was that the fishing and diving were incredible. So after two summers visiting Punta San Francisquito, our third trip was all the way down the peninsula to check out Cabo Pulmo (yellow arrow on the map).

Ron's dad Ray with a freshly caught yellow tail! It never occurred to me at the time that it was unusual to catch these big yellow tail while fishing right off the beach. I think those days are (unfortunately) long gone.

The entire area was beautiful... very scenic! The beach was rocky, but we had the whole place to ourselves during the two trips we went down there. We simply pulled all the vehicles up on the beach and set up camp! Such awesome memories. That was my "Baja bug" that we used for exploring the beaches and other areas. It would go pretty much anywhere!

A couple of the locals chatting with Stu (blue shirt) at Cabo Pulmo. I believe this is looking down the beach to the south (ocean would be just beyond the cars on the left).

The view up the beach at Cabo Pulmo looking north. I think that's "Pulmo Point" in the photo. Not sure why the sky looks purple!

This image looks blurred on the edges for some reason, but that's me holding what looks to be a gargantuan lobster. I just remember the lobster were plentiful, as were the fish, and we ate like kings!

A simple beach campfire... Ron getting ready to grill fish and lobster for dinner as I look on. I'm trying to remember the story behind why he was wearing socks with flip flops. I think it had something to do with going barefoot on the rocks too much and having sore feet!

A late afternoon shot watching the sun set into the Pacific Ocean. Stu, Ron, Ron's dad Ray, and Dave. I would have been in my late 20's and remember thinking of Ray as "the old man" who seemed to know everything there was to know about camping and fishing. I'm older now than Ray was in this photo, so it certainly changes my perspective. I love the fact that he's the one using the sling shot. You can't take the boy out of the man, or whatever that saying is!

I'm somewhat saddened that when I google Cabo Pulmo now, the first things that come up are adds for Airbnb and beach resorts. When I look at the area on Google Maps, it looks very different (and much more developed) than "the good ol' days" when you could camp on the beach and have it all to yourself. On a more positive note, in 1995, Cabo Pulmo National Park was established. It's a national marine park that was established to protect this incredible marine ecosystem. Below is one of many, many photos I took while diving and snorkeling the reefs at Cabo Pulmo during our two visits.

"The complexity of the life pattern on Pulmo Reef was even greater that at Cabo San Lucas. Clinging to the coral, growing on it, burrowing into it, was a teeming fauna. Every piece of the soft material broken off, skittered and pulsed with life, little crabs and worms and snails. One small piece of coral might conceal 30 or 40 species, and the colors of the reef were electric."

John Steinbeck, The Log from the Sea of Cortez

Thanks for sticking with me for this long, rambling trip down memory lane! I've only scratched the surface of my slide archive, so I will be busy scanning away. I'm curious if others have scanned and organized all their old photos, slides, and negatives?

Linking with Skywatch Friday.