Couple of Months Traveling Through Baja

[Every Miles A Memory]

Sorry, just got home from driving the few hundred miles up to Tallahassee to get our beer & wine license for our tiki bar.

I'll get back to uploading this adventure

[Every Miles A Memory]

Sunday

I'd like to start by saying that I'm sorry that I haven't been around for the past few days, but I haven't really felt like putting anything in the blog. I try and never be negative, so that's why I haven't been typing much.



See, after that first time we went out with the flying mobulas on the Sea of Cortez, I couldn't stop thinking about getting back out there and trying to get even better shots than our first attempt.

We had gone down to the beach a few different times, but each time there would be either no flying rays, or the water was too rough to paddle out in our kayaks.

Cindy and I really wanted to go out in the kayaks to try and get real close up to these wild creatures that jump right out of the water for no apparent reason. We both thought it would be just out of this world to be paddling this close to something so out of the ordinary. Or I should say, that I thought it would be cool. Cindy kept saying that she didn't want to do it incase anything would happen to us, or worse yet, one would hit one of our kayaks, causing us to tip over and the camera gear would take a salt water swim.



Well on Sunday afternoon, we heard the water was pretty calm, so we drove the truck down to the beach and unloaded the kayaks. Cindy said right away, "There is a pretty good chop on the water, so I'm not bringing my camera along!"

I decided that I'd bring my Canon 1D camera body, her big Canon 28-300 L lens (Her pride and joy) and my 580EX flash, because I wanted to try a few different things with lighting to see if I could get a different look. Like I said, this is all I had thought about for the past few days. When you've got that photography bug as bad as I do, it tends to control your thoughts.

So I got Cindy loaded up and out into the water. A beach entrance on a kayak can be tricky because of the fact that you have no way to get into the kayak with anything on the ground to hold it steady. So once she was in and paddling towards the giant school of jumping mobulas, I finished loading up my kayak, (I was bringing extra compact flash cards and all 3 of my camera batteries because we planned on being out for awhile) and I finally started to get into the water.



The waves were coming in mildly, and I had to walk my 14' kayak into waist deep water to get in so the entire boat would be off the shore. The camera was sitting in my deck bag, a bag that is water resistant nylon, to keep splashing water off of it, but not waterproof by any means.

As I was crawling into the boat, a nice wave came and knocked me off my balance which made the camera start to teeter. I lunged for the camera just in time to grab it before it went into the ocean. What happened next was enough to make a grown man cry!



The momentum of me diving for the camera and not being stabilized by anything but the boat, had me way off balance. I was trying to recover without tipping the whole thing over, but after a few minutes of looking like a drunken penguin, the worst case scenario happened. [/COLOR]

I went in the drink with camera in hand.

I think time stood still for a few seconds as I was underwater thinking "Hopefully this is just a bad dream and I'll wake up having just wet the bed or something bad like that!" But when I put my feet down and pushed up on the sand, I instantly came back to reality knowing that I had just ruined close to $8,000 worth of camera gear in a few seconds.

All our gear is high quality gear, and is supposed to be able to handle splashes and some rough handling, but nothing short of a $1500 water-tight case can protect a camera from full submersion in salt water.

I came shooting up out of the water and was practically running on the top of the waves. I made it to the truck in record time and set the camera on the hood when I realized the keys were in my deck bag which was still upside-down on the kayak.

I ran back into the ocean, dove under water to retrieve the flash, my two batteries that were now floating on the bottom like a couple of rocks and right the upside down kayak itself.

OH MY GOD, how could this possibly happen?

The next few minutes probably looked comical to anyone standing on the shore watching me run back and forth to the truck like I was a paramedic returning to the ambulance for rescue supplies. At this point, Cindy was still paddling out towards the jumping fish I wanted so badly to take pictures of, and was clueless to my sheer and utter panic.

As I was trying to frantically dry everything off on the front seat of the truck, I heard Cindy yell, "Hey DumbA$$, your kayak is starting to float out to sea!" She hadn't seen any of it and was just thinking I was still standing at the truck getting ready to paddle out. Little did she know, that her camera lens, the one that she had said "Why do you have to bring my lens out? You had better not let anything happen to that or else!" was now having salt water poured out of it.



I could feel needles popping out of my spine not wanting to turn around from the safety of the truck and have her see all my gear on the seat, filled with a thick salty residue. High Dollar batteries popping and hissing because of the salt water reacting with them.

When I finally did turn around and she realized I was soaking wet, I saw her face go white with fear. Her lips started trembling as she said "Tell me you didn't tip over already!"

I just stood there knowing I was at fault. Why on earth hadn't I taken the half hour to get our Pelican Boxes out of the storage bins? The ones that hold the camera gear dry and protected on the deck of the kayaks. I normally go through the hassle of getting out all this extra equipment, but I had become so cocky after the last month of paddling these calm ocean currents, that I thought "Why go through all that hassle every time when you never tip over?"

I swear, I just wanted to sit and cry right there in the sand. Now of all people, I will be the first to say "It's just a piece of equipment, I know I can replace it!" But we're in Mexico, it's hard to even find a place to buy batteries, let along a camera repair shop or even a camera shop in the first place.

When Cindy finally paddled back and got out of her boat, I thought she was going to come up and knock my head off my shoulders. She just walked up and looked at all the gear with her lip trembling and said "OH MY GOD, I told you this would happen! You've ruined our trip!" There it was, the proverbial "I Told You So!"

Just as she was saying that, I started to take the battery out of the camera and about a quart of salt water just poured out when the battery door opened. That was just the icing on the cake, and she stormed off to walk home. I was honestly thinking she'd walk all the way home to Michigan at this point.

I said what I always say in a predicament like this, "Cindy, it's just a materialistic item, we can replace it!" But she wanted no part in my calming down speech, and kept waking down the sandy shoreline towards our campground.



So here I was left on the beach with all this ruined camera gear sprawled out around the truck trying to dry. I loaded up the kayaks, and if things couldn't get worse then they already were, while trying to back out, I buried the truck in the sand.

Remember the part about a grown man crying, well short of tears streaming down my face, I was as close as you could get to fully bawling my eyes out. While getting a full lesson in humility, I got out and aired down the tires as low as I could, and spent the next half hour digging myself out.

By the time I pulled back up to the street, Cindy was walking the dogs towards the truck when she asked "So how long were you stuck for?" I just gave her a look....you know, one of those looks, and drove right past her letting her walk the few blocks back to the camper.

By the time she walked back to the campground, she had cooled down enough and apologized for yelling so bad at the beach. She said, "You're right, they are just materialistic things, and they can be replaced; so lets forget about it till we get back to the United States and can send them back to Canon to get fixed."

Then she added one more stab to the gaping open wound when she said, "And don't plan on using my camera now that you've ruined yours!"

The rest of the night I don't think we said two words to one another, which is hard when you live in 200 square feet of space. I spent the night with a fan blowing on all of my gear, and tried to wipe everything down as best I could. I washed down my wounded ego with a bottle of Cazadores and did my best to put this past me.

I'm almost positive it's all a lost cause, but what else was I to do? I just couldn't stop thinking about how stupid I was and why hadn't I gotten out the waterproof boxes? This would be the second time in only a month I've gone against two of my own rules. Don't rush, and do it right the first time.

Last time I did something in a hurry, I tore off the rear scissor jacks while trying to pull out as fast as I could. And rather than load the camera gear up the right way, I get cocky and think "I haven't tipped over in the last hundred times out on the water, why get out all that waterproof gear?" Then I go and tip over, and I don't have a single picture to show for it.

Needless to say, neither of us slept too good that night. We both stayed awake all night not saying a word to one another. I knew Cindy wanted to just scream at me, but what more was there to say when I already knew how stupid I was? She knew I felt like that too, so except for continued apologies from me, there was nothing more to say.

[Every Miles A Memory]

Tuesday

We had planned on going out on a fishing trip to try and take some pictures with one of Congo's Awesome Sport Fishing guide boats today, and being as neither one of us really slept much last night, I was up and getting stuff ready by 6am.



Cindy had already been up for a few hours and was working on the computer.

I asked if she was coming, to which she replied, "No you go by yourself, I think I need some time away from you today." So I apologized again, and grabbed her camera and a few more lenses and headed for the docks. Hopefully I would be able to stay above the water today.

Theresa, the owner of the campground and sport fishing service said she had one boat going out that only had one gentleman chartering it with a young man going along, and that was who I was going out with. So I introduced myself to Richard and Eric, and we headed away from shore with a light fog hanging over the water.



While the 1st mate was rigging the rods and getting the boat prepped, Richard and I made small talk and got to know one another. That's just what I needed was something to get my mind off of what had happened yesterday.

Besides, there is no use in crying over spilt milk as they say.



It was within the first 45 minutes when we heard a line get snapped from the outrigger and we knew we had "Fish On!" as the 1st Mate was running for the reels.



The rest of the day was spent with Richard and Eric reeling in numerous Dorado, Richard landing a small Mako Shark, and Eric fighting a 150lb Marlin for about 45 minutes. Needless to say, it was a good day on the water.

On our ride back in; we were 20 miles out at one point, we spotted pods of dolphin, a few sea lions, and one Humpback Whale that kept breaching far out of the water.

Richard was kind enough to give me a steak from each fish they had caught, which just about stuffed our freezer full with today's fresh catch. The rest was going to be donated to the local elementary school here in Los Barriles where Eric's mother and father teach.



I guess Richard has been coming down here for years now, and has sort of adopted Eric to help him with his schooling and education. Each year Richard makes a large donation to this school to try and help them out with food and supplies. He told me that he also works for Pepsi Co., and what ever he donates, Pepsi has agreed to double the donation. So last year they gave the school close to $15,000 dollars in much needed support!!!

He explained the Mexican government only gives the school $50 per month to feed the kids, and the rest is up to the children and their own families to provide. So even though they normally wouldn't keep the 150lb Marlin, they thought that the 100 lbs of meat they would get off of it would be greatly appreciated by the local school kids.



We all agreed that normally we preach Catch and Release, but since this was going to such a good cause, it was justified.

I know when I got home and showed Cindy the large portion of meat I had gotten in exchange for a copy of all the pictures I had taken, she had a smile on her face.

Neither of us had any idea how to cook the Mako, so Cindy went and asked Theresa how to prepare it.



Teresa said "I think you put it in some corn meal, if you know what that is?" Cindy laughed and said "Girl, I was raised in Tennessee, we used Corn Meal in our diapers instead of talcum powder!"

So Cindy rolled the Mako in a corn meal batter and fried it up and man, oh, man was it delicious. Some of the most tender meat I've ever eaten in my life. Not fishy tasting at all.

By this point, we were both over the camera mishap, and agreed to try and not bring it up anymore. It was a hard lesson learned, and one I know I wont forget for a long time.

Side Note: As this was posted in our blogs back in 2008 when we made this trip, we were flooded with emails from various groups chastizing us eating the Mako Shark that was caught.

We had no idea the Mako was an endangered species and we probably wouldnt have eaten it if we knew that.

We've both always said that we try and follow what the locals do when we're traveling. When in the South fried catfish and Collared Greens, when in Cali, its all organic and earth foods...LOL So when in Mexico and they're grilling up the local caught fish, we gobbled it up. Its safe to say if it didnt taste so damn good, it probably wouldnt be endangered

[swampjeep]

thanks for sharing, I enjoyed the write up, and am tryign to figure out how to get there myself after reading a few stories of Baja Mex.

[1speed]

Sorry, just got home from driving the few hundred miles up to Tallahassee to get our beer & wine license for our tiki bar.

I'll get back to uploading this adventure

Might be time to come and visit again!

[Every Miles A Memory]

Give us a week or so to get everything squared away and it should be a good time to visit. Meeting with Beer & Wine Reps this week and having a fireplace built out in the tiki bar next week to take the chill off the night air and it should be ready to kick back and talk custom campers

[meafordmike]

Give us a week or so to get everything squared away and it should be a good time to visit. Meeting with Beer & Wine Reps this week and having a fireplace built out in the tiki bar next week to take the chill off the night air and it should be ready to kick back and talk custom campers

Does this mean when were there, we maybe will be able to kick back by the tiki bar?

[BajaGeoff]

Great trip report Pat! The photos are great...especially of the flying rays. So sorry your camera gear went for a swim though.

[LaOutbackTrail]

Nice ! Still enjoying it.

[Every Miles A Memory]

Does this mean when were there, we maybe will be able to kick back by the tiki bar?

Hopefully the fireplace and kinks will be worked out by then. We can talk about a future Baja Excursion

Great trip report Pat! The photos are great...especially of the flying rays. So sorry your camera gear went for a swim though.

Thanks Geoff, everything happens for a reason and although it sucked so bad at the time, we had insurance on the gear and got everything replaced once we got back to the states.

It ended up being a good thing because I was able to move up to a Canon 5D which I still own and love.

Nice ! Still enjoying it.

Thanks. More to come as son as I get a chance to sit down for more than a few seconds at a time. It gets much more EXPO related during our 2nd month. So stay tuned