Tag Archives: Sea Kayaking

My kayaking adventures

San Carlos and La Paz: The Last few days in Baja… 22nd to 25th of November

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On November 22nd after a good rest at Bill´s in Mulege we attempted to hitch to San Carlos… no such luck… we waited for 4 hours and took a bus. We enjoyed a few brews on route, made it to Ciudad Constitution and got some great rides and made it directly to the marine bilogy school where our couchsurfer staci was. We met her right away and she let us stay in our own wonderful Cabin (click any photo below to see whole album).

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The school she works for is SFS School for Field Studies. A program that is all over the world. We got to hang out with the safety manager and program director and talk about a new sea kayak program they are beginning to develop. We even got to go kayaking out in Madgelena Bay, check out the fish cannery and tons of birds and some mangroves where they were doing an experiment with small species of octopus. Very interesting program.

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We met some of the students and went Zumba dancing with them which is a form of salsa. it was quite fun!

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We did so much is so little time in San Carlos and got fed wonderful food with the great community they have there. We even got a ride with the program director to La Paz that evening and met up with our next couchsurfer Mabilia and her mother.

La Paz was just wonderful. We had a fantastic place to stay with fantastic people and went out and saw a mariachi band after a wonderful homecooked meal (click any photo below to see whole album).

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Our second day in La PAz and last day in Baja, Matiss, Mabilia and I tried to rent a catermeran but got shut down… we met this guy Carlos from the states who rented us his for pretty cheap and we went out ripping around the bay.

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It was a pretty windy day so sailing was intense and there was a currently and the boat was hard to control because the rutter was jimmi rigged together and was too flexi… But we made do… unfortunately we didn´t sail out to the whale shark zone because it was far too windy but enjoy the sunshine on the beach.

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We went back for another wonderful homecooked meal and went out for some drinks.

Matiss and I parted ways the morning of November 25th as i flew to Costa Rica and MAtiss flew back to Vancouver.

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Sea Kayaking the Sea of Cortez – Playa el Coyote to Loreto Nov 10-20th, 2010

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So everything worked out well. Matiss felt better, we had all our food, water, gear together and our fantastic couchsurfing host Bill in Mulege graciously offered to give us a ride down to the NOLS basecamp at Playa el Coyote in Bahia Concepcion. We showed up and found Ramon’s cousin Clemente who we couldn’t get a hold of to touch base earlier with but when we showed up he set us up with all the gear we needed. We set off by like 2pm on the 10th of November into the beautiful clear waters of Bahia Concepcion (click any photo below to see entire album).

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Matiss did quite a nice detailed entry of our trip fresh after it as he flew back to Canada when i flew to Costa Rica to start another crazy adventure on Karaka. Below is a great map he created showing our route with campsites and points of interest on a google map. (Also click here to view and read Matiss’s detail trip log on his website)

Click here for a google map of the kayaking route with labeled campsites and points of interest.

We had a hell of a time trying to get out of the bay with the strong prevailing north winds but we finally made it around and had several days of big water requiring us to have very early days and lots of afternoon time to explore the shoreline.

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We met up with Ramon and his NOLS course in San Nicholas, got some more supplies and made it around Punta Pulpito, one of the most exposed points in the Sea of Cortez.

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All in all we had a very excellent trip and made it to Loreto on the 20th of November, left the boats with Ramon’s other cousin Pingui (spanish for penguin) and bused back up to Mulege to stay with Bill again.

For more detail on the trip please read Matiss’s Blog:

http://matisslife.blogspot.com/2010/12/baja-odyssey-pt-3.html

http://matisslife.blogspot.com/2010/12/baja-odyssey-pt-4.html

http://matisslife.blogspot.com/2010/12/baja-odyssey-pt-5.html

http://matisslife.blogspot.com/2011/01/baja-odyssey-pt-6.html

tomorrow morning we attempt to hitch-hike to Puerto San Carlos to meet our next Couchsurfer Staci.

Mulege, Mexico… prepping for the sea kayak trip

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I am actually updating on the correct date for once…

So we had a slight change of plans… in my previous post Matiss and i were going to sail to La Paz from Cabo San Lucas. We came back from San Jose del Cabo all full of groceries and ready to go only to find out the captain had found other crew and decided to sail to Puerto Vallarta (PV) instead of La Paz with us… sucks but what can you do… since we were so set on the idea Matiss, Anna and i tried all day to find another boat to crew on to La Paz… Anna having a more open schedule and that she was a beautiful girl, had no problem finding a boat and found another space going to PV. Matiss and i kept trying but had no luck… we spent one more night at Anna’s place and helped her move out and we took a bus first thing in the morning to Mulege… i almost didn’t make the bus because i needed to get some pesos out from an ATM… i tried 4 before i found one 6 blocks away from the bus station and had to run back just in time to make the bus… The ride was 12 full long hours of desert and watching spanish/english dubbed movies and one movie with spanish subs but english commentary… no one seemed to notice but us…

We met an awesome mexican named Roberto from Ensenada taking the 22 hour + bus ride from Cabo to there… he knew good english and told us all about mexico and places to check out when he was a tour guide out of mexico city…

Bill, our host graciously waited and picked us up at the bus station… now to get ready to kayak for 10-12 days… got to spend the next few days getting ready… below see view from Bills house.

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Bill is an interesting couchsurfing host, a retired american he’s been living in Mulege for 11 years. He gave us a tour of the town and showed us the old jesuit mission that what built during the sad time of colonialism. Please click here to read Matiss’s much more in depth description of our experience in Mulege

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Mulege is a very interesting little town. It lies in a river valley and it quite lush. In September of 2009 they were devastated by hurricane Jimena and the entire state of Baja California Sur declared a state of emergency. They have started the reconstruction to move the town to higher ground but it isn’t nearly as nice as this quaint little village that is a beautiful oasis in the desert landscape of Baja California Sur.

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While we were getting ready for out trip Matiss was not feeling to good. Bill was kind enough to drive us around to all the super markets in town and i got most of our food together and organized for the coming trip. Hopefully Matiss feels better and we can get down to the NOLS branch in Playa el Coyote in Bahia Concepcion, get a hold of Ramon’s brother Clemente, get our boats, pack them and be off…