Kayaking Bahia Concepcion

All week we felt like little kids awaiting the trip to Disneyland and we could not hardly stand the waiting. Rather than dusting of mouse ears though, we spent the week prepping our kayaks and making sure we had all of our gear ready to go and spent more time researching the area for possible areas to explore. Thursday we got the car packed up and parked it with the Kayaks strapped down and ready for the early AM departure. Waking up still feeling like excited little kids we made our way down stairs jumped in the car and headed out. The drive to Mulegé was un-eventful in the way of troubles, but man, what a beautiful drive  it was, and even though it took 11 hours it only felt like maybe five. The terrain constantly changing, the road winding, the little villages, towns and homes in the middle of now where keeps your attention and really dose make the trip go by fast.

A little adventure before Breakfast at Buena Ventura

Mulegé is a small little oasis that sits on the shores of the Sea of Cortez, and it has a very pretty river that runs through it and palm trees all over. We checked into a hotel and headed out for dinner at Dony’s Mexican Restaurant–good food too. We woke up that morning and eventually got around to driving out to just check things out. I pulled a dead Dolphin out of the sand, went out for Breakfast, and explored some of the camp sites. After talking to some nice people at El Coyote campsite we thought to ourselves “What are we doing wasting our money at the hotel when we can be camping at this beautiful beach!” So we packed up and set up camp at El Coyote Beach and made it out Base Camp.

Our first Camp at El Coyote Beach

We truely use our SUV as a,,,,SUV

We spent Sunday driving out on some dirt roads that took us to the East Side of the Bahia (Bay) and drove through the Sonora Cactus Forest and saw lots of interesting things, such as and abandoned house, a lone sail boat, and a

We even have some video of this guy chowing down

young Osbrey feeding on a fish.

That night we headed to Ana’s for dinner, but we walked into an RV caravan club that was there for dinner. Now ya gotta know that most people we ran into were much older than us, you could say it was like hanging out with our parents, but man, these caravaning Senior Citizens Rocked Ana’s! They danced to all the tunes I danced to when I was in High School—-it was a trip. Being that they ate all the rib specials we decided to head out and head back into Mulegé for dinner. Later that night I had wished that we at least dance a little, so I parked the car just so, tuned the MP3 player to Stan Getz, and we slow danced under the umbrella of Stars, and to the sounds of water lapping up on to the shore—yea, I guess you could say it was a little romantic.

The next day it was up and atom as we packed our kayaks and headed out

Day 3, Sunset at our new camp.

for some unknown location. We say that because we really did not know where we were going to set up camp. We paddled to one beach but you could tell it was not really open to the public as the rumors of development was seen and confirmed. We continued south until we found this rocky shore line that had a dry river bed that ran up to the rocks. It looked like a smashing place to set up camp, so we paddled up, unpacked, set up our tent and canopy and Whaaa Laaa–Hollenbeck’s Hideaway! We were a few miles from any road, we could barely see any lights from shore at night, and sometimes we’d hear or see another boat, so yea, we were alone.

This was so cool seeing the shore line light up. We threw rocks in to get this shot.

That night we had a special gift from God above as the plankton were washing up on the rocky beach and they we doing their florescent thing and shore line became alive with glowing lights. It virtually looked like an underwater city! It was totally AWESOME, and not to mention all the stars above as there was no moon. Although we had a fire going it almost seemed to take away from what the night sky had to offer and of course the light show that was taking place on the shore line.

We spent the next few mornings waking up real early,,,,like 5 30 am early in order to give ourselves time to get on the water before the sun came up. The sunsets were out of this world and what better way to view it but from your kayak while paddling on glassy still water. It was a very peaceful time on the water because all you could hear was the ripples of the water as our kayaks passed over the water. At times you would hear the screech of an Osprey and then hear the whisk of a flock of Pelicans pass by. One morning we even had our very own Dolphin show as a large pod of Dolphins were feeding right off shore from where we were camping. We got to witness how they hunted down food and then would call out for the rest of the pod to Come And Get It! We’d watch as the mother Dolphins would guide the young to the breakfast fest.

It's about 6 30am and we're headed to Pear Beach

One day (Wednesday I believe) we paddled about 3 miles to Playa Perla (Perl Beach) and cooked breakfast and had a nice cup of coffe. We talked with a couple that was riding their bikes from TJ to Cabo San Lucas, and then flying home to Germany. We also talke with folks from Canada and the US. It for sure warmed up quick and it was soon time to take a dip into the tourqouise waters, and then take a snooze on the white sand beach. I eventually took what was to be my last dip in the water as when I was out there I could see the BLUE line in the horizon, which means,,,,the wind is coming. We quickly packed up out day supplies and headed out and by this time the winds were at about 10-12 mph and there were “Yahoo’s” as we paddled

We made it to this little shore line and could not believe how rough the conditions really were. You don

through small whitecaps, but eventually things got very serious as the winds kicked up to about 25 mph and the small whitecaps were deffinatly breaking over our kayaks. There is much to explain, but basically we had to continue on out course which was really no where near land, and tuning around would only put us in danger of tipping our Yaks over, so we just cranked and cranked them Yaks. We eventually got close to the point we were shooting for and we were able to feather our rudders that allowed us to eventually beach out kayaks and wait out the winds. Needless to say it was good to get ourselves out of the situation.

Ray got promoted from Camp watchdog to Ray the Navigator

On Thursday we got up early again, but tired from that long paddle in the open bay with them 25 mph winds and whitecaps. We sadly broke camp, packed up out kayaks and headed north, but not without out saying thank you to our little hideaway and the little creatures that kept us company,,,,oh yea, we never told you about Ray the Watch Ray,,,,anyway. We paddled north and headed to El Coyote Island, and there is a small white sand beach that’s about 200 yards long and is surrounded by rocky cliffs, but it it sure is beautiful. We set up camp again and by then we were ready to test the waters. As we walked in you could feel the cold water below, but also the warm water on the top and the water

Our own little private Beach Isla El Coyote, but there are no Coyotes there, just rocks

was very clear as well. We also took the kayaks out to just sit and watch the many Angel Fish, Sting Rays, and other fish move about. By this time we had some visitor come in by boats and we eventually made our way over to see what they were doing. As it turned out they were Claming and they showed us how to do it, and before you knew it we had a bag full of clams.

The winds did kick up a bit but this meant a couple things,,,those not camping on the beach had to leave as you never want to get

Debbie loving her day on Isla El Coyote.

stuck on a beach when you are not prepared for it, no one goes out on the water when the winds kick up, and so what this meant for us is,,,,,,we were all alone on the beach with no one coming back for the rest of the day. It was,,,,,,,,,GREAT! The sun was still warm, we could still swim and play in the water, and did I mention we were all alone?

That night we somewhat of a mix,,,,,Richmore Freeze Dried Food and Fresh Clams. We cooked the clams in white wine/beer mix and dipped them in a butter, garlic, salsa mix—Truly heaven. Debbie love them so much she even went out for more clams, but in the buff.

We eventually made it back to the car and meet up with the friends we had made there at El Coyote and shared of our adventure and before you knew it our Kayaks were back up on the car and we were headed for Gerrero Negro where our Whale Watching Adventure awaited us.  Our time in Bahia Concepcion was many things to us, it was a time of rest, romance, adventure, and at times a bit scary, but we miss it and we plan to go back and look for new adventures in Baja.

Oh yea,,,,Ray the Watch Ray. On the beach was a washed up sting ray that had been skinned and dried, so we put him up on our canopy to watch over the camp while we were out Paddling and man, he did a great Job! Thanks Ray the Watch Ray.