Friday, March 6, 2015

Visiting Cabo Pulmo National Park

DCIM\100GOPROOur final day trip of the bottom of the Baja peninsula took us from La Paz to the East Cape’s Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park.  Established in 1995, its mission is to preserve one of the finest examples of live coral reef in Mexico (and one of the best diving destinations closest to the U.S.).

As we turned off the 4-lane highway headed to Cabo San Lucas and Todos Santos, the road leading to the east cape was decidedly less crowded.

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Well, all except for the occasional cow crossing the road!

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This part of the cape is sparsely populated by humans (except for the small beach town of Los Barriles), and is much “wilder” and mountainous.  As we reached the national park boundary south of Los Barriles, our 2-lane paved highway turned to sand.  Thank goodness for 4-wheel-drive!

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After about 10 miles, we arrived to the small village of Cabo Pulmo, but it seemed most of the residents were probably out leading diving tours (that originate from there), as the town itself seemed rather deserted at mid-day.  So we continued a few miles further south to a scenic swimming beach that La Paz friends Wendy and Bobby had highly recommended—Playa Los Frailes.

Upon paying a small entrance fee (to cover costs of the trailer they have set up behind the beach that provides flush toilets and changing rooms), we unloaded the Tracker and headed to the beach.  Take a guess who was the first one to race into the water!

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As Millie swam, Hans and Ursula walked up the rocky beach to check out some of the tide pools.

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The beach from this direction, was pretty impressive.

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We had heard that there was good snorkeling just off the shore, and indeed, saw this group of hunky, half-dressed men returning from their adventure as we headed to check it out.

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The winds and waves were now starting to pick up, so it was decided that just Ursula and I would get suited up for a snorkel, and Millie would need to stay behind with Hans.  She was not too happy with this decision!

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Ursula and I found a small opening amongst the rocks that was somewhat protected from the surf, so we carefully navigated the slick rocks in our water shoes to head into the water.

What lurked just offshore beneath the surface was incredible-- lots of interesting, colorful small fish!

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And some plant life as well--

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I wished we could have taken the boat snorkeling tour further offshore to see the actual reef, but that adventure will need to wait for another trip.  It was now late afternoon and we needed to bid a fond farewell to Playa Los Frailes to begin our 2 hour drive back to La Paz.

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Along the way, we spotted this enormous example of a Cardón, the largest species of cactus in the world that are native to Baja and Sonora.  While it’s hard to get a sense of the size of this one, it was certainly over 40 feet tall-- that’s a 2-lane paved highway just to the left of it!

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As we came back down out of the highlands, the sky was putting on quite a show to end the day.

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With one more hour still left to drive to La Paz, I was now breaking one of the cardinal rules for Mexican travel—driving at night!  Fortunately, we had made it back to the 4-lane divided highway by that time and had plenty of other cars around us, with the added bonus of getting to see the carnival all lit up as we finally arrived back into town!  What a day!

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13 comments:

  1. Absolutely love that first picture. What beauty! Thanks for sharing your Baja sojourn. Hugs to Millie.

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    1. Yeah, that first shot was with the GoPro. That's actually the spot we entered the water to go snorkeling!

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  2. I agree with John, the first picture is absolutely gorgeous. Your pictures bring back childhood memories of when my parents would take us kids down that long coast on dirt roads to those beautiful beaches, over 60 years ago. It was so crude then but am so glad my parents did it.

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    1. I can't imagine how pristine it must have been back then. What adventures you must have had! I've heard some tell me that Baja is the same in some places as it was in the 70's, so perhaps some of your childhood places are still untouched as well!

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  3. I agree with the others, that first shot is absolutely stunning. Millie sure seemed to enjoy herself on that day, and boy did she give you a stink eye when she had to stay with Hans as you went snorkeling. From all of your posts you had a wonderful time in the Baja area.

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    1. Actually, I think Millie probably thought we were crazy for trying to snorkel amidst waves crashing into the rocks. Hans said she kept a sharp eye on us the whole time!

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  4. Millie's face is so expressive. She can make me laugh out loud and she can make me cry. Bless her sweet heart. Love this. Thank you both.

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    1. And I thought I was the only one who thought that! She really one of a kind (to me, at least).

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  5. Great photos. Loved the underwater ones especiallyt.

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    1. Thanks! Snorkeling was quite addictive, especially with the GoPro camera!

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  6. Love your adventures...and Millie!

    Which model of GoPro do you use?
    Is it complicated to edit?
    Do you use it for both stills and video?

    Thank you for sharing!

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  7. Awesome Adventure. Yeah, this place is one of the Best Diving Destinations outside the US. The Underwater pictures are really great. This Summer I am waiting for my Snorkeling adventure with my friends. Need to check the conditions of my Snorkeling Gear before diving. Keep Posting Great Content.

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  8. Have a special scuba diver in your life? Surprise them with one of the Scuba Gear Packages we offer to see their face light up. No matter what the skill level of your significant diver, we have a scuba gear package for them.

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