Baja Multisport

Comments about REI Adventures Baja Multisport:

Our guide Santiago really made this trip special with his knowledge and good humor. I really appreciated how he sorted everything out for us and made the experience seamless.

Everyone at the hotel was very nice and accommodating and we enjoyed the food and nightly margaritas. For me it was a perfect mix of daytime activity with evening relaxation.

Visiting Baja felt like a great way to maximize a vacation because it felt remote but was easy to travel to.

The packing list was accurate. I made the mistake of bringing a baseball hat instead of a wide-brimmed hat so I did not have neck protection. It was sunny all of the time so consider that in your packing.

This was a great "starter" adventure trip and it gave me an appreciation for sea kayaking which was brand new to me. I would recommend this trip to anyone who wants to spend a day paddling, hiking or biking in the sun and celebrate each night over a rich, tasty dinner.

Comments about REI Adventures Baja Multisport:

We are a family of 4, two teen age boys and my husband and me. We had a wonderful time with eachother and particularly with the other group members and the guides. The guides were excellent. Wonderful senses of humor and amazing knowledge of the trip and the environment. We got the feeling from the group that we all would like to have had more strenuous activity but the itinerary did not allow for that. Overall, we gave it a 3 out of 5 which would have been higher if the activity level was higher.

Comments about REI Adventures Baja Multisport:

A multi activity Holiday by the Sea of Cortez in Baja California Sur

The truck lurched and grumbled to a halt in pitch blackness and before the afterglow of headlights and dashboard glimmer had faded, we spilt out of the cab with its tangles of wiring and chargers, radios, gps and assorted electronica and its strangely reclined bench seat. All purposeful yet sleepy and oddly focused we stumbled about getting the boats in the water and ourselves into the boats and then seemingly within minutes were out upon the sea, paddling quietly away from the coast, heading for the dark irregularity of Isla Santa Fardo. It was just past six o'clock in the morning, dawn would be in half an hour or so, Santiago reckoned we could be most of the way across by then. In the meantime the sea was warm, dark and glossy and passed beneath the boats like gentle folds of ruffled silk. Behind us to the West the rocks of highest peaks of the coastal range began to catch a deep red glow. 'Just so beautiful.' breathed Liz, as a chevron of early pelican creaked overhead crossing the bay toward some promising diving ground.

It wasn't yet the second day of our stay at the Hotel Tripui Inn situated just outside Puerto Escondido a truly hidden port (not to say lost) nestled into a fold of the cliffs some twenty miles south of Loreto, which is itself a small resort town on El Mar Cortes, but smack dab in the middle of one of the largest UNESCO world nature parks in the world. Yesterday we had had our introduction to sea kayaking, some pretty thorough instruction together with an introduction to the gear, how to wear it and use it, paddle it and what to do if things went awry and then we were off up the coast, gazing in awe either through the warm air to the desert coastline or out to the myriad islands on the horizon that seemed to float above the sparkling sea. Or there again we looked down through clear waters at tropical fishes or sudden roilling turbulences that Santiago indicated might be ray or sailfish or the shadowy shape of a turtle big as a table just curving away down through the depths. Or all about, at the birds coursing the upper airs or diving about us. That is when I took a moment from my struggle to bend muscles and mind into getting the paddles to lightly push us through the water whilst keeping the canoe itself on course for our next landmark.

That first day we lunched in a cove up the coast beyond Puerto Escondido. Lunch that is, after another swift but comprehensive intro. This time into the art of snorkelling and where the best fishes could be spotted and off we had gone cruising beneath those limpid depths. Lunch was just something Santiago magicked up out of the watertight lockers in the boats. A Table appeared with various bowls, a chopping board, then a delicious and refreshing entrée of sliced Jicama in lime juice and salt, tuna and a salad of onion, tomato, avocado for a main course washed down with tins of sweet mango or peach drinks and biscuits for a sweet then washing up and strict injunctions about the trash. Jicama is a grown in the south of Mexico. A turnip sized fruit like a cross between water chestnut and potato and melon, sweet and crisp and hearty too.

Paddling back to our beech side headquarters (a little doggedly now) but helped enormously by a following breeze that had begun to blow out of the North during the late afternoon, Santiago had suggested that we might like to be up early in the morning to catch the dawn on the sea? 'Great idea!' we chorused enthusiastically, especially with the promise that we would be back at the hotel in time for another sumptuous Tripui breakfast. So, at the hotel that evening with newly wakened muscles once more calmed after a late afternoon dip in the pool, showered and refreshed and just slightly anaesthetised from what was to become the traditional pre-dinner Margaritas, we discussed the following day's activities and agreed once more to be up and ready for our sunrise outing.

In the quiet before the Sun had raised the island, we swapped half remembered tales of Inca and Aztec sun worship, of journeys and other times that had found us awake and waiting before the dawn. But now here we were resting on our paddles as all around us an everyday miracle of energy, of light and shade and the silhouettes from distant islands and a mirror calm sea and the now distant desert landscape and mountain ranges seemingly set on fire by the early sun, exploded on our senses.

Earlier, driving the rough unmade road down to the sea, through cactus and flowering desert thorn we had seen Jack rabbit and chipmunk heading for their lairs after the long night, Now, paddling back to the beach, with the Sun sudden and hot upon our backs, we watched the dawn wildlife. The night shift clocked off and the beasts and birds of the day took advantage of these first bright cool moments of the new day. Birds out for the fishing, Cormorants, Pelicans, and Brown Gannets each diving according to their individual techniques. Birds out for the hunting and the opportunity, Osprey and Frigate birds, Seagulls and Turkey-necked Vultures. Bright yellow mariposa! Miles from land. Bright yellow butterflies heading goodness knows where. Tiny Fish, sardine-like in shoals fluttering the calm rippled water. Medium-sized fish, Skip Jack about eighteen inches long , fat and silver, leaping, as though to catch the Sun, or just leaping for the joy of crashing down through to the natural waters, Great fish, sail fish or Dorado rocketing and bouncing across the surface for all the world like some early demented Jet skier. Off in the distance between the islands Santiago thought to see Dolphin or small Whales.

In the Nineteen forties, John Steinbeck and his long time friend Ed Ricketts a marine biologist hired an out of season Monterey fishing smack, loaded it up with books and tanks, nets and surveying gear and lots of beer and with a crew of hard-bitten Californian fishermen sailed down the coast of California and of Mexico to enter the Gulf of California aka the Sea of Cortez and made a study of the marine life and the varieties of habitat to be found in this six hundred mile long strip of water. Steinbeck records the adventure together with various philosophical musings in his book 'The Log of the Sea of Cortez'. Amidst many adventures and encounters he relates how at various times they met with Indian travellers on the voyage, these travelling in well made canoes which had been formed from single pieces of wood, and in which they would range the whole coast of the sea both mainland Mexico and Baja California. Here we were, novices in our modern state of the art canoe/kayaks taking part in that same experience, whilst our guide Santiago and his girlfriend had earlier this year we learnt , paddled the entire length of the sea in an epic forty two day camping and canoeing trip from the Pacific to the northerly reaches of the Sea.

We met Santiago at the airport at Loreto after our two hour flight down from a grey and rainy Los Angeles. He was to be our guide, driver and cook as well as a delightful entertaining and knowledgeable dinner companion throughout the week. Originally trained as a marine biologist but with strong leanings toward a career as a Jazz drummer, we learned that he had found that work in the eco-tourism industry up and down the west coast of America and Canada allowed him to combine many of the passions of his life Canoe/kayaking, trail walking, cooking, wildlife and conservation with an easy-going life-style, which occasionally provided the time and money for him to make some big adventures of his own.

After breakfast back at the hotel, we went canyoning. Well Santiago said it was a hiking trail, and you had to admit there wasn't any water in the stream bed but canyoning was what it was. After the usual rough and ready off-road drive, we parked up in the bush, picked up the stream bed of what must be in times of flood and hurricane a good sized mountain river. We climbed over and under massive boulders and rock chokes, through tangled root systems and over small plains of graded pebbles gradually making our way up the mountain gully, all the time stopping to see some new plant or to try and spot some of the bird life that thrived all about us. And after a bit noting the high tide lines etched above us on the occasional cliff wall or narrow, A couple of hours up the trail we met a team of surveyors armed with modern equivalents of the theodolite and poles. They were it seems looking to dam or divert this trail which as we had come to suppose must readily threaten any habitation lower down on the plain. Lunch on the trail and a bit of a siesta followed by a slow return to our truck and then back to the Hotel.

Our week in Baja California Sur passed all too quickly, with day trips out to the islands for swimming, snorkelling and hiking, picnic meals on the beech or in the hills and evenings spent at the hotel recuperating over excellent and varied meals and the steadying Tequila cocktail. The itinerary on this multi-activity holiday provided opportunities for off road biking and hiking trips as well as sea kayaking and snorkelling, but this was the first trip of the season and with just the three of us on it and we had the flexibility to concentrate on our favourite activities. As it later transpired the road out to a small mountain village and the site of the best local hiking and trail riding in the area had been closed for repairs, so we looked again to the sea, and our week culminated in a motor boat trip to Isla Coronodo to visit a Sea Lion Colony, and to spot nesting Osprey and Blue-footed Booby clinging to the sea cliffs. A walk out on a trail across this comparatively recently quiescent volcanic island in the north of the Maritime park gave us some idea of the terrain and the tremendous variety of hardy plant and animal life that has taken root in the shallow new desert soil. Then it was back to the beech for another of Santiago's fine al fresco lunches, this time preceded by sea-fresh clam dug out of the sea bed during a brief snorkelling swim! Delicious!

Our last day in Baja we spent in Loreto, where we had had to stop over an extra night in order to catch Alaska Airlines scheduled flight back to LAX . We didn't go much for the Culture and History bit, with evidences and tales of Early Loreto as the Jesuit Beachhead that was to extend Mexican California north to Oregon. But Loreto did prove to be a nice sort of stopover. For one thing we got to walk the fine esplanade and beach areas of the seafront. We stopped and watched the fishermen's boats come and go. We stepped lightly round frowning distracted Heron's and Egrets both small and large.. Again and again we were astonished as squadron's of pelican kamikazed the waters all about. By chance our day there coincided with two seminal events. An international symposium of canoe/kayakers was taking place that week. There were demo's and talks, and try-outs for all the kids and even their parents down on the beech, and participants from all the America's and Europe too. Then there was the town's founding celebration fiesta, so we were entertained walking the tree-lined, vendor-boothed and decorated streets, and listening to the various free concerts that the town had mounted in the main square. I got to eat 'Parrot' fish (sea bass is now second on my list of fine fishes to eat). In a sea front restaurant the moon rose out of that very sea and we sat and listened to 'Maria Elena' at the hands of some pretty disreputable looking minstrels. All in all a fine culmination to our first visit to California Sur and to Mexico itself.

Alaska Airlines flies to Loreto from LAX twice a week, and there are internal flights available up and down the peninsula and across to the mainland. REI provides multi-activity holidays based at Puerto Escondido throughout the Winter season. The Tripui Inn at Puerto Escondido provides excellent accommodation, fine meals and generously proportioned Margaritas to the discerning traveller. In Loreto we recommend the Hacienda Suites Hotel.