Trod Bogs Sadly – Oddstray's Blog

B writes: This morning we set off north of La Paz to see Playa Tecolote.  Having overcome one stretch of construction and a rather confusing junction, we arrived at one of the many beautiful beaches along the Sea of Cortez.  The water was unbelievably clear!  There’s a section of beach where you can rent a palapa (shade structure), and farther out a stretch of beach that appears to be completely free for boondocking.

Next we headed back south, with a short detour west to Bahia Balandra.  It was quite popular, probably because there was a small lake (or maybe a lagoon) that was, at its deepest, about waist deep.  Lots of families here.

Continuing south then eastward, we went to see Ensenada de los Muertos, located on the Bahia de los Suenos (there should be a tilde over the ‘n’).  B noted the possible Hamlet reference ( . . . to sleep, perchance to dream . . . ) but we have no idea if that’s real.  The modest Bahia de los Suenos beach club is here.  It seems to be mostly a beach restaurant.  We ate our picnic lunch here instead.

Came back to our centrally located hotel to find no street parking.  No problem – there’s a pay parking lot nearby.  We drove in and – they speak virtually no English and our Spanish is not at all sufficient.  We wanted to park tonight, take the van out tomorrow, and return tomorrow night.  They couldn’t decide how much to charge us.  They kept on changing the amount (mostly upward) until we finally agreed on an amount.  (Later that afternoon, they asked for yet more money; we said no.)

After a short rest at our hotel, we set out to walk to the Cathedral.  Our timing turned out to be almost perfect, because a wedding had just finished so we could peek in to the cathedral, and watch the wedding party take some last-minute photos in front of the cathedral.

From there we walked a few blocks farther to the Regional Museum of Anthropology and History.  Again, the host spoke no English, but combined with our insufficient Spanish we managed to understand each other.  And from his genial response to some of Simon’s comments, I think he spoke a bit more English than he admitted to.  There was a photo exhibit with some striking photos depicting life in Baja California Sur, along with words on the wall that seemed to be an ode to the state (best B could make out).  The rest of the museum depicts the human settlement of Baja California starting with humans crossing the frozen/lowered Bering Straits and migrating southward.  It showed how the people survived off the land, organized into bands.  First, when the peninsula was forested and verdant and had plentiful animals the people were hunter/gatherers.  As the peninsula became drier and turned into a desert, the bands chose a region and lived as best they could, using the sea to augment their lives.  It  described the importance of the shamans, who kept the knowledge of how to survive as well as how to heal.  It described the arrival of the Jesuits to the peninsula and how they overlapped the time of the shamans.