An East Cape Spring

Hiking at Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park

Catherine and I decided to return to Los Barriles in the spring to see the area at a different time of year and to have a less expensive alternative to our usual Playa Blanca trip in late April.   The weather in the spring was pretty perfect, we didn't even need the air conditioning at the condo.  The water temps were a bit cooler though so wetsuits were needed to spend much time in the water.  It was a good time of year to see the rays, each day the manta rays were jumping out of the water pretty much constantly wherever you happened to be. 

La Casa a Mar y Sol y el pueblo de Los Barriles

We had staying at Mar y Sol last fall and decided to stay there again this spring because they were a good central location, had great snorkeling right out the door, good fishing on the beach, and easy access to town and to Buena Vista for panga fishing days. 

The Living room/dining area	The large patio facing the water
The view north to Los Barriles

Los Barriles was in better shape than our last visit, the main road from Hwy 1 was now paved with a new entrance to the town at the intersection.  Of course the rest of the roads are still sand...

The new town entrance	Calle Los Barriles w/our rental car
The town "mall"	Main Street, good to see it is still dirt

 

Buen Esnorkleando

We did a lot of snorkeling on this trip, checking out a few new areas as well as doing some snorkeling in the rocks right outside the condo.   On Tuesday we went north of town towards Punta Pescadero.   It was 10K on dirt to Playa Coral but we started hitting rough road at 5K and happened to see the dive boat right offshore so we pulled over and decided to just do some snorkeling there.  It turned out to be a pretty good spot, better than the rocks in front of the condo.  My only problem was I kept seeing nice cabrilla and wanted to fish instead of snorkel. 

Our beach tent	Catherine coming out at the rocks

On Thursday we went to the Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park with the Vista Sea Sports people.  This park offered great snorkeling at Playa Iguana, an hour boat ride from the dive shop which was just a short walk down the beach from the condo.  We snorkeled around about an hour initially checking out the many fish and coral heads.  Afterwards we did a long hike down the cape to the end of the bay. 

Launching via the bulldozer	At Playa Iguana
Ready to go
The start of our hike
	The beach was aptly named
	Ending the hike back at Playa Iguana in the cove

After the hike we snorkeled a bit more and I went out to the panga to ask Luis if "es posible esnorklear con los leones marinaros hoy?"  He thought we would have time so we loaded up the boat and headed to Cabo Frailes and the sea lion colony there.  After checking out the sea lions Catherine and I went overboard and swam up to the rock where we were immediately greeted by one of the big mammals.  After a bit two more came in the water and it was pretty amazing, they came to check us out as we watched them.  They took off toward deeper water and we followed a bit,  I figured they would have to come up for air, but they kept swimming and we soon lost them so we headed back to the boat.

When we left the sea lions and started back north the wind had picked up significantly.  The ride was a bit rough, well pretty normal if you are used to fishing the Sea of Cortez but pretty rough if you weren't.  One woman was hurting pretty bad from the pounding so we got dropped off at Punta Arena to be picked up by a van and driven back to Buena Vista.  I figured we should just hunker down because it could be a while and was surprised when our "Lost" moment only lasted for about 20 minutes before a taxi showed up.   Here I was stranded on one of the best rooster fish beaches in the world without a fly rod.

Viaje a Santiago

On Friday the wind was still blowing like a banshee so we decided to go check out the small pueblo of Santiago about 25 minutes south of Los Barriles.   I was expecting a dusty little town in the desert, instead we found an oasis full of lush green fruit trees and streets filled with the laughter of children playing in the schools. 

The mission at Santiago	Alter in the mission
The alter of the Virgin
Main street running from the church to the plaza	The Zocolo
Catherine under the mango trees

Pescando

I did most of my fishing off of the beaches near the condo and up at Punta Pescadero.  The beach fishing was slower than in the fall though I managed to catch something pretty much every morning.  Lots of coronet fish seemed to be on the bite and I also ran into a school of Jack Crevalle one morning on the point just to the south of the Rancho Buena Vista hotel which put a good bend in my 9-weight.

On Monday I went offshore in search of tuna, sailfish, or marlin with Baja on the Fly.  We had a rough day out on the water that day, we never had anything come up to the teasers and ended up about 1/2 way to Mazatlan before turning back and heading to shore.  On the way back we saw birds off in the distance and figured our luck may have changed.  We began seeing flying fish and movement but as we got closer we found that we had gotten into a group of porpoises instead of tuna.  This was pretty amazing though and I ended up driving the boat while Victor took down the teasers with porpoises riding the bow wave on each side of me at the wheel.  This made having a fishless day somewhat better.  Once inshore I did manage some Ladyfish and Pompano before we hit the pier.   Along with the porpoises we saw several sharks and one whale out on the water that day. 

On Wednesday I stuck to inshore fishing and had a very good day, especially for Sierras and Barrilette off of Punta Arena.  I kept enough sierra to keep us in fresh ceviche for the next three days.  Missed a small rooster and had a big one interested but not quite enough to hit. 

The good news is that the bait is back in East Cape and so a 1/0 White Knight Sea Habit was the fly of choice for most fishing along with a #1 Chartruese Clousers and a #2 - #4 Epoxy Sardina fly of my own design.  

El Centro San Jose

On our last day we decided to check out the mission at San Jose del Cabo and spend some time in the historic district before going to the airport.   Going back into San Jose was a good re-entry into civilization, there was a lot more traffic and a lot more people than we'd seen all week.  Still, the area around the mission and zocolo was very pleasant and we even found a perfect blanket for our family room to bring home.

The mission at San Jose
The main alter	The alter of the Virgin
The Indian uprising of 1734 depicted on the front of the mission	The Zocolo

After leaving San Jose we went to the airport and started what became a very long journey home.   We'll be back in the fall again for more snorkeling, more fishing, and more exploring.