As a Brooklyn girl, I know suffocating humidity, but I have gotten used to wonderfully pleasant mild Portland summer weather, so now Baja California is proving to be extreme.
I love these cloudless skies and sunshine, but living outside every day (when we’re wild camping) in 85F weather is not easy. We’ve found that staying at campsites there is lots of shade and it makes all the difference!
I am also dumbfounded by all the sun tanned and leathery-like skin retirees here who walk around in shorts and no hats/while I am running between skimpy shade patches to grab my wide brimmed hat and long sleeved sun shirt. There is also a definite fear of skin cancer that is haunting me.
It feels like some people were built for the sun and I simply, was not. But it’s not stopping me from appreciating the extremely dry and hot desert and the extremely rich and salty sea. I just seek out the cold water and rare swimming pool more quickly. (I was first to jump into this knee deep pool):
In the last week of March, we spent a relaxing 4 nights in the remote but bustling Los Arbolitos campsite, within Cabo Pulmo National Park. It is touted as one of the most diverse spots along Baja California coast.
After 2 days we got into a routine of eating breakfast in our sliver of morning shade, then getting drenched in sweat while preparing snorkels, life jackets, and paddle boards, and then heading out to snorkel and see the richness of the sea. It was insanely thick with sea life.
The best sea life was visible in thigh deep water, 50 feet off shore. After 3 days in a row of this Adela became so comfortable snorkeling she literally dove into the water ahead of us and started snorkeling before we did.
Adela has exhibited such a transformation with swimming. We are SO SO proud of her, getting comfortable with swimming has been such a big hump to overcome- especially because we love the water- canoeing, swimming, boats.
She is now voluntarily submerging her head underwater and trying to blow bubbles! I’m really hoping we can maintain this momentum and take as many swim lessons as possible this summer!
After 10 days of camping along the East Cape coast we decided to check out an oasis of a campsite-Rancho San Dionisio. It is situated an hours drive inland in the Sierra de La Laguna mountains and thus, significantly drier and hotter, 86F in the shade.
Zosia is looking for compliments in her swimming too. She demands that I swim with her because Todd scared her on one occasion playing around in the Sea of Cortez…whoops! Zosia is enjoying playing in the water but does not want you to let go of her and demands her life jacket be on at all times as well. (YAY to liking Safety!!!)
