A Journey and a Riddle
Anyone that has ever spent a summer in the lower Baja appreciates cold weather. During the summer of 1995 my wife and I decided to put to sea for a few weeks and try and escape either our air conditioned cave or the brutally hot streets of La Paz. For many years we have visited a location that is fairly remote, good anchorage and basic provisions available. We headed for a small village north of San Juan de La Costa called San Evaristo. There is a road there but I understand it is a long and rough one. We should have driven, because our journey there was extremely rough. Leaving La Paz after provisioning and preparing the boat and my small whaler we headed for our first night in Caleta Partida on Isla Espiritu Santo. Halfway there my trusty diesel quits and fills up with sea water and the Port Captain closes the port because hurricane Harriet is close by. Not to worry says the Captain (myself) this is after all a sailboat. We sailed in to Partida, set the hook and had some cocktails!
At two O'clock in the morning I awoke to the rigging howling and the boat dancing. Fifty-knot gusts, I said, not to worry - just a breeze. At first light I realized our folly. Caleta Partida is like a funnel and the winds were funneling in. By eight it was raining horizontally. I looked at Christina and her eyes were as big as mine. It was a very impressive day. To see the fury of the sea and weather is not something one forgets overnight. The skies began to break that evening and we slept blissfully. Two days later after a major cleanup we sailed to San Evaristo. With clear warm waters and clear skies we were ecstatic after our ordeal. We played in the sea for the next week and a half. Living on freshly caught Dorado, Sierra and clams, we began to rid our bodies and minds of modern civilization. I have always been an avid fan of John Steinbeck. He wrote a piece of non-fiction abut a trip he made through the Sea of Cortez in 1940 named "THE LOG FROM THE SEA OF CORTEZ". In his book he laid down a puzzle.
Directly across from San Evaristo is the Island of San Jose. The island is uninhabited, with miles of mangroves and untouched coast line. Steinbeck mentions in his book that while anchored at Amortajada Bay on Isla San Jose they visited a small rock island about 1 mile from Amortajada Bay. He was baffled by several things on this little island. Its color seemed to change from black at a distance to light brown close up. He also found some steel bars driven into solid rock with eyelets and pieces of chain attached. There was a shallow cave with conch shells all around and a small fire pit with fresh coals, yet there was no vegetation on the island. We visited the rock island and found everything as he had described it even after 50 years since his visit. Why would someone drive these large steel rods into the solid rock? This was not a place to secure any vessel since it was wide open to the Sea. Why would someone import wood and conch to a rocky shoreline merely to clean the conch and cook them? The color change became obvious after spending a few days in the area. Many boulders overhang the shoreline and at midday they cast shadows that make the island appear black from a distance. As you approach the island your viewing angle changes and it's true light brown color appears. The two other puzzles weren't as easy to solve. (Is this a computer game in real life?) On one early morning while frolicking in the sea in our Boston Whaler we decided to visit another little island called Pardito close by. This little island is covered with homes and a church as the prominent and highest building. The island has a surface of approximately one acre. We understand it has been inhabited by fishermen for over 100 years. It was the only island in the Sea of Cortez recognized by the government as a permanently inhabited island. As we stepped out of our launch we were greeted by Pepe Cuevas and his son Gilberto whose ancestors have been on the island for over a century... I mentioned that we were fishing for Dorado. Pepe offered us coffee and as we were sipping our coffee he flatly states that he always has his morning coffee on the shoreline with Dorados. Mentally skeptical, I began asking him about the black appearing rock island near Amortajada Bay. A few heartbeats later, a bait fish comes bounding up the beach making every effort it can to escape a very large golden-Blue Dorado! The Dorado now scrapping the sand, flops back into deeper water and disappears. My mouth is now hanging near my waist and my eyes are a big as melons. From that point on I listen very intently to everything this older gentleman says. Pepe began his story.
On Isla San Jose there was at the turn of the century a gold mine. Discipline was strict in this mine. The law breakers were taken to this little island near Amortajada Bay and chained to the rocks for days at a time. Hence the steel rods in the rock. I'm sure that being chained to those rocks for a few days what with the sun boiling your blood and the rock crabs nibbling at you during the night, would make anyone reconsider the path they had chosen to walk. According to Pepe they also tied villains to a tree in the mangroves. I shuddered at the thought of this punishment because the mangroves are swarming with mosquitoes and worse yet no-seeums. Maybe the Captains of old with their cat of nine tails whips were merciful. As for the third riddle Pepe tells me of a group of men in their sailing pangas (in those days a dugout canoe) that used the rock beach and the shallow cave to clean and consume their conch. This was done both as a tradition and because there is no sand on the beach or in the water to spoil their feast. Possibly the Vagabundos del Mar as they were known? A group of unemployed fisherman that lived in the sea of cortez and used their pangas as our hobos used freight trains. As we left Pepe Cuevas and his beautiful paradise island, I felt a warmth and a happiness that there are still a few bastions of sanity and natural beauty left on this planet.
Boone Camp
LA PAZ, B.C.S. 19/03/96
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