Arbolitos Baja


Arbolitos is located on the peninsula or point named Punta Banda just south of Ensenada in Baja California. These pages describe a trip that was organized for grad students in my program (UCSD Neuroscience) taken Feb. 11-12 1995.

Day one

The first day was sort of foggy and the water was rough but spirits were high. We were to set out to La Bufadora near the end of Punta Banda where the blowhole has attracted a bit of a touris industry.

The cove where we launched was well protected and had a cement road down it which the local fishermen used to launch their "pongas" or fishing dories. Between the brightly colored Pongas and our yellow and red kayaks the grey beach was not lacking in color.

As we paddled the beautiful rugged coast peered at us in the fog. The swells were a decent size and there were times when friends would momentarily disapear in the trough of the swell. Myself and Mike who were in our Whitewater boats (for RockGardening) went in first to check out the landing at La Bufadora. We both made it in OK but I realized that we were going to have problems trying to bring the group in as the surf was large and landing hard on the steep rocky beach.

But people had to go to the bathroom and others were hungry, so Rocky began to bring the first person in on a lull - but before they made it in the lull turned into one of the bigger sets. Rocky made it, but the other person took a hard icy swim. Though people were dissapointed (esp. those with near bursting bladders), we turned around and paddled partway back before stopping at a more protected cove for lunch.

After getting back at dusk with the fog closing in we quickly went to the task of making a fire and getting started on the nights dinner of lasagna! I myself slept out and was only able to rise a couple people when it got dark enough to see incredible bioluminescent waves breaking aroung the rocks below. A decent nights rest and we were ready for:

The Next Day