Canyons and Hot Springs

  Agua Caliente, Mexico
Sunday, February 4, 2007

Arroyo camping

Saturdays seem to be busy days at the arroyo. Vehicles come and go. People go into town to shop. General Saturday chores. But not for Geraldine and Michael. We decided to have a lazy day and do virtually nothing. We took a run in the morning and returned to sit on our chairs until noon. At that time we got up and played catch for an hour or so.

Day of nothing

Then back to the chairs for more sitting. The only thing that could arouse us now, before our evening run, was the ice cream van. Geraldine could not believe her good fortune. Homemade ice cream delivered to the middle of nowhere. Shortly after that van drove off, we heard another one pull up. This time they were selling fresh seafood. Thinking about our steak that was marinating in brandied cherries, we could not resist grabbing a kilo of prawns to round out our dinner feast. Wasting no time, we prepared the prawns and set them in a garlic butter marinade for a couple of hours. And just so you all know....dinner was as scrumptious as it sounds. Yes Mom, we also had our vegetables.

After dinner we sat in our chairs and enjoyed a couple of cocktails. Hendrick's gin and tonic with a slice of cucumber was on the menu. For those that have not tried Hendrick's gin before, we give it four thumbs up. They recommend a slice of cucumber rather than lime as the gin has an infused flavour of cucumber. The label actually says "the cucumber has been scientifically linked to intelligence". From this we gather that drinking can make you smarter. Here's to happy hour!

We awoke the next morning to the coldest day on record for the arroyo. It was around 5°C in the morning, so we assume it must have hit the 0°C mark overnight. Brrrrr. Thankfully it heated up rather quickly and we were back to 30°C by 9:30am. Unfortunately we could not stick around to enjoy too much of the sun as we wanted to press on to see more of the Baja. Plus...it was Superbowl Sunday and a certain someone was really itching to watch the game. No TV's in the arroyo.

We headed to Los Frailes, which is a sheltered cove facing southeast into the Sea of Cortez. It was quite beautiful, however as we approached, we could not see much past the row of RV's that were camped along the beach. No TV's on the beach. Our map showed the small town Cabo Pulmo was just past the point, so we pressed on. Once there, we spotted a roadside restaurant called El Caballeros....hmmm, TV? We stopped in to ask if they were going to be showing the Superbowl, and sure enough they were. Lucky for us, the same family that owns the restaurant also owns a campground just down the road. So we went to our campsite and had a short siesta (in anticipation of staying up past our bedtime). Upon waking up, we noticed we had acquired a dog. We named him 'One-eyed-Sue' on account of he only had one eye. Cute little thing though. We actually considered adopting him until we realized he did not understand the word 'NO!'. Kinda key when the only thing he wanted to do was jump all over us....all the time. Feeling sorry for the mangy mutt, we fed him some bread and tuna before heading back to El Caballeros for 5pm. We were not pleased to see that the game was already underway. Whooops! We had cervezas to help pass the first half of the game; however more was needed for the second half. And seeing as how this was a 'special' day, we decided to eat while we were out. Noting that or new friend 'Alaskan Pete' had ordered a meal that could easily have fed three men, we opted to split one plate between the two of us. Everything on the menu sounded scrumptious. Taking the advice of Alaskan Pete we chose the Pollo San Pedro (chicken in a mango / chipotle sauce with rice and veggies on the side). Yum, yum, yum! It was wonderful to have a great meal from such a quaint restaurant that would rival any high priced, big city establishment. Hats off to El Caballeros. The game was nearing the end when we all of a sudden heard a vehicle drive out of the parking lot. Strange to see that it was Alaskan Pete, the chattiest guy we have met to date, disappearing without so much as a goodbye. We waved anyway.

We were excited to see our 'new pet' after the game, however he was nowhere to be found upon our return. Perhaps he was not as pleased with his dinner as we were with ours. As we settled in for the night, the winds were picking up off the Sea of Cortez and they whistled into the van through every crack they could find. The slosh of the ocean was only a faint noise in the background. Remarkably it was not that cold and the sounds of nature lulled us to sleep in no time.

Check out our photos from the 4th.... http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=16xvaj2z.amstza3z&Uy=-bqyor8&Ux=0

Another early morning and another mouth to feed. One-eyed-Sue had returned for breakfast. Not sure what he had been up to all night, but it did not appear that he caught any food as he demolished the dish we put in front of him. Unfortunately this was his last meal with us as we had to bid him adieu and part ways. He followed us down the road quite a way, however after he realized that he could run faster than we were driving, he turned around and went back to the campsite.

Entry to canyons

We headed North out of Cabo Pulmo on the same random road and only stopped once, in La Ribera, to feed 'Nilla. At this point we ventured off the coastal highway and headed inland to the Transpeninsular Highway (Mex #1). We arrived in Santiago and were very pleased to find a charming town that is relatively untouched by tourism. The town square was immaculate, however no more than thirty square yards in size. We had heard there were pretty interesting flora and fauna to be observed while hiking the canyons, so we set out to find the canyons. We ended up driving around the perimeter of Santiago and could not spot the canyons. We did happen upon a zoo, which we had yet to see in the Baja. Back in the town square we asked a guy at the gas station and he pointed us in the direction of the hot springs....even he had not seen the elusive canyons. Thinking we may be in the wrong 'Santiago', we figured we would at least stop off at the hot springs.

Stream near Santiago

Taking the main dirt road out of town we drove directly to the mouth of a canyon....also the location of the hot springs. Checking our map we realized we must be in the town of Agua Caliente (Hot Water); so far so good.

There is a primitive, yet functional, wooden arm gate about a mile from the hot springs. As this area is a Federal park, there was a nominal fee to enter, camp and enjoy the hot springs. As luck would have it, we arrived at the park on a National Mexican holiday. The hot springs were littered with families enjoying some together time. Rather than bust in all Canadian like, we chose to use the remainder of the day to prep our packs for a hike up the canyon the following morning. It was a scorcher of a day so it was nice to sit in the sun...well for Geraldine at least. Michael on the other hand had a two hour siesta during the heat of the afternoon.