Christmas on the East Cape
Trip Start
Dec 12, 2008
1
7
12
Trip End
Jan 05, 2009
Cabo Pulmo, Mexico
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Cabo Pulmo is a beautiful spot. It is a little town located in a marine reserve, so there is less development and general ransacking of the landscape there. It is home to the only coral reef in Baja, and one of only 4 in North America. There is fantastic fishing, snorkeling, diving and hiking nearby. We had also heard that there was good rock climbing there, so we were pretty excited when we arrived.
We only spent two days in Cabo Pulmo, but I think we could have stayed there for a week or two. Playa Abuelita is a great beach with free camping that has excellent snokeling 10 feet from shore. There are many beaches to the north and south that you can hike to for a little solitude. Still, for being such a beautiful place, there were hardly any people there.
We met some nice folks there too. On Christmas Eve we enjoyed a fire with some peeps from Idaho and Colorado, and there were a lot of other friendly travelers passing through.
On Christmas Day, we decided to go search out some rock to climb. We hiked south along the coast for a half hour or so and found some interesting looking rock formations. The rock looked somewhat like the rock in Joshua Tree National Park, but was a little bit more crumbly. We were a little hesitant to climb on it because it was so crumbly, but we eventually found a line that looked feasible and safe, so we gave it a shot. It was fun to be rock climbing in such a beautiful setting. We named the climb "Fat Santa's Demise", since there is a tight chimney move near the top of it that I'm sure Santa would have had a tough time with. From the top, we could see up and down the coast for miles and we spent some time watching the pelicans fly in formation, making the occasional dive into the surf for dinner.
Christmases in remote, tropical locations are kind of strange. There are no christmas lights, music or snow anywhere. It could have just been any other day, if it weren't for the quasi-rednecks in the RV from Idaho saying "ho ho ho" all morning. Carrie cooked up a wonderful Christmas dinner of quesadillas, and we played a heated game of scrabble before retiring for the night.
