Under California

My last 2007 trip was to Baja California, the mexican south part of that huge and wild territory which starts as the home of Hollywood industrie and the Gobernator, and ends as long narrow portion of paradise licked by the turquoise waters of the Mar de Cortes and the deep blue of the Pacific Ocean. I went with E. and a friend of him, who is photographer. I met them at Tijuana, after a 40 hours bus trip from Mexico City. Just the two days at the bus is a great travel itself, but today I can just write a brief impressions summary. As most of my travels, this one started with a book: Baja California, tierra incógnita (unknown land) by Fernando Jordán, a mexican journalist borned in Mexico City, who fell in love with that mexican land. As he says, Baja California is almost an island: it is surrounded by a sea and an ocean. In the north, where it finds its only conection with land, it is desert and border with USA (I must say that maybe it has one of the most conflictive border cities in the world: Tijuana). The second beginning of my trip was at Edgardo's mind. Baja, as locals call it, became both a dream and an obsession to him during last months. This beautiful land hosts many different weathers: from desert to pleasent beaches, from oasis to mountain, from short winter days to almost tropical mornings. Here you can find amanzing human traces: the missions, 17th century buildings (or newer) surrounded by an amazing nature, founded mostly by jesuitas monks; and the the famous cave paintings made by nomadic indigenous groups. Animals will amaze you: grey whales coming from Alaska in order to give birth to their babies, friendly sea lions, huge groups of birds as only inhabitants of protected islands, a beautiful kind of deer with zeebra's printed neck ... And plants are also outrageous: cirios (a plant with the form of an inverted carrot, with white wood and green leaves), sahuaros (tall cactus), choyas (prickly green balls), bright desert flowers, golden leaved threes... Tree places amazed me the most: the lands nearby Rosarito, Cataviña's desert and Espíritu Santo (or Holy Spirit) island. And my favorite city, a place where I imagined myself living in, was La Paz. Rosarito is a small town in Baja California north part. I was amazed because of its contrasting landscape: the deep blue ocean, the kilometers of empty land, the lonely stands of delicious seafood... Everything was so bright, cold and beatiful there, the weather was sunny and windy... And for me, a girl raised in the largest city of the world, home of twenty million people, it was amanzing to see such an empty land with almost no houses or people. Cataviña is part of the desert in the border between the North and the South of Baja. It is --except for the Sahara, that is very different-- the most beautiful desert I'd ever been into. Here you can find like huge river rocks, and even a cold water pot! As there is water in this desert, you can also find amazing flowers, and the sky above is always perfectly clean and blue. Espiritu Santo Island is in front of La Paz. It is a protected wild life area, with amazing rocky formations, sea lions and coral reefs. Image from the mexican movie Bajo California. It is about a Mexican-American artist who travels all along Baja California looking for his ancestors and making artistic installations with leaves, rocks and water on his way.