Exploring Baja Sur (Mexico) — part 1
(click on a photo to enlarge)
Living so close to Mexico and never having visited there (a shopping trip to Nogales doesn’t count!), we decided to take a week to explore the southern end of Baja California (Baja Sur). We’ve always been fascinated with Baja, especially after reading John Steinbeck’s The Log from the Sea of Cortez.
We flew to Cabo San Jose with our final destination being the small and picturesque town of Todos Santos on the Pacific Coast about a 90 minute ride from Cabo. We settled into our casita at Los Colibris after dark and fell asleep to the sound of the pounding surf on the nearby beach. The next morning we stepped out on our veranda to this beautiful view.
View from Los Colibris, Todos Santos, MX
We had a very lovely room with a roof-top terrace and veranda including a refrigerator stocked with juice, melons, strawberries, cranberry bread and other goodies.
Our Casita & Roof-top Terrace
But the best part was the roof-top terrace with its four hummingbird feeders which attracted not only the beautiful Costa’s Hummingbird but my most sought-after bird on this trip — the endemic Xantus’s Hummingbird. It didn’t take long to add this beauty to my life-list. It’s quite similar in appearance to the closely related White-eared Hummingbird (Hylocharis leucotis) the differences being the rufous breast and tail feathers.
Male Xantus’s Hummingbird (Hylocharis xantusii)
Los Colibris offers ecotours and we signed up for a few of them, the first of which was a hike which began at the scenic beach of Punta Lobos.
Fishing Boats at Punta Lobos
We enjoyed photographing some of the many Brown Pelicans resting on the boats.
Brown Pelicans (Pelicanus occidentalis)
Our guide, Janine, took us on an uphill climb that was a bit challenging but in the end rewarded us with stunning views of the coastal cliffs and a good introduction to the local flora.
Our Guide, Janine
Spectacular Scenery
Cardón Cactus Along the Coast
The Cardón Cactus (Pachycereus pringlei), similar to the Saguaro (Carnegia gigantea) of the Sonoran Desert, is the largest cactus species in the world and is mostly found only in the deserts of Baja California. It can live to 300 years and can attain a height of 70 feet. We were fortunate to find some of the Cardóns in bloom during our visit.
Cardón (Pachycereus pringlei)
Cardón Flowers
Another impressive and common cactus occuring in the area is the Organ Pipe Cactus (Stenocereus thurberi). This upright, multi-branching cactus is also found in the Sonoaran Desert in the U.S. It can reach a height of 23 feet and its fruit produces an edible pulp which was a food source for native Americans.
Organ Pipe Cactus (Stenocereus thurberi)
After a picnic lunch on the beach at San Pedro we went back to Todos Santos where we enjoyed a sunset horseback ride on the beach. It was a long but enjoyable first day in Baja.
March 9th, 2010 at 3:23 am
WOW, what a great time. I love your photos, the birds and scenery are just gorgeous. I would love to see both of those hummers. Lucky YOU!