We sought sunshine and paddling on the Sea of Cortez. This was not going to be the kind of visit where we get to park the van and enjoy a rented hotel room and hot showers. We were going to be shacking up in a tent outside the van.
Cabo Pulmo on the Sea of Cortez is one of Baja’s best destinations for scuba diving and snorkeling. It is about an hour and a half drive from Los Cabos airport. Of course this depends on how well your vehicle can handle the 10-kilometer washboard road. Arriving in the actual town of Cabo Pulmo is like an old western movie. It has one main dirt road with a small grocery store and restaurant on one side, the local watering hole on the other and a lone tumbleweed rolling down the road.
RELATED: Off the Beaten Path in Baja, Mexico
After getting the low down from the local dive shop on the highlights of the Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park we started plotting our adventure. We knew we wanted to do an overnight trip on the kayak and paddle boards and sleep under the stars on a secluded beach for a night. We planned to take off from Los Arbolitos Beach and paddle south through the national park snorkeling along the way until we found a deserted beach outside the park to spend the night.
We were going to be packing all of our supplies in dry bags on our two SUPs and one kayak. Megan started on the Hobie Mirage i11s inflatable kayak with a fully loaded Yeti Tundra Roadie strapped to the front and a 50-liter dry bag of gear on the back. Clark strapped another dry bag to the front of the Hobie 5i Series Inflatable SUP.
We set off paddling and within minutes we started hearing some big splashes nearby. As we looked toward the horizon we saw big manta rays launching out of the water giving us our own personal aerial show!
After a half hour of paddling down a beautiful jagged coastline in amazing emerald water we came across a sea lion colony snoozing on the rocks and playing in the water. They didn’t seem to mind as we inched closer and closer in hopes of getting Clark his sea lion selfie. They were swimming all around our boats as we floated by amazed by their gracefulness. A tour boat of snorkelers showed up and told us that it was safe to swim with them. So of course Clark jumped right in.
It was so amazing getting in the water with these ocean creatures and having them swim all around. They were just as curious of us as we were of them. We could have stayed there swimming with the sea lions all day but decided we had better venture on if we wanted to find somewhere to camp.
We paddled around to Los Frailes Beach which is a little cove along the northern rocky coast that is popular for snorkeling. The park is home to one of three living reefs and the only hard coral reef in North America. Being from the mountains in Colorado it is always mind-blowing sticking your head underneath the ocean and seeing the insane amounts of sea life swimming by. This area is home to hundreds of species of marine life. There were spotted eagle rays gliding below us, beautiful angelfish whipping by and schools of red snapper all around us.
We still had only made half of our journey so far so we jumped back on the paddle boards and continued down the coast. As we paddled out of the national park the scenery changed from a dramatic rocky cliff coast line to deserted sandy beaches making for perfect beach camping. And now that we crossed out of the national park it was time to catch dinner! We were feeling very lucky after snorkeling with the schools of red snapper on the reef.
So far we haven’t had so much as a nibble on our line in Baja so we decided that we we were done fooling around. We were going all in. Fresh fish tacos for dinner or nothing! Spirits were high as the first trolling lure hit the water, but after 30 minutes of paddling and the sun dipping below the horizon those spirits started to fade. We fished till dusk without so much as a bite, except when Clark hooked into a small ray. After the fiasco of trying to release the ray we conceded to the fish gods and accepted that we would be having fishless tacos. Thank god for avocados and fresh tortillas to refuel the tanks after a long day of paddling and snorkeling.
It was hard to stay bitter about getting skunked as we sat around the driftwood fire on our private beach witnessing an incredible full moon rise over the ocean right in front of us. The moon was so big and orange you would have thought it was only a short paddle away from our beach.
The trip ended up being a surprising success, if you don’t count the veggie tacos. We almost felt as if we had lost our touch for creating misadventure. A day of easy paddling across the crystal clear waters of the Sea of Cortez and epic encounters with amazing sea life, topped off with maybe the most incredible moon rise any of us had ever seen… Is this what happens on normal adventures? Because we could get used to this!
For more of our misadventures and questionable advice be sure to check out misadventuretheory.com and the Misadventure Theory YouTube page. Because everyone needs a little help getting lost at first, and we’re more than qualified in that area.
