We found it fascinating to paddle along this semi-desert, which we followed as closely as possible. It was not dead at all, but teemed of life with the cacti being the prominent features. High above us there were frigate birds and the ubiquitous pelicans often passed by. At 12:10 we decided to call it a day. We had reached an arroyo, or canyon, which would be easy to walk along and explore the desert.

I was surprised that we had paddled 15% faster after reaching the point than before. There wasn't that much wind. Were there currents here?

Exploring the desert

Fully dressed with hat, long pants, and long sleeves - the sun is fierce here almost at the tropic of cancer - and with cameras and binoculars we set out in the arroyo. We could not but marvel at all the different kinds of cacti that grew here. We were lucky to find lots of them in bloom. Birds were pretty common, especially the vultures. Sometimes we could hear a little noise among the branches. With a little patience we could often see rabbits and lizards. Far away there were goats high up on the slopes.

It was calm again the next morning. We passed close to a rock full of birds resting there - pelicans, gulls and others, but especially frigate birds, some with their red pouch. Though we had seen these exciting birds a few times in the past, this was the first time we had seen them "landed" since Galapagos Island 18 years ago.

Further north the cliffs got higher and most of the vegetation disappeared. There was red rock with striate white, then the next rock was purple, then again there was a green cliff. Suddenly the wind kicked up and it blew 10 knots with gusts about 15 in our face. We would like to get past the northern point and steer downwind before the wind was too strong. We pushed hard for 45 minutes and were helped along with a favorable current. But when we got really close the wind died again and it was as calm as ever with no wind and no waves.

There were a few Mexican fishermen at the point but otherwise no activity. We rounded it and headed south on the western side of Isla Cerralvo. Shortly after, we went ashore to stretch our legs. We were going to push on to set up camp at lunch time, but decided to explore the corals instead. The actual corals weren't that interesting, this was a bit too far north, but the fish life was surprisingly rich. There was a ray, several puffer fish, pipe fish, a colorful sea anemone, and many more, large and small, round and flat, shy and brave, orange, black, green, red, blue, … a vast array.

After lunch we paddled another long hour until we found an inviting arroyo. As we got closer we found a sign that said that the entire island was a National Park and all wildlife was protected. The island even had three indigenous plants (that exist no where else on earth). As we explored this arroyo, we found the same wildlife as yesterday, but the cacti were nicer and we saw lots of tiny kolibris (hummingbirds).

Back at camp I read the chart carefully (I may be a bit sloppy during the day). Yes, I had been a bit lazy. The first day we paddled 14 nm, today 12 nm, so tomorrow we'll have to paddle almost 19. That could have been planned a bit better!

The big crossing

The wind rustled in the tent early in the morning and the swell sounded louder. I knew that it is never as loud as it sounds in the tent, but still … And it "never" blows in Baja during the night. We were planning to do a 7 nm crossing today. We had enough water and food to stay another day. But would the twice-weekly non-refundable airplane wait for us? I did not like to be in this situation.

I felt more relaxed as we got up. But the surf was definitely stronger. The wind was slowly increasing as we followed the shore early in the morning. But at one place we had to stop for a while to marvel at the 60 goats near the beach, some of them walking in the water. I let Surain out after two hours to stretch her legs for a few minutes while I stayed just outside the surf zone. As we started across to the mainland we noticed that there were only whitecaps where there were tide-rips.

Past the tide-rips the wind was light from north. I had planned to steer 235 degrees, but decided on 220 instead to take some advantage of the prevailing wind. This would make the crossing just slightly longer. But what was that out in the water? We stopped paddling and looked closely. A large turtle! We kept absolutely still and slowly glided past the turtle, which didn't move.

After about an hour's paddling, when we were still not halfway, the wind started increasing. There were soon whitecaps that kept getting bigger. Waves started building. Should we be out here? We no longer saw the horizon when we were down in the troughs, which indicated waves of more than 2 feet high. In bigger waves not only the horizon disappears, but also the mountain above it. Some waves washed over the kayak, and though there were no real streaks in the water, the whitecaps created a confusion of white specks.

As we got closer to the other shore I estimated the wind to be just over 20 knots. By this time I had turned the kayak downwind 45 degrees to avoid having to paddle sideways against the waves. As we got even closer the waves got smaller due to the shallowness and I turned straight downwind towards our destination. It was now blowing even harder and there were whitecaps everywhere. We drifted at least 3 knots without paddling. Even with very leisurely paddling we flew downwind in 5 to 6 knot speed.

We arrived at the take-out point at the small town of La Ventana at 12:10, much earlier than expected. We quickly broke the kayak apart and hailed a local truck to take us back to La Paz, where we enjoyed all the amenities of an interesting large Mexican city.

Conclusions

This was a very enjoyable kayaking trip to a fascinating island with a desert-like vegetation. Nearby Espiritu Santo is more interesting and is easier to get to and the crossing is shorter - or you can take a panga across the 4 nm channel. But Espiritu Santo also has some houses, other structures, boats, kayaks, and tour boats. Cerralvo has none of these, though there may be divers off shore. Both of them have lots of Mexican fishing boats.

If you want to go yourself:

Air transfer: Alaska Airlines flies twice weekly from Seattle via LA. The Mexican airline Aero California also flies daily from LA.

Transportation from the airport: If you come with Alaska, you should be able to join the split taxi to Las Arenas, a nice resort near the lighthouse. From La Ventana we hired a local truck to take us back.

Distance: From the lighthouse via the 5 nm crossing to Isla Cerralvo, then along the east coast and rounding the top, down the west side to the closest crossing to the west, 7 nm, and then down to the town of La Ventana it is 45 nm (52 statute miles).

Water: There is absolutely no water available on the island so bring what you need. All water in Baja California is drinkable without treatment (not true for the rest of Mexico!). We figure 3 liters per person and day (18 liters or 4.8 gallons for the two of us for this three day trip). No other amenities available.

Charts: The only one we have found is a Mexican chart for southern Baja in the scale of 1:270,000. It's quite sketchy (the chart in this Web site is scanned from this chart). You'll need your dead reckoning skills to figure out where you are (Mexican land maps are much better but don't show any sea information).

Wind: Baja is known for very windy conditions in February, March, and January (in that order) but fairly calm other months. Early morning (until 10 or 11 am) it is usually calm even during the windy months. We had no weather forecast to rely on.

Four years later, in 2003, I learned that La Ventana is the wind surfing capital of Mexico. Many fly down from the US to enjoy the strong winds. Had we known that, we may have decided against that crossing!