Baja 2/21/11 Cabo Pulmo

We took a road trip on Monday to Cabo Pulmo, a World Heritage Site. This area has been a fishing village for a long time, and overfishing threatened it's livelihood. Local residents (an extended Mexican family and retired expats) petitioned the government for protection. Environmentalist got involved and finally the area became a World Heritage Site. It is only 1 of 3 coral reefs in Baja and the only living one. It is also a turtle refuge. There are 8 fingers of the reef extending into the bay. It is winter time now and the winds can be pretty fierce; no one else was on the beach while we were there. There is a small hotel, several dive/snorkle/fishing businesses and a couple of small retaurants at the site. Except for a couple of fellows at one of the dive shops, everything else was pretty much closed. However, the beach and water were beautiful. In my opinion, it is sad that so much of the surrounding area is closed to the public; much of the land is private, though I guess if you can get to the beach, it is open to public use. On our way out we took one of the 'roads' provided for public access. We were in our Jeep, and the 'road' was only wide enough for us to go through. If we had met another vehicle of any sort, someone would have had to back up all the way to the road or to the beach. Obviously, "access" was the minimum required. Both sides of the 'road' were fenced with barbed wire. However, once we made the beach, it was open. I expected a World Heritage site to be bigger than this one is. The water area probably is immense that is protected and access with one of the local charter businesses would allow access to see it all. Though there are many signs about the turtle refuge, there was nothing at the site to indicate where or what is being done. And of course, we were there off season, so there was no one around to get further information from. However, it was a beautiful day; notice the "Baja" road that is the last drive into the park, about 9 kilometers. The grader was working as we drove in, which helped on the drive out! I had to take a photo of Senor Chili Pepper sitting on a truck outside 'Nancy's" restaurant. He was ready for business, even if Nancy's wasn't. I hope you enjoy the video. It is a poor reflection of the beautiful turquois water, baby blue sky and those wonderful 'feather' clouds. Another beautiful, windy day in Baja. Remember you can click on any photo to enlarge it. ... Happy trails....