On a Roll Now.... Into Baja November 5, 2012

Beauty of the Desert

The agriculture development in Northern Baja is quite spectacular.  Since the US decided they should get rid of the illegal Mexican labor force the change in development in Baja is quite outstanding.  There are many successful farming operations; likely some US companies have come to start up large scale farming.  There are greenhouses, shade houses, miles of vegetables, particularly tomatoes, and much housing development   in the agricultural area south of  Ensenada.  This action of the US government appears to be good for the Mexican economy.  In addition, more people don’t have to leave their homes and families to work as illegal immigrants, fearful of being discovered and deported. 

These are shade houses, with their tops down....

Now there is real machinery in the fields!











There has been a good deal of rainfall over this past summer, and the change in the desert is certainly apparent the further south we drive.

The cows are happy, water in the ground....

I never get tired of these vistas.

Don;t be alarmed.  Its just a truck.  I know, its over the line and he doesn't have much room on the other size.  In fact, we don't either.  It is a bit unnerving and reason to slow down and pass carefully.  Lorne usually needs my direction to be careful and to slow down and to not go over the edge.... For the most part the truckers are very good drivers and can maneuver those big trucks around hairpin curves and pass little motor homes like ours with a breeze - except for the ones like Hector who have a little memorial shrine by the side of the road.

Its difficult to capture the beautiful color of the desert through the dirty windshield of a moving vehicle. However, it is truly spectacular.

The cactus to the right of the cardon is a small boojum tree(cirio) up close in full foliage   These cactus get get up to a height of 18 meters (60 feet) with a trunk of up to 5 decimeters (about 20 inches)  in diameter at the base.  They often have a topnot of yellow flowers.  They are very unusual trees that have no large branches.  Their leaves form within 72 hours after a rain on very short branches (visible in this picture).  When its dry the leaves yellow and fall off and the plant, like many other desert plants, becomes dormant.  I have hundreds of pictures of them.

   The cardon plant next to the boojum is the tallest plant on Baja, growing upwards of 79 feet in height.

This is an unusual site on the Baja - a line painting truck.  The first we have ever encountered.

The distant haze is merely cloud cover - there is no air pollution as there are no people for hundreds of miles.

This is red volcanic rock from the volcanoes shown below - the Three Virgins.

The Three Virgins.   These volcanoes erupted last in the 1700s.  There is some kind of geo-thermo electric plant here.  Apparently you can drive in and check it out, we never have.

The Sea of Cortez.  This is El Requeson Beach, one of the most spectacular places to camp.  Great swimming, kayaking and snorkeling is found here.  There is a sand spit that leads over to a very interesting island where there is a lot of evidence of early Native settlement including shell middens and what appears to be the remains of small stone shelters.

The Sierra Gigante mountains.  These mountains are rugged and beautiful.  The change of light reflecting on them over the course of the day begs to be painted, photographed, or just admired.