Friday, January 20, 2006

Homeward Bound

We'll be leaving Bahia at about 6:30 am tomorrow morning (Saturday 1/21), which will put us at the border around 6 pm. Once we cross the border--and since it is a Saturday evening, this will take a while--the cell phones will pick up their signals from the U.S. and you'll start receiving phone calls about our approximate ETA at Biola, which should be around 9-9:30 pm.

Student Reflections


We're leaving early tomorrow morning, and as we prepare to leave this place, we are providing some reflections from the student's journals, so that you don't always hear the *official* word from Baja (assuming there is such a thing). Note the dates and places where the reflections were written as you read and enjoy what the students have to say.


From Jamie

I always had the same idea in reference to girls in make up. Make up for the most part is completely unnecessary. Sure some girls may suffer from bad acne you know the kind that plagues the rim of the brow, under the cheeks, and God forbid the wretched neck-nee. I will say that in the case of bad acne or severe burns of the face, neck and chest area make up should be used. At any other time make up is simply nothing more then a fence girls put up between them and the world, a wall that is dabbed and brushed on with small swift movements and opened mouths. For 20 or so days now my personal space has been completely invaded by a bunch of people, who’s typical wall of make up has been torn down and rebuilt with dirt and crystallized sweat. The pinks and blues and turned brown along with the fair porcelain that was once their skin. They, even I, look very different from those awkward and timid folks who first found themselves loading up the Yeti and Sasquatch (the vans) 20 or so days ago. Tonight we are going out to dinner. Some of the girls got together and “dolled” themselves up for the event, I even pulled a semi- clean shirt out of the bottom of my bag and put it on. I almost wanted to avoid putting on make up like the rest if the girls, the same way I have been avoiding collecting all the shells on the beach, myspace, and occasional weeping fits. But I too wiped away the dirt and replaced it with powdered paints and sparkles. I was sad to wash my hair and face, I became quite comfortable with my filth wall but it came down like in Berlin, sans David Hasselhof in an American flag jacket. I watched as the faces I had known transform. Despite my efforts I looked pretty much the same, but some of the girls really glowed. I was most amused by the faces of the three guys on the trip. These unfortunate fellows have been burdened by their inner gentlemen for the past 20 or so days; opening doors, falling last in the food line, and even being irated by the lewd gestures of their Mexican brethren. I watched as they looked at the painted faces of the girls, their eyes regretfully admitting, “they’re not so hideous after all.” I too watched as the make up walls were rebuilt and as each girl (myself included) awkwardly milled in and out of the rooms of the field station second guessing the reconstruction of their walls and questioning the foundations in which they stand. Do any of us really need make up? We have survived a 4,000-foot mountain, many a frightening car rides, and copious amounts of Coldplay all with out make up, yet we paint, brush, curl and crimp. Next week I will be days away from this star filled sky and Dr. Seuss-like vegetation, laying the bricks of my make up wall and remembering the bare, brown faces of these people, the unpolished beauty that each face encumbered. Yes, we are a different people. These 20 or so days have changed us from the rigid and feeble to the learned and humble, and the faces, made up or not, are no longer mere faces but friends.

January 20
VSFS
Bahia de los Angeles


From Bethany Laursen

As the trip nears it end, I’m getting more and more uncomfortable here; I miss showers, clean clothes, my coffee mug, and the internet. But I don’t know that it’s a good that I’m missing these things. For one thing, I can begin to become discontent with this place. For another thing, I don’t think that the internet is worth missing, because I just want it to fill some void of loneliness that it can’t fill. And, I like the return to simplicity marked by less clothing/fashion and water usage. Here, we celebrate the normally mundane occurrence of clean hair! What a simple joy! It seems to have straightened our priorities and sharpened our gratitude—we’re just thankful to have plenty of food, water, clothing, and shelter. So, when I really think about it, I’m not looking forward to selling my soul to be concerned about shallow things so that I can relate to my friends. That’s not to say that my friends are shallow, but they probably would not understand why taking shorter showers could ever be good for your soul. And, I don’t have to take luxury for granted, but it will certainly be difficult without 23 other people helping me consume less.

January 16
4:48 pm
VSFS
Bahia de los Angeles


From Libby Stokes

The wind moves like the rain, in waves. The water’s surface is mottled and pushed. It is darkened by each passing exhale from the sky. The air, even in its invisibility, can carry. It can hold a grain of sand, a crying gull, an expanse of cloud. The wind’s hands, like God, are mighty enough for the clouds, and gentle enough for a feather.

The wind has no voice. We only hear what things say about the wind. The trees hum to a gentle “ffffffff.” The rafters whistle and creak. Even when we turn our heads into the wind, our ears find works in its silent moving.

January 15 (during “solitude and silence” time)
VSFS
Bahia de los Angeles


From Sunny Ware

We plop down in fron of the “Mision de Santa Rosalia de Mulege,” three of us armed with pens and iPods. We don’t talk to each other. We slip into our own world complete with soundtracks. I notice how odd this really is when the 80s classic, “Love Shack” comes on. How can three little, white, American girls sit in front of this holy place in this manner? Does it defile it? What does the space become when a group of 20 of us come in talking, snapping photos, and turning it into a classroom/tourist sopt? Can it be holy and profane?

January 12
Mulege


From Sarah Concannon

Discover

Each morning I awake to the
sound of something new.
Is it the ocean or a bird or
a date falling through the dew?
So much to experience today but
where should I start?
Well, a bird walk with Rafe
may produce the sighting of a lark.
Going much deeper we discuss the
issues at hand.
How can we change the way we
see this vast land?
Looking through eyes as we did
as a child.
Colors and shapes jump out that
are far beyond mild
Into the vans we pile once more
off to discover cuz that’s what
we’re here for.

January 10
El Coyote, Bahia de Concepcion

Thursday, January 19, 2006

San Borja Today



We're off to San Borja today to visit the mission and environs. We'll post more when we return this evening.

We just returned from San Borja. There is lots of activity out there as the renovation of mission seems to have been shifted into high gear. For the last two years there was one man, with occasional workers who helped him, doing the work. This year, he is gone, and there is an entire crew of workers making doors, windows, and replacing the stone blocks of the building. The mission still has a long way to go before the renovation is complete.

For those who have been there, the family that lives next to the mission is still there, but unlike the last two years, now has complete access to the mission buildings and surroundings. They still accompany you pretty much wherever you go around the mission, sort of the self appointed guides to the area.

As the artists were painting and the students who did not have hiking-type shoes on stayed around the mission and caught up on their journals (time is running short!), several of us hiked up to *la cueva mascara,* the mask cave where the Cochimi shamans would light fires from the inside, thus showing their powers to their people. It's a completely off-road hike--lots of cholla, pitalla, and other sticky things that must be avoided. We managed to get up and down without too many wounds, although I am apparently now going to be known as *Dr. Cholla* as I managed to slide across one as my footing gave way, thus requiring the extraction of several of the spines with the always handy leatherman-type pliers. The irony of course was that I had just bragged to several students that I had broken out a nice, clean t-shirt for the day, that is now full of the tiny leftover cholla spines, blood, dirt, etc. I think I'll just retire the t-shirt. But, it was a great hike and everyone enjoyed it, probably more so because of my slide--actually two slides, the second not involving sticky things--on the slopes.

Quote of the Day

"This tastes like grape juice." (Amanda while drinking from a juice box that was not only purple, but was labeled 100% grape juice.)

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

A Man in His Element


Rafe took everyone out on the boat today. As John Puls said last year, "It's good to see a man in his element." Yes.

Quotes of the Day

"Bad roads bring good people."

"It takes money to be a live person."

--Antonio Resendiz-Hidalgo, Bahia Sea Turtle Research Station

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Hike Like Mike!


Today is the hike up Mike's Mountain. Hiking Mike's is a tradition in the Baja program, and everyone hikes. Mike's is a deceptive hike, especially for people who are used to hiking the Sierra's or other mountain ranges in the U.S., because it just doesn't look all that intimidating or difficult. But, the hike starts at sea level and ends up at approximately 4,000 feet, all in about 4 miles. Doing the math results in an elevation gain of about 1,000 feet per mile.

The hike is tough, but worth it--even for those who don't make it all the way to the top. The victory is in the effort, not necessarily in making it all the way to Mike's camp at the top. We'll post some student reflections on their day as they return to the field station.

Here's an email Rafe received from Wiley Roberson the first Baja TA (circa 1979-1982) about *Hiking Like Mike.* (We are, by the way, very happy that people like Wiley and the extended Biola Baja family are reading the blog and about the experiences of new generations of Baja students.).

Here's Wiley's email:

Well, here is the story. One February I found myself at the Bay on a rather unexpected trip. Two weeks prior I had just finished assisting Rafe on another Biola in Baja class in which my truck had blown a head gasket coming back up the line from Muleje (which by the way, was the same trip as the mud hole, boat prop story). With the help of Jon Francine we were able to limp the last 150 miles into the Bay traveling 30-40mph and stopping every 8-9 miles to add water. The morning the class left the Bay, the truck locked up at the edge of the old runway out front of Casa Diaz. We pushed it back to the lab and transferred a few items over to the school van and piled in. A week later a friend and CO-assistant of Glendale Community College Baja class Steve James (aka Yoda) and myself headed back to the Bay loaded with a tow bar. Once there we stayed on a week or two to help Jose Mercado and Michael McCabe (SP?) build on Jose's house (as a side note, we were framing on the house one day only to look up and see several Orca's cruising 100yds off the beach. We hopped in Michael's boat and followed them out around the lighthouse and into very rough water and wind. The 'Keeper of the Keys' refused us further entry and quickly sent us for shore. Little did we know the Keeper had other plans for us). While there we saw Mike several times either out on his kayak or walking up the beach from his trailer. One afternoon we were privileged to be invited by Mike to make the hike up the Mike's Mountain with him to resupply the camp and spend the night. To my knowledge, Yoda, Michael and myself were the only ones ever invited by Mike to hike along or at least certainly the first. Mike didn't think much of socializing, after all, he was the hermit of Bahia. We agreed to meet early the next morning up the wash a piece on the other side of the road south of town. This was the original trail cut by Mike and I believe no one has been on it much since his death. Rafe, is the trail still there or is it gone now. Anyway, early the next morning, loaded with sleeping bag, backpack, camera and several gallons of water for Mike to store at the camp, we headed out to meet up with Mike. For some reason as we headed up the wash at the head of the trail the small talk ended as we began to "step lightly" into the habitat and domain belonging to Mike. After a 15 minute hike we came across Mike sitting on a boulder shaded by a bush alongside the wash silently enjoying the quiet of the Baja morning as I'm sure he did daily. He had a walking stick and like us had a backpack and plastic water jugs and wore a hat, bandana and hiking shoes. As he stood up his nakedness became apparent. Yes, the man was buck naked. I swear at the very moment I could hear a wild burro braying somewhere up in those mountains. He quietly told us this had always been the way he approached the mountain. He then turned and began up the trail and we silently followed him into his domain. Mike led, I followed behind...literally. Only a few times did he stop to rest and I'm sure it was only for our benefit. We arrived at the top of Mike's Mountain a few hours later and were occasionally treated to brief conversations about cutting the trail, how he dug out under the rock to make the cave, how he set up the water collection station on the boulders, the big horned sheep he had once encountered partaking of some of the collected water. We enjoyed one of the best vermilion sunsets I've ever seen and settled in our bags shortly after darkness fell. The next day we came down the mountain and parted ways at the same point as the day before with Mike heading back to his precious solitude, Yoda, Michael and myself to the building project. It was 2 or 3 days before I saw Mike again, I was working on the roof and looked out to the bay and there he was on his kayak paddling down the beach. I waved and he waved back. As I turned back to my nails and hammer I couldn't help but smile and say to myself. Man, wait til I see Rafe! I had come to Bahia just to take a broken truck home, but Bahia had another experience she wanted to share.

Moral of the story.....When hiking up a steep mountain trail for several hours, be aware, you don't want to butt into the person in front and above you...especially if that someone Hike's Like Mike....

Monday, January 16, 2006

Quote of the Day

"I'd rather die than be in pain." Ashley W. after hiking Mike's

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Whale watching at Scammon's Lagoon




We were out of our sleeping bags by sunrise wanting to be the first group to the whale watching boats. Each small boat held ten people and was piloted by a trained boatman. Motoring the small skiffs within a few feet of the huge but gentle animals we were amazed to see their graceful movements as they emerged from the deep. We sited approximately thirty whales and by late February it is estimated that as many as two thousand of these gentle giants will be in the lagoon.

Quote of the Day

"Is there any more hot water that's hot?" (Erin)

Friday, January 13, 2006

Scammon's Lagoon




On Friday, January 13th we drove north from our campsite in Mulege back thru Santa Rosalia to San Ignacio where we ate lunch in the town square. Back on the road again within an hour we were on our way to Scammon’s Lagoon just south of the city of Guerrero Negro. Scammon’s is one of the three lagoons in Baja where the Gray Whale (Eschrichtius Robustus) spends their winter after migrating approximately 6,000 miles from Alaska. They make this trip to mate and give birth every year. The mother whales are approx. 40 – 50 feet in length and weigh around 40 – 50 tons give birth to a cutely little baby 12 – 15 ft. in length and weighing 3/4 of a ton. Scammon’s Lagoon is named after Capt. Charles Scammon who discovered this lagoon in the late eighteen hundreds where after blocking the mouth of the lagoon with his fleet he preceded to slaughter the mother and calf pairs in mass. We became modern day whale hunters only our weapon was alert eyes and camera lenses.

We entered the lagoon by traveling 10 miles off the main highway on a dirt road that crisscrosses over the world’s largest salt-evaporation plant, which is a joint business venture of Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation and the Mexican Commerce Ministry. The lagoon itself is a designated United Nations World Heritage Biosphere. The proximity of international corporate holdings and birthing whales was a poignant living example for our campfire lecture and discussion on Globalization and environmental stewardship.

Our campsite was a beautiful and isolated beach where we watched the sunset, cooked s’mores (though the bathroom facilities left a little to be desired.)

Quote of the Day

"What color is red?" (Libby)

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Update from Mulege


Sorry we haven't posted to the blog lately, but we've been on the road and haven't gotten into an internet cafe until now.

We're in Mulege until tomorrow morning, then off to Guerrero Negro for one night and then whale watching on Saturday morning at Scammons Lagoon, then "home" to Bahia de los Angeles. We've had some great experiences so far on the trip and in the class, making lots of new friends and seeing old ones. We'll post a more complete description of where we've been and what we've been up to when we return to Bahia, but until then we'll leave you with this: Last night's Question of the Day was "What is the worst song you've heard so far in the vans?" Apparently there is lots of bad music floating around our vans!

We'll check back in a couple of days with a more complete report.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Quote of the Day

"If I die, my headlamp will totally save my life." Carolyn on the blinking feature of her headlamp.

Monday, January 09, 2006

Quote of the Day

"Verbize is an action, therefore it's a noun." (Dawn Nicole)

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Quote of the Day

"This is fluffy, soft, showery hair." (David S., after a shower in campground at San Ignacio)

Friday, January 06, 2006

Greetings from the Vermilion Sea Field Station

Well, we made it to Bahia de los Angeles yesterday about 5pm. We had a good two-day trip down here, and will be leaving for points south tomorrow morning (see our itinerary below).

The trip to this point in Baja is a journey of contrasts. As we cross the border at Tijuana and travel through Ensenada, there is a fairly large population and lots of "American style" stores and housing developments. But once you head out of Ensenada, we start to see the more sparsely populated parts of Baja, small "colonias" of a couple of hundred people at the most, mostly open spaces and desert, cactus, scrub plants and the like.

We've already had some interesting and challenging situations, and everyone has risen to the challenges we have faced. Just after lunch on Tuesday, as we were heading into the final stretch before setting up camp in Colonia Vicente Guerrero, we blew a tire on the trailer...which meant stopping and changing the tire. No hay problema! On Wednesday as we approached our campsite at Catavina, Rafe's van--pulling the trailer--got stuck in some deep sand. Everyone piled out of each van, we unloaded and unhooked the trailer, moved the trailer out of the way, dug under the rear tires and placed rocks under each tire and drove out of the sand, re-loaded and re-hooked the trailer, and entered the campsite from a different road. All in the space of an hour. Everyone pitched in and as someone has said, many hands made light(er) work--although very dirty!

We'll post more as we get all of our equipment set up, but all is well, and everyone is gradually getting into the local motion of Baja.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

From Colonia Vicente Guerrero to Catavina


We made our first stop at Don Pepe's camp ground in Colonia Vicente Guerrero yesterday about 3pm, just in time to unload the trailor, set up the tents and get dinner cooked and served.

After dinner, we had a discussion around the campfire about the different observations the students had made to that point in the trip, and read aloud from John Steinbeck's, _Log from the Sea of Cortez_. Steinbeck asks what it is that drives people to pursue the things they do, whether poets, scientists, or adventurers. For Steinbeck, his "unlimited curiosity" about the life patterns of the Sea of Cortez could only be satisfied by an expedition such as they undertook. They went, he says, "wide open [to] see what we see, record what we find, and not fool ourselves with any conventional scientific strictures."

As we reflected on our reading and discussion of Stienbeck, while heading for some of the same places that he had seen--and more--we saw that it was also our goal to go "all out" to the extent that we can, to discover as much as we can about the nature, beauty, and people of Baja, and in the end, about ourselves.

Sunday, January 01, 2006

Where in Baja is Biola?


During the three weeks we're in Baja we'll travel more than 700 miles south of the border. We'll be traveling in large vans making frequent stops for roadside rambles, both for lectures and observations of the landscape and the towns. In general, we will not be in places where we can be reached, however, there are internet cafes in several of the towns we visit, so we will have intermittant access to email.

Here is our itinerary, as we have planned it. We will be in these loctions more-or-less on the days listed. I've included a notation next to the towns we know have internet access, and a link to more informtion about each of our different stops.

Use the map to see where we are as we travel around Baja.

Jan 3 Camp in Colonia Vicente Guerrero near San Quintin. Here's the weather forcast for San Quintin.

Jan 4 San Quintin to Catavina. Weather for Catavina.

Jan 5 Catavina to Bahia de los Angeles. Our home base throughout the program is the Vermilion Sea Field Station (internet) Weather for Bahia de los Angeles.

Jan 7 Bahia de los Angeles to San Ignacio (internet two years ago, not last year, so...), traveling through Guerrero Negro (and enjoying a legendary almuerzo de tacos pescado at Tacos Henry!). Weather for San Ignacio.

Jan 9 San Ignacio to El Coyote on Bahia de la Concepcion, with stops in Santa Rosalia and Mulege. Bahia de la Concepcion is the bay just south of Mulege. Here's the Mulege area weather.

Jan 11 Bahia Concepcion to Mulege (internet)

Jan 13 Mulege to Guerrero Negro and Scammons Lagoon. Weather for Guerrero Negro.

Jan 14 Guerrero Negro to Bahia Los Angeles

Jan 21 Bahia Los Angeles to Biola

Note that these dates are subject to change due to variables such as weather, fuel supply, and road and sea conditions over which we have no control. But that's a life lesson in itself....

What is Biola Baja?


The "Baja class" is a three-week long Interterm (January) program in which students and professors from three classes travel together throughout Baja California, Mexico, observing, writing, reading, discussing and experiencing Baja. It follows, what program founder Rafe Payne has called the "Janovy method": "a ramble...punctuated with discoveries."

The Baja program at Biola University was pioneered by Rafe Payne, Professor of Biological Sciences, over 25 years ago as consisting of a class titled, "The Natural History of Baja California." Over the years the program has grown to include two additional classes: an Art seminar taught by Dan Callis, "Visual Studies in Baja" and a Sociology field research class taught by Richard Flory, "Baja California in Social and Cultural Context."