Sea Kayaking!

I’ve been looking forward to going Kayaking since I arrived in Loreto. The sole reason for my time away from the waves. Other than my journey to whale camp I spent my days helping the guides prepare for trips, cleaning gear and organizing. Watching the guides paddle away with guests, heading towards the islands was hard for my adventurous spirit to bear. My chance arrived! The day before departure we packed all the food and equipment we would need for two nights out on the water. Our tour was small, only five guests. We were two guides, the boat driver, and me. ROW has a classy way of sea kayaking here in Baja, there is a support boat that carries all the food, water, gear and libations.

The northernmost point of Isla Danzante

Axel, our lead guide did the pre-trip orientation. During his talk, Jackie, one of the guests raised her hand and asked if she could be paired with someone who wouldn’t mind paddling while she took videos. Axel immediately pointed to me and said, “Alex needs the paddling practice, you’ll go with him.” The next morning we met the guests at the waters edge. Axel did another round of explanations, we divided gear and we were off. 

Our plan for the day was to paddle across the channel to Isla Danzante where we would eat lunch and continue to our campground on Isla Carmen. We were blessed with incredible weather. Wind is a serious factor in Baja and will shut down, or make sea kayaking quite challenging. Our first two days we had no wind after the wind ripping the week before, reaching gusts of 25 mph. We island hopped to our campground without difficulty, we even had time to go snorkelling. The world under the water is stupendously varied in Baja. There are so many vibrant fish, every way you look there is something to catch the eye. 

ROW cooking is decadent. Valente, our Pangero (boat driver), was an incredibly skilled chef and really patient with me, showing me the ROW way to camp set up. There is wine, liquor and appetizers served before dinner commenced. Every night there is a cake baked in a dutch oven. My duties were few, but I performed them with gusto, my main task was spending time with the guests and of course paddling. 

I really enjoyed the flow of ROW’s kayaking tour, we never paddled more than four hours a day. There were plenty of opportunities to snorkel, hike and chill. There was such a rugged beauty out on the islands. The desert and sea combination is absolutely magical, sunrises turned the mountains orange, the life under the sea continued to amaze and our highlight was getting surrounded by a huge pod of bottlenose dolphins. They were chasing a school of fish and kept us entertained with their speedy antics. I fell in love with sea kayaking, the equivalent of backpacking on the ocean. I have been invited to go out on a ten day paddle from Loreto to La Paz in March.