I just came back from a trip to La Bufadora in Mexico. As usual, the organization of a trip like this one was hectic and at some points complicated. Everytime I wanted to head down to Mexico, my fear always came first – what if I got lost, what if my car was broken, what if I could not get back across the border…I decided to conquer all the fear this time. So I ignored all the logistic mess and planned a solo driving down to the Baja – I determined to go regardless what would happen.
It started on Friday 8/26. I met up with Remi and Bill and headed down south. There was some traffic but totally manageable. We were asked a few questions at the border. One Mexican security lady even told us that SCUBA tanks full of gas were not allowed to cross. We were puzzled but politely recognized the regulation. She was nice enough to let us pass.
The road to Encenada was beautiful. It was paved brand new with easy to recognize signs. It was a cool drive. We were staying at Pam’s Place. It was an interesting house – all the rooms had open ceilings so we could hear every bit of sound from everyone. Although late, we all felt hungry. We had to drive all the way back to Route 22 to La Bufadora split. We found a taco place that looked clean enough. The food turned out to be very nice too. I engulfed 4 tacos. Would have had more but it was too late to eat that much of food. We then headed back to Pam’s place and just went to sleep.
The diving started in the early morning around 9. We met Dale at the ramp. For years, Dale’s operation has not changed. It still took a huge amount of effort to launch the panga. To be frank, I felt a bit painful just to watch the process, especially thinking how much our life was controlled by automated machines or devices. But nevertheless, the condition was good so we encountered no major issue of put the panga onto the water.
We would have more people on Sunday, our second day diving, and pinnacles on the north would be a must-go. To avoid doing the same trip, we decided to go to south on our first day diving. There were only 4 of us on the boat so it was roomy. We spent the first dive at ‘The Candle Stick’ – two pinnacles side by side with the tips covered by bird dumps. For the second dive, we were going to the pinnacle just barely submerged underwater. Finding this pinnacle was known to be difficult without a GPS guidance. We had no luck this time. So we did our second dive at a site called ‘Pointe Enscondido’.
After the diving we had much of the afternoon with ourselves. All of us had a bite at Dale’s new taco place. It was a typical street food in Mexico and it tasted good. We went back to Pam’s place. I cleaned my gear, dried my suite, and prepared my camera. Everything was set for the second day.
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We had dinner at an American restaurant, headed back, chatted a bit, and then went to sleep.
On Sunday morning, we met with other folks who spent the previous day in Rosarita and dove Uribe. Now we had two pangas and both went to the north.
We dove the famous north pinnacle and the little one right next to it. The highlight of the dive was the purple hydrocoral. The rich color and abundant life on the pinnacles are remarkable. However, I did feel that the density of life, such as nudibranchs, star fish, and aggregating anemone declined a bit. In some area the sea urchins are so dominant that the area looked a bit devastating. In certain patches the kelp was dense, but the stems and the fonds were covered with grayish patches, probably a sign of unhealthy conditions. I hope the cold water would take over in the near future and all the life comes back to its peak.
In the afternoon, I started my trip back to the US. This was first time driving solo in Mexico. Everything looked new to me. I realized that it has been a long time since I felt excitement or even a bit of adrenaline rush to have drive a road. The challenge came when I arrived at the border. It was the prime time on a Sunday afternoon. The line started even from the side street far away from the check point. But I was mentally prepared. In fact, the waiting was okay. It was the people watching that made a bit sad. It started fun – people walked by the cars selling all kinds of things. I had to admit they got some imaginations. But at some point, I saw handicapped people, sick people, homeless people asking food for surviving. They wore trash bags, held trash bags to beg, and ate trash. It was sad to watch.
It took me 4.5 hours to pass the border and was nice to be back home. To me, La Bufadora felt like a cool place on the backyard and it was a cool experience to pay a visit.