Cataviña - magic desert
After waving goodbye to Rojo and Dina and watching them drive North onthe Mex 1 highway, we made our hitching sign for our next stop, Cataviña.
Cataviña is magical.
As you approach the tiny town, a couple of hours South of San Qunitin on Mex 1, the whole desert changes, seemingly in the blink of an eye. Giant red boulders and a vast array of cactus, live all over this area, mysterious and beautiful, this place for us, is the heart of Baja.
After about forty minutes of standing on the road side,waving our sign for Cataviña and hoping a ride would come soon, a sweet gentle guy called Pete stopped and cordially invited us to hop in. Pete is a farmer, traveller and geologist from Montana. Our drive to Cataviña was peaceful and pleasant, we enjoyed Pete's knowledge and musings over the variuous cactus growing in the wonderful desert that embraces Cataviña.
We arrived at Cataviña, where we pícked up some food at one of the little stores. We bought advocadoes, bananas, refried beans, a tin of tuna and some potatoes, some butter, some tomatoes and some beer and cigarettes and tinfoil for baking the potatoes and bananas and some much needed water. Pete very graciously waited for us and took us back 2km to the mouth ofthe arroyo (dried river) which was where we had our hearts set on camping for a night or two.
We had visited Cataviña on our last trip to Baja and were immediately enchanted by its beauty.We had found the arroyo kind of by mistake one day, when we had intended to go and see some cave paintings, made by the Cochimis people whom once inhabited Baja. We had gotten lost and wandered deep into the arroyo, a seemingly endless trail into gigantic boulder hills which tower over you on each side of the valley. We hadn't realised at the time that the painted cave was actually quite close to the highway and up a hill, rather than into the arroyo ( though I am quite sure that there lie more Cochimis paintings undiscovered in this area). Our time in the arroyo had been magical, hence our desire to sleep in its lap for a night or two, as we hadn' t yet spent the night in the desert.
A few people had told us that it was a bad idea to camp in Cataviña beacause of banditos (criminals that come and do bad things to folks who stray from the tourist trail) in the area. They no doubt exist in the Baja, as they do in London, Paris and every other place we have ever been to, except there seem to be more banditos in the big cities of the world. We hadbeen told very gruesome stories of travellers being killed and robbed by the banditos and later, we were told that the Mexican Army had staked out in the desert, beneath the guise of a tourist tourist camper home. The banditos had come calling, only to be greeted by a thousand rounds of gun fire from the army. No more banditos no more baby! Who knows how true or accurate any of the stories we hear on our travels are, often passed by a thosand lips or more before they reach us, no doubt a pinch of romance or horror to spice up the punch of the tale is added somewhere along the way and that's part of the fun of stories I guess.
We decided to chance it and go with our dream of sleeping in the desert rather than let the fear enducing stories that we had heard, force us into a camping park for the night, that would have felt a bit like swimming in a swimming pool and looking out at the beautiful, vast ocean.
Before we set up camp, we wanted to go see the cave paintings that had eluded us on our last visit....The paintings live up on top of a small hill made of boulders, inside a small jaw like cave. The Cochimis lived all over Baja but were forced to hide the meanings and rituals of their legacy, from the Spanish Invaders whom eventually massacred them or converted them to Christianity, so much of the meanings behind the paintings is lost to the sands of time. In the mouth of the burning arroyo though, it is very easy to dream, awake of these simple, mystical people and their spirits seem to reside in every part of this place. There is something else here too.
The stars....With the sun descending, we walked a km or so into the mouth of the arroyo and put up our tent. As the twilight gave way to the dark, dark blue desert night sky, abillion, milion starts came out to play. There are no street lights in Cataviña, so the cold and beautiful stars shine in all their magical desert glory. Many questions enter our minds when faced with the spectacular sight of the universe all around us. At once overcome by the beauty as it shimmers and twinkles and transformsour eyes, we wonder what it is, what we are , why we are, if any reason at all. Will we ever know what this universe is all about. Does it matter? So many questions and so little time in which to find even one answer, so I'll leave it to the theologians to work it out between themselves while I crack on with our story. . .
We built a camp fire from various bits of drift wood and dead cactus and palm which was scattered all over the area. For dinner we baked the potatoes in foil on the hot coals of the fire and ate them with tuna and refried beans, we also mashed up the avocadoes and tomatoes and had guacamole and nachos. The food was most welcome and there is a real basic satisfaction in cooking over a camp fire. We have no pots or pans due to the weight of our other bits and pieces, we have two tin cups which are great for herb tea or making guacamole in and of course foil is good for cooking also. We begin to feel the sandy, dusty fingers of the desert entering our pores, our hair, our clothes and tent and we don't mind one bit, it feels good.
Cataviña, with its stunning beautiful desert and magical arroyo is a place that we are happy grateful to meet again and we are humbly grateful to the majestic arroyo which kept us safe and sheltered for the night, undisturbed by human, animal or bandito. I couldn't help feeling that if we had poked our heads outside of the tent at some bewitched hour of the night, we may, just for a second, have seen the guardian, sacred spirits ofthe Cochimis people standing on the giant boulders, looking down at us, knowing who we were, where we were going and a whole lot of other stuff that we have yet to discover for ourselves.
Cataviña is magical.
As you approach the tiny town, a couple of hours South of San Qunitin on Mex 1, the whole desert changes, seemingly in the blink of an eye. Giant red boulders and a vast array of cactus, live all over this area, mysterious and beautiful, this place for us, is the heart of Baja.
After about forty minutes of standing on the road side,waving our sign for Cataviña and hoping a ride would come soon, a sweet gentle guy called Pete stopped and cordially invited us to hop in. Pete is a farmer, traveller and geologist from Montana. Our drive to Cataviña was peaceful and pleasant, we enjoyed Pete's knowledge and musings over the variuous cactus growing in the wonderful desert that embraces Cataviña.
We arrived at Cataviña, where we pícked up some food at one of the little stores. We bought advocadoes, bananas, refried beans, a tin of tuna and some potatoes, some butter, some tomatoes and some beer and cigarettes and tinfoil for baking the potatoes and bananas and some much needed water. Pete very graciously waited for us and took us back 2km to the mouth ofthe arroyo (dried river) which was where we had our hearts set on camping for a night or two.
We had visited Cataviña on our last trip to Baja and were immediately enchanted by its beauty.We had found the arroyo kind of by mistake one day, when we had intended to go and see some cave paintings, made by the Cochimis people whom once inhabited Baja. We had gotten lost and wandered deep into the arroyo, a seemingly endless trail into gigantic boulder hills which tower over you on each side of the valley. We hadn't realised at the time that the painted cave was actually quite close to the highway and up a hill, rather than into the arroyo ( though I am quite sure that there lie more Cochimis paintings undiscovered in this area). Our time in the arroyo had been magical, hence our desire to sleep in its lap for a night or two, as we hadn' t yet spent the night in the desert.
A few people had told us that it was a bad idea to camp in Cataviña beacause of banditos (criminals that come and do bad things to folks who stray from the tourist trail) in the area. They no doubt exist in the Baja, as they do in London, Paris and every other place we have ever been to, except there seem to be more banditos in the big cities of the world. We hadbeen told very gruesome stories of travellers being killed and robbed by the banditos and later, we were told that the Mexican Army had staked out in the desert, beneath the guise of a tourist tourist camper home. The banditos had come calling, only to be greeted by a thousand rounds of gun fire from the army. No more banditos no more baby! Who knows how true or accurate any of the stories we hear on our travels are, often passed by a thosand lips or more before they reach us, no doubt a pinch of romance or horror to spice up the punch of the tale is added somewhere along the way and that's part of the fun of stories I guess.
We decided to chance it and go with our dream of sleeping in the desert rather than let the fear enducing stories that we had heard, force us into a camping park for the night, that would have felt a bit like swimming in a swimming pool and looking out at the beautiful, vast ocean.
Before we set up camp, we wanted to go see the cave paintings that had eluded us on our last visit....The paintings live up on top of a small hill made of boulders, inside a small jaw like cave. The Cochimis lived all over Baja but were forced to hide the meanings and rituals of their legacy, from the Spanish Invaders whom eventually massacred them or converted them to Christianity, so much of the meanings behind the paintings is lost to the sands of time. In the mouth of the burning arroyo though, it is very easy to dream, awake of these simple, mystical people and their spirits seem to reside in every part of this place. There is something else here too.
The stars....With the sun descending, we walked a km or so into the mouth of the arroyo and put up our tent. As the twilight gave way to the dark, dark blue desert night sky, abillion, milion starts came out to play. There are no street lights in Cataviña, so the cold and beautiful stars shine in all their magical desert glory. Many questions enter our minds when faced with the spectacular sight of the universe all around us. At once overcome by the beauty as it shimmers and twinkles and transformsour eyes, we wonder what it is, what we are , why we are, if any reason at all. Will we ever know what this universe is all about. Does it matter? So many questions and so little time in which to find even one answer, so I'll leave it to the theologians to work it out between themselves while I crack on with our story. . .
We built a camp fire from various bits of drift wood and dead cactus and palm which was scattered all over the area. For dinner we baked the potatoes in foil on the hot coals of the fire and ate them with tuna and refried beans, we also mashed up the avocadoes and tomatoes and had guacamole and nachos. The food was most welcome and there is a real basic satisfaction in cooking over a camp fire. We have no pots or pans due to the weight of our other bits and pieces, we have two tin cups which are great for herb tea or making guacamole in and of course foil is good for cooking also. We begin to feel the sandy, dusty fingers of the desert entering our pores, our hair, our clothes and tent and we don't mind one bit, it feels good.
Cataviña, with its stunning beautiful desert and magical arroyo is a place that we are happy grateful to meet again and we are humbly grateful to the majestic arroyo which kept us safe and sheltered for the night, undisturbed by human, animal or bandito. I couldn't help feeling that if we had poked our heads outside of the tent at some bewitched hour of the night, we may, just for a second, have seen the guardian, sacred spirits ofthe Cochimis people standing on the giant boulders, looking down at us, knowing who we were, where we were going and a whole lot of other stuff that we have yet to discover for ourselves.
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