Heading North from San Jose del Cabo

As previously mentioned, we finally departed the East Cape of Baja after nearly 6 months of playing in the waters of the Sea of Cortez.  The "East Cape" refers to the bulge of land northeast of Cabo at the southern tip of Baja.  As we started our drive north we camped at a few beaches on the Pacific side (San Pedrito, La Pastora and El Canejo) where the air and water temperature were at least 10 - 20F lower than the Sea of Cortez side.  This was a good thing as the daytime temperatures were definitely creeping towards 100F down in the Cabo area.

After driving inland north of La Paz, the highway heads back to the Sea of Cortez where we spent some really hot nights at Juncalito Beach and San Lucas Cove south of Santa Rosalia.

Our first stop on the hot Sea of Cortez side, was Juncalito beach. The views here are fantastic.  The backdrop to the beach are gigantic mountains (aptly named "La Giganta") while the view across the water is similarly pleasant.  We stayed here on Father's Day which turns out to be a huge day of partying on the beach for mom, dad, and the kids.  We later learned from our new amigos at San Lucas Cove (see below) that Father's Day often times causes "cabeza grande".  I think my dad used to call it "football head" - that certain headache you get after a long day of football Saturday drinking.

La Giganta mountains behind Heather and Scott fishing at Juncalito beach

Clam ceviche served in it's own shell

Our stop at San Lucas Cove was a last minute decision that turned out to be interesting but definitely not worth it.  Our camping spot was on a defunct, sketchy campground where we thought we could at least camp for free (no toilets, no water, etc.).  We didn't fall asleep until at least 4 am because it was so hot.   That morning at 7:30 am, some random lady from the RV park next door came over to collect 100 pesos (!!) for camping.  She WOKE us up with annoying, endless yells of "hola, buenos dias, hola, buenos dias, hola (and on and on)". Neither of us were awake enough to object, so we handed over the money and tried to get at least an hour more of sleep.  In the big scheme of things, $8 for camping isn't a big deal but we have been in some amazing locations for the past 7 months and haven't had to pay a dime.  I guess we are getting spoiled.  So, for the interesting part of San Lucas Cove...  As soon as we arrived, a local Mexican invited us next door to his friends' house to eat fresh clam ceviche.  He shucked the clams, squirted some lime juice on them, which caused them to squirm a bit, and then we ate them with saltines and hot sauce.  Really, really tasty.  You will notice in the picture, Scott was enjoying it so much, he couldn't keep his mouth empty long enough for a picture.  It's during these moments where I'm reminded of our horrible Spanish.  I really need to pick up the pace on learning some better Spanish.

Scott with his new amigos (with a face full of clams)

We are now on the Pacific side and won't head back to the Sea of Cortez until the end of October as it's very hot and getting hotter.