The Baja Desert Turns Green and So Do We

Get your head out of the gutter.

I recently blogged about the epic, 10-year rain that we experienced while staying at Punta San Carlos (PSC).  Following the rain, we ended up staying for nearly 6 weeks. It allowed us to witness the desert in all of its flowering, green glory.  The pictures never seem to capture how amazing it was.  Perhaps it's because what is normally in the place of the green flora and bright flowers are brown, dead-looking plants. The contrast is what's so amazing and otherwise can't be captured in a picture.  Besides the abundance of plant-life, we also witnessed a bloom of caterpillars, moths, and butterflies.

There's something fascinating about these dangerous and painful cactus' with soft, gentle flowers

Do these fat caterpillars turn into bird-sized moths?

This poor hummingbird thought he/she hit the desert-flower jackpot! The hummingbird-sized bug was more successful.

On a less pleasing note, about 3 weeks into our stay, we made the 3.5-hour drive out to the nearest town (El Rosario) to get food and water.  The day after we returned, we both came down with what we thought was a nasty case of food poisoning that ended up lasting nearly a week.  We later learned that a gastrointestinal virus was going around El Rosario which I have no doubt we contracted.  For 2 days straight, all we did was sleep, moan, and stumble to the outhouse.   Between the two of us, we probably lost 20 lbs.

We left PSC a few days ago and are now on our way south feeling healthy and strong, enjoying the continued desert greenery.