Small Cruise Provides Big Adventures

July 20, 2015

By Lauren Buchholz

There are hundreds of ways to fall in love with Baja California.

Maybe it’s the waving fluke of a blue whale as she pilots her sandbar-size body through waters less than fifty yards from your ship. Perhaps it’s kindled while you search for geodes on a beach lined with sea caves and hermit crabs. It might be in the way the night sky becomes a gallery of constellations, or simply in the aroma of fresh lobster being cooked for dinner.

Whatever reason compels you to open your heart to Baja California, you’re bound to find it when you join Captain Bill Bailey aboard the M.V. Westward for a life-changing journey along the peninsula.

It might be in the way the night sky becomes a gallery of constellations, or simply in the aroma of fresh lobster being cooked for dinner.

Bienvenidos a Baja California

I joined the Westward as she traveled north from La Paz to Loreto earlier this year. Although the ship has a long history of working in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, this was her first season in the Sea of Cortez.

Our small group of travelers was met at the Los Cabos airport by Captain Bill and the ship’s chef, Tracie. From there we had a two-hour drive north to La Paz, the port of departure for our six-day cruise north from La Paz to Loreto earlier this year.

Although the ship has a long history of working in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, this was her first season in the Sea of Cortez.

During the drive to La Paz, Bill was our tour guide as well as our driver. We scanned the desert landscape as he pointed out cardón cacti (a larger cousin of the saguaro) and a plethora of birds, including a blue-beaked crested caracara. We passed several small towns north of Los Cabos where tourism development projects appeared to have been abandoned. Bill told us these communities were slowly recovering from Hurricane Odile, a Class 4 hurricane that had swept across the peninsula the previous fall.

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