Baja is Green
Within a few days Baja has changed from brown to green. Baja has had so much rain this season that it is amazingly green everywhere you look. It's been 45 years since Baja had this much rain. There were several monsoonal rain storms in the summer that were followed by rain from 2 hurricanes, Miriam and Paul. So there has been 2+ months of rain that has caused so much green growth. Not only is there grass that is 2 feet tall, there are a large variety of plants, shrubs, trees, cactus, and wildflowers. The green combined with the red rock formations of the (Sierra de la Gigante) mountains is stunning. As we were sailing down the coast, looking at these rocky mountains that looked soft and velvety green, it made us think of the Na Pali coast in Kaui, Hawaii. It was easy to imagine that we were somewhere in the south pacific. There are even large amounts of vines covering the shrubs and trees that give it a tropical appearance. There are rivers and streams running that are normally dry. With all the water and plants around, there has been a population explosion of insects! The mosquitoes have been especially bad. We try not to go out of the boat at dusk. Most of the restaurants are open air which makes it difficult to go out to eat without the mosquitoes eating us for their dinner. There are so many mosquitoes that they're out during the day also. Many people here at Puerto Escondido carry a small towel with them to constantly swish around their face and head to keep the mosquitoes and gnats away. It's kind of comical to watch everyone swishing their towels around their faces. Normally there are no mosquitoes on Baja because it's such a dry environment. There have been 1000's of butterflies, white, yellow, and orange and black, that are beautiful to see. Also, 1000's of grasshoppers have appeared, jumping and flying around. After Hurricane Paul, there were grasshoppers all over the water, swimming and trying to fly away, but mostly they drowned. If one was lucky enough to swim close to our anchor chain, it would crawl up the chain. When we wanted to sit in a chair at the marina we would have to brush off about 20 grasshoppers in order to use the chair. Every time we drive to Loreto and back (15 mi. each way) we have to clean our windshield because it has so many butterflies and bugs splattered all over it. Last year we didn't have any bug screens for our hatches and we didn't need them. This year we bought bug screens and we're sure glad we did because we've certainly needed them. At least inside our boat is a bug free environment.