Baja California Sur - Mexico
If you look at images of North America’s west coast taken from space there is an easy to recognize section in the shape of a finger at the southwest corner. This finger shaped peninsula is the Baja California belonging to Mexico’s territory. While there might often be cloud cover on the mainland - the usual cloudless Baja California is to be recognized clear and cloudless, reflecting the normal weather conditions on this strip of land: sunny and warm. A big part of the Baja California is desert and high sierra country and there are places without rainfall for years. Never the less, despite its dryness, the peninsula brings out in some places the most amazing desert vegetation. Many of the plants in Baja California are endemic i.e. they are native Baja plants and not found anywhere else on this planet. Many wild birds use the Baja California as winter quarters migrating from north to this outstanding location. The most spectacular representative of the animal world that visits the Baja is the Grey Whale. This gigantic animal migrates up to 20,000 kilometers round trip every year to give birth and utilizes the rich waters of the lagoons as a nursery and then returns to the arctic seas of Alaska. The three primary lagoons that the whales seek in Baja California are Scammon’s (named after a notorious whale hunter in the 1850’s who discovered the lagoons and later became one of the first protectors of the Greys), San Ignacio and Magdalena. These destinations are known for whale watching and eco tourism activities.
A well-known Mexican writer called Baja California once “El otro Mexico” (the other Mexico). Indeed the peninsula resembles hardly any other part of Mexico, actually also no other area on this planet. Mexico’s mainland and the Baja are separated by the Sea of Cortez ,also referred to as the Gulf of California. They have very little in common except language and politics.
There is word one either loves the Baja or hates the Baja. What is the reason for that? Is it the untamed wilderness and uninhabited ranges on this Mexican peninsula that give you the feeling time has stopped? Is it the amazing beauty that is for others a ugly monotony of landscape? The Baja has many opposites with its unique mixture of desert and sea. This website will introduce you the southern part, the Baja California Sur, striving to provide a wide range of information for the interested visitor or another future habitant.
