November 16, 1998
Mulege, Baja California Sur, Mexico

It has been almost a month since my father and I paddled away from San Felipe. Many note-worthy and exicting things have happened in that time, but I have been unable to send email until this very moment, and I only have access to this computer for another 10 mintues, so I won't even bother to try and fit it all in, but I will do my best to summerize our experience, and give you a few of the high points. When I get to La Paz I will up date the site with my full journals which I have been keeping in a note book.

Most paddling days, we get up before sunrise. The morning air is cold and we usually need to put on a pants and a sweater. There are very few bugs, so we have not been puting up the tent lately, prefering to sleep under the stars. Our breakfast options include oatmeal, pancakes, and granola.

We are on the water between 7 to 9am. The wind is usually out of the North, providing following seas, which have been favorible, except during our paddle between Santa Rosalia and Punta Chivato, and Punta Chivato and Mulege when the seas got a bit too large for my father's liking. He has actually done very well considering he had never been in a sea kayak before starting on this journey last month.

So far we have seen dozens of pods of dolphins, huge sea turtles, many sea lions, and countless other awesome sites - such as manta rays jumping 6 feet out of the water doing flips. One morning, we paddled into a pod of at least ten Fin Back Whales, the second largest animal on earth, and one surfaced between our kayaks - appoximately 40 feet apart. We also swam with Whale Sharks, which are the largest shark species(yet harmless to humans).

The snorkling and spear fishing is extraordinary. I have yet to leave the water without a large fish on the end of my spear gun. I am getting to be an expert at preparing different meals of fish. I have also caught, cooked, and ate octopus and stingray. The water is much colder than I expected, but it still enjoyible for swimming

We have not had any problem with drinking water, expect when a cyote stole almost all our water one night while we were sleeping. We lasted for almost 2 days with less than 2 liters of water between us before getting to the next town.

Our experiences with people have been nothing but grand - both with other various travelers and the local Mexicans. We are heading into Bahia Conception tomorrow, and will then continue to Loreto, where we will leave our kayaks and travel by bus to La Paz, so my father can be sure he won't miss his plane home. I will bus back to Loreto and continue my journey again from there.

This store was supposed to close a half hour ago. The lady has been very kind to let me write as much as I have, so I better rap this up. Adios!