Team Equipt is in Baja!

Fernweh

Supporting Sponsor
Congratulation, looks like a real nice trip down there with lot's of fun.

Yeah, we did the "other" road into Aqua Verde together with Harald. I had my Adventure Horizon trailer hooked to the G-wagen and the road was quite rough.

Sorry, no pictures from that interesting descend....it was at night time and we all wanted to get down to the beach for dinner.

Looking forward to that special fish dinner on Feb 6.....can't wait.

6199212ayr.jpg
 

BlackX

Adventurer
IMG_5767.jpg


Got to camp by this killer Toyota 70 Series rig in Guerrero Negro where we stayed at the Malarrimo Hotel. They have great camp spots behind the hotel and hot showers! This is a very safe place to stay when doing this stretch.

I'm pretty sure it was Paul I met at Mallarrimo. This 70 series must have spent several days there if you both crossed paths with it. Had a drink with Paul at the hotel and told him about our breakdown in the desert outside of San Francisquito and our 7 hour tow to Guerrero Negro. (No it wasn't my trusty Xterra that let us down. It was my friends truck.) :) We ended up making it all the way down to Cabo Pulmo so the trip worked out.

Anyway, I'm back in San Diego and quite a bit jealous that you guys are still having a great time down there. Keep the pictures coming.
 

4x4abc

Adventurer
Joaquin,

stupid me - I really thought this forum was about sharing information and knowledge - forming (on occasion) valuable relationships in the process.
Having a few beers together and enjoying the good life.

Thank you for pointing out that this forum is different than the others where everyone is sharing.
 

abeaudin1971

Adventurer
Hey guys,

I spent a couple of weeks in Baja, a couple of years ago and really like hanging out at Los Cerritos - your pics reminded me of that.

I enjoyed Baja - on or off the beaten track - keep the reports coming.

-a
 

4x4abc

Adventurer
Joaquin,

I completely agree - certain things should not be published (yet). I have not and I will not.

Team Equipt is following the same rule. I have asked them not publish the best place for fish and of none of their paradise beaches they show anything more than images. No GPS, no nada.

And their wonderful reports inspire others to travel, to explore. Isn't that what this forum is about?
To promote their business? Well maybe. And why not. And Expedition Portal isn't a non-profit organization either.

However, if the stuff made it already onto maps or into GoggleEarth and forum members are asking for verification, I will certainly help.

By the way, the "backdoor" int Agua Verde has been in place now for several years and can be found on any map - so, no secrets here. See image

agua-verde.jpg
 

4x4abc

Adventurer
Joaquin,

lets start an initiative - Foreigners Out! (of Baja)
but let us go in

seriously, I am all with you - but how can we convince others to keep a low profile?
 

4x4abc

Adventurer
Joaquin,

in my experience only a handful of travelers will ever go where I go. Might be similar with Team Equipt.
Rarely ever do I see new tire tracks where I have been. Most adventure travelers stick to pavement, few venture on graded dirt roads. Rarely anyone ventures into areas that are not on the map.

It is no accident that the cave paintings have been discovered so late. People normally do not leave their comfort zone. And to discover the unknown, you have to leave your comfort zone way behind. Remember Columbus?

The serious damage to Baja has been through real estate developers. They use Google Earth and airplanes to find the remaining paradise beaches. Then they buy large parcels, bulldoze a road in and post an armed guard.

Some of my formerly secrete beaches have no houses and, even though the beach is government property, we all are forcefully kept out.

So, I think we have to look at the issue a little more differentiated.
 

shahram

Adventurer
I'm laughing my *** off at the idea that someone thinks anything in Baja is a friggin' secret. Yeah, Joaquin, you're a regular Meriwether Lewis, and the rest of the people who talk about Baja in glorious detail are giving away your "secrets". Reminds me of guys who lay claim to surf spots, saying they "discovered" them. Just because you surfed or camped there once or twice...or hell, for 36 years...certainly doesn't mean you're the first. Or the only.

And as far as I've seen in my experience in Baja (not 36 years, a mere 20), backcountry exploring gringos are the least of the region's worries. No one "disrespects" Baja California's wilderness more than the locals. I've seen gringos pull some stupid stunts, but I've never seen one leave six Hefty™ bags of basura con pañales on a previously clean beach, for the dogs to tear up, after an Easter family camping holiday.

And mega-millionaire land developers aren't perusing ExPo to look for their next Playa Azul project...they've got locals doing it for them. Mexico is beckoning foreign investment money like never before. And development is happening, whether you or I like it or not. Would I like Baja to remain wild? Yeah. But when I (like many explorers) leave Baja, I come home to a job and a steady income. I know a few people in Baja who would like that too, and development brings jobs and money.

Sorry, your secret that never was a secret...turns out it ain't a secret anymore. You should enjoy it for as long as it lasts...

That's just my $0.24MXN ($0.02 USD).
 

Box Rocket

Well-known member
I'm laughing my *** off at the idea that someone thinks anything in Baja is a friggin' secret. Yeah, Joaquin, you're a regular Meriwether Lewis, and the rest of the people who talk about Baja in glorious detail are giving away your "secrets". Reminds me of guys who lay claim to surf spots, saying they "discovered" them. Just because you surfed or camped there once or twice...or hell, for 36 years...certainly doesn't mean you're the first. Or the only.

And as far as I've seen in my experience in Baja (not 36 years, a mere 20), backcountry exploring gringos are the least of the region's worries. No one "disrespects" Baja California's wilderness more than the locals. I've seen gringos pull some stupid stunts, but I've never seen one leave six Hefty™ bags of basura con pañales on a previously clean beach, for the dogs to tear up, after an Easter family camping holiday.

And mega-millionaire land developers aren't perusing ExPo to look for their next Playa Azul project...they've got locals doing it for them. Mexico is beckoning foreign investment money like never before. And development is happening, whether you or I like it or not. Would I like Baja to remain wild? Yeah. But when I (like many explorers) leave Baja, I come home to a job and a steady income. I know a few people in Baja who would like that too, and development brings jobs and money.

Sorry, your secret that never was a secret...turns out it ain't a secret anymore. You should enjoy it for as long as it lasts...

That's just my $0.24MXN ($0.02 USD).

I'm afraid that I agree with this. Now back to more photos. :)
 

shahram

Adventurer
Shahram,

I'm sorry you don't understand what I'm trying to say.

Maybe it is a miscommunication. But my perception of your reaction to this dissemination of information, was that it came off as something I call "extraterritorialism"...which is much like "localism" in surf culture, only the perpetrator doesn't actually live there. But he has an passionate affinity for a place, and so wants to keep it unchanged. His immediate knee-jerk response to change, even the hints of it, are visceral and reactionary.

To most surfers, even campers, serious or severe change can be merely a few people showing up at a break or a camp spot more often. So they guard their "secret spots" like caches of gold. In order to rationalize what amounts to a colonization of a place they have no legal right to, they adopt the misguided notion that they are stewards of the place, and every visitor after them is merely an interloper, one that doesn't often love or respect the place as they do. This gives them a sort of moral booster, helps to get them past their own selfish, often boorish attitude. Sometimes they express this attitude. It rarely ends nicely.

What they almost never realize is that they, too, are interlopers. They procure gasoline and local goods (resulting in opportunity--a Pemex station built where there was previously an old man with a 55 gallon drum), they utilize the roads to gain access to the trails (resulting in governmental regulation and maintenance, a paved road built over a trail), they take up spots on the beach or in the wilderness (a campground or resort is built because someone is always wanting to be there...why not profit from it?).

The "extraterritorialist" too, contributes to the crowded conditions, the overdevelopment, and the inherent and inevitable change that occurs anytime human activity arrives where there was previously none. If extraterritorialists were truly stewards of stalwart preservation, they wouldn't visit the place at all, and encourage others to do likewise.

So Joaquin, my point to you was that you have no vindication in your argument; the peninsula isn't yours, the solid gold camp spots and point breaks aren't yours, the information about spots and breaks and roads isn't yours, and you're just as much a "toilet maker" to the environment as any other gringo explorer (some might say more, considering the size of the yacht you drive)...there is no fight, and if there were, you wouldn't even have a dog in it. And considering that you have the necessary funds and equipment to move about in such lavish (albeit creative, kudos for that) digs, you're just coming off as a boorish, elitist colonizer, kvetching about the price of gin.

No offense.
 

1leglance

2007 Expedition Trophy Champion, Overland Certifie
Maybe it is a miscommunication. But my perception of your reaction to this dissemination of information, was that it came off as something I call "extraterritorialism"...which is much like "localism" in surf culture, only the perpetrator doesn't actually live there. But he has an passionate affinity for a place, and so wants to keep it unchanged. His immediate knee-jerk response to change, even the hints of it, are visceral and reactionary.

To most surfers, even campers, serious or severe change can be merely a few people showing up at a break or a camp spot more often. So they guard their "secret spots" like caches of gold. In order to rationalize what amounts to a colonization of a place they have no legal right to, they adopt the misguided notion that they are stewards of the place, and every visitor after them is merely an interloper, one that doesn't often love or respect the place as they do. This gives them a sort of moral booster, helps to get them past their own selfish, often boorish attitude. Sometimes they express this attitude. It rarely ends nicely.

What they almost never realize is that they, too, are interlopers. They procure gasoline and local goods (resulting in opportunity--a Pemex station built where there was previously an old man with a 55 gallon drum), they utilize the roads to gain access to the trails (resulting in governmental regulation and maintenance, a paved road built over a trail), they take up spots on the beach or in the wilderness (a campground or resort is built because someone is always wanting to be there...why not profit from it?).

The "extraterritorialist" too, contributes to the crowded conditions, the overdevelopment, and the inherent and inevitable change that occurs anytime human activity arrives where there was previously none. If extraterritorialists were truly stewards of stalwart preservation, they wouldn't visit the place at all, and encourage others to do likewise.

So Joaquin, my point to you was that you have no vindication in your argument; the peninsula isn't yours, the solid gold camp spots and point breaks aren't yours, the information about spots and breaks and roads isn't yours, and you're just as much a "toilet maker" to the environment as any other gringo explorer (some might say more, considering the size of the yacht you drive)...there is no fight, and if there were, you wouldn't even have a dog in it. And considering that you have the necessary funds and equipment to move about in such lavish (albeit creative, kudos for that) digs, you're just coming off as a boorish, elitist colonizer, kvetching about the price of gin.

No offense.

One of the best post ever on the topic!
I love it...
NOW can we get back to the great trip report?
 

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