Cecille's Creativity

San Felipe, 125 miles south of Mexicali, is the only settlement on the Gulf side of the peninsula that can be reached by paved road. The road is good all the way.

South of Mexicali, the country is flat farmland, cut with canals and irrigation ditches, spotted with tamarisk and cotton wood. Farming is now often modern, with trucks and tractors. Housing, however, hasn't always caught up with this new equipment - you will see shiny new tractors parked next to adobe huts and small sagging sheds. South of El Mayor, most pormonent peak in the Cucapas Mountains, the route is through barren desert to San Felipe.

There are no outskirts to San Felipe to warn that you are approaching a town. You drop over the edge of the sand mesa, pass the tiny ornate cemetery, and find yourself in a somewhat primitive village, where native life centers aroudn the fishing industry. Sea trout, corniva, baya and totuava are taken all year. Ashore, small businesses cater to the fishermen.

If you take your own boat, you can launch it at the village or at the cove at Punta Ensenada Blanca. Skiffs and motors can be rented, and larger boats take passengers for the day to fish around Gonaga Island, 18 miles out, as well as Punta Estrella or Punta Ensenada Blanca.

Fishing boats can be chartered for trips to Bahia de Los Angeles. In small boats, fish in the morning; a breeze comes up around noon which makes offshore boating dangerous.