Mexico, Mainland to Baja

I departed for Mexico approximately 1 month ago and just arrived back home on a brief "layover" for a week before I'm off to China. Meanwhile I'll fill you in on the details from Mexico since Ididn'thave access to a computer most of the time there and didn't feel like typing a blog post on my Iphone. Jordan and I arrived in Monterrey, Mexico on separate flights after a couple hour delay due to a big storm in Dallas. It was a bit later than I cared to get in because I'm not a big fan of driving on Mexican Roads at night due to various obstacles that make it somewhat dangerous (goats, cows, drunks, lack of tail lights, cartel/police roadblocks tomention a few) but what can you do. We were met at the airport by a local climber by the name of Magic Ed, who runs a transport service for climbers to and from the airport and El Potrero Chico, our climbing destination. He uses the money he charges forthe transport to support his self acclaimed "addiction" of bolting routes in Potrero so we were happy to donate to the cause. The guy is somewhat of a legend in the area and was one of the primaryfounders in the development of Potrero. Magic Ed continues to write updated climbing guidebooks on the area and one is included in the cost of the transportation, as is a trip to the local grocery store to stock up on supplies. If you read through aguidebook forthe area you will see that this guy alone bolted damn near half of the 1,000+ routes in the area. Anyway, we arrived at our camping area called Posadas around 1 AM after an uneventful hour trip from the airport primarilyon toll roads, which are better maintained, quicker, and tend to be safer than other roads. It was hot and humid when we arrived that night, but it felt nice having just left the snow, and we pitched our tents in what seemed like a decent place for having never seen the place in the daylight. I went to bed that night lying on my sleeping pad in my undies, but woke up that next morning tucked ina sleeping bag witha liner and wearing a fleece, coat, andbeanie! For a second I thought I was still in Idaho. I was actually rethinking my decision to bring my summer sleeping bag and thankful I brought my puffy jacket at the same time. When we crawled out of our tents the next morning the temp was still cold, it was dark and cloudy, and we both looked at each other with the same wtf are we in Mexico puzzled look on our face. None the less we dawned some warmer clothes, made a quick trip to the grocery store, and before noon we were doing what we came to do, CLIMB! The Potrero looks amazing during the day as you wander into the park and dizzily stare straight up in amazement at the 2000+ ft limestone peaks. Like many places, no picture could possibly capture what it feels like to be standing at the base of the Potrero and realize just how huge the place is, how many climbs are there, and how many vertical rock faces there are all within seconds of walking distance from the road. Due to the recent economy, cartel scares, blown up American media stories of how terrible Mexico is, etc... there has been a drastic reduction of tourism in Mexico. From what I'm told there can be nearly 500 climbers here at any given time, and at the moment there was maybe 30, which meant.?.?.?......We had the WHOLE DAMN PLACE pretty much to ourselves! No waiting for any of the classic lines, minimal noise, and endless climbing on incredible limestone rock. Climbing in Potrero is different from many other places as almost everything is bolted from hundreds of single pitch routes to 23 pitch 2,000 foot multi pitch climbs with features varying from slab to crack to overhanging tufas. Sorry for the rock climber nerd stuff for those of you non climbers reading this, but just trust me, it's exciting :) Without getting too much into the everyday details of climbing, which we did almost every day here, we were averaging about 8-10 pitches (apx 1,000 ft) a day. Exciting enough anyway to be joined by a guest from Spain named Dani Andrada, who is currently one of the world's top climbers. He was there with his posse of photographers to climb at Potrero and the nearby El Salto. We weren't exactly doing the same grade of routes.

There is a giant pool complex right at the base of the park that is popular with the weekend Mexican crowd from the local town of Hidalgo and

the larger city of Monterrey. The par

k was certainly dead throughout the week, but weekends are Fiesta time for the Mexicans, and many of them pack their

cars full of food and drinks and line the street into the area to relax. It was actually really enjoyable having all the people around having such a great t

ime listening to their music and grilling up a storm. I didn't meet a single one that wasn't friendly and most of them waved to us and chatted with us and some even clapped and cheered when we came do

wn from a climb as they would gather around and probably wonder why in the hell we would want to climb up a rock face haha. The locals were as friendly and hospitable as anybody could be and often offered us extra food they cooked up and frequently gave us rides when we were walking do

wn into town from our campsite to get groceries etc... We were even lucky enough to catch a ride with a few nice looking senioritas that laughed and giggled about us in Spanish probably as much as we were laughing about th

em in English. Food was super cheap both in grocery stores and restaurants. You can buy about 8 avocados for 2 dollars, needless to say guacamole was a staple! Jordan and I cooked most of our meals there as the camp we were staying at had a full kitchen facility with refrigerators to sto

Mexico City, which has got to be one of the most crowded cities I have ever seen from the air.re your cold goods. It also had a nice swimming pool, hot showers, internet, and restaurant, and we were paying 5 dollars a night for all of it! Our camp, Posadas, was occupied by a few American and Canadian climbers throughout the week and booked full on the weekends with the Mexican family scene. The 3 day weekend of the Mexican Holiday celbrating Benito Juarez's Birthday was crazy with fiestas! We were even invited to one with a live band, free food a

nd drinks, and fire dancing. Our last day in Potrero we celebrated my big 30 with a birthday climb followed some burritos and margaritas provided by Posadas. After a couple weeks of our religious routine of make breakfast, climb all day, recover in the pool, make a huge dinner, have a couple mexi

can beers, and repeat, we made our way back to the airport with Magic Ed again. Jordan and I both made a pleasant donation to they guy for his bolting projects as we were ever grateful of the thousands of hours he must have spent putting up the ro

utes we enjoyed, and thousands of dollars spent on the hardware for them. Sad to leave the climbing scene, but excited for some new scenery and faces and ready to rest our feet and fingers, we headed for Southern Baja Mexico after a short stop in

Once in Baja we met up with Amanda who was celebrating her spring break, and Jordan's girlfriend Kyesa, who managed to get some extra time off work and make the trip down too. We were lucky enough to have my cousin Marty and Doreen pick us up at the airport instead of thumbing the bus down as usual. We spent our first couple nights in Los Barriles, the small town where my family lives, just being beach bums and enjoying the colorful characters of the area. Marty managed to get us a Yamaha Rhino from one of his buddies as our source of transportation. Every night there, we we

re so stuffed from amazing Baja food that we could hardly stay up past 9, which is considered Baja midnight by locals. We left Los Barriles for a couple of days to take the bus up to La Paz, a vibrant city without the spring break scene of cabo and beautiful beaches. Jordan, Kyesa, and I went diving while amanda did some snorkeling off the island of Ispiritu. Highlights were multiple friendly sea lions, dolphins, and 1 huge baby whale shark. We rented some scooters another day and cruised

out of town to some

secluded beaches.

When returning to Los Barriles we went out on a chartered fishing trip

arranged by Marty's neighbo

r Patty,

who runs a small hotel / fishing business across the street from his place. She cut us a stellar deal and we got one of the best boat

captains around named Lavo. Amanda reeled in a 40 lb dorado that fed us all for the night. The rest of the time in Baja we basically did what's best to do there, and that's just relax and enjoy the v

ibe of funny locals and sink into the beautiful sand beaches surrounding the Sea of Cortez.