I received a call from Wildcoast asking me if I wanted to join them on another trip to Baja. I was told it would be a little different than the past ones. We would be flying in a single prop plane and heading down to Abreojos. Needless to say I was stoked about the plane considering the aerial shots and the fact that the last trip was a week in the dirt with a sleeping bag that was soaked with cerveza that exploded in the back of the truck.

It didn't really hit me how small the plane was going to be until I saw it. Eddie the pilot told me as I was climbing in not to step on the wing or I would break it. Seriously. They offered for me to sit up front but I opted for the inside back seat.

Its about the size of a small Limo. We wanted to bring surfboards but that would have required removing a set of seats.

Tract housing on the San Diego side of the border. In the photo on the right you can see the border fence running diagonally. Tijuana backs right up against the border.

The landscape changed quite quickly. All the photos are from the Mexican side of the border from here on.

By this point I had relaxed a little. Eddie reassured us by telling us he flies solo in storms for practice and has landed the plane with no engine power. The whole time we were wearing the headsets which is cool because you can hear the pilot talking to the towers or listen to 80's xm radio. Its better to keep the headsets on as it is really loud in the plane.

The plane does not fly very high so we were able to see a lot. For most of the trip you could look out the left side and see the Sea of Cortez and look out the right side and see the Pacific Ocean.

Eddie told us that flying is 90% boredom and 10% fear.

I was curious about customs. The answer is we had to land at the first airport we came to in Mexico which was San Felipe where we had to get out of the plane and wait for soldiers to come out and inspect the plane. Then we went into the airport to do our paperwork. I am used to Newark Airport and San Felipe is a little different. We walked in and the employees were reading books. I think we were the 3rd plane that day.

After customs we were ready to continue south. Here is Eddie our pilot on the left and Zach on the right.

So long San Felipe

Sea of cortez side of the peninsula looking west.

The landscape was insane to see in person and this island on the right reminded me of a whale.

Like flying over the US you see randomly placed towns and think who lives there and why? Well swell like the photo on the right could be part of the answer in this case.

The shot on the right is of Santa Rosalaita marina. Some of my photos of this place were published on ESPN.com It was bittersweet to fly over a place in a few hours or less that took days of driving to get to.

Always take time to look back.

River mouth set up

Guerrero Negro is the town you see here. On the left is part of the Mitsubishi facility that makes sea salt. From what I understand they make large shallow pools that they allow sea water in and then close them off to allow the water to evaporate and eventually be reduced down to salt. This process makes for some amazing colors.

These pools are pretty big even from the sky.

More salt

Here we are doing a flyby of Abreojos. Eddie had never landed here and had a little guide book that described the runway to him and had a picture of it. Zach remembered landing here once and said the runway was curved. He was not kidding.

Low fly by, kinda made me feel like maverick.

Here were are on the ground looking for a place to park.

Behind those lobster traps looks like a good idea.

Part of the reason we were there was to meet up with this guy, Nelo. He is the head of the ejido. He runs this map.

Eddie relaxing. We headed out with Nelo and his buddy to go check out the town.

Nelo and his buddy are abalone fisherman. They work in 3 men teams, one driver, one diver and the guy who pumps air down to the diver. I'm not sure how this works but I know the diver gets paid more and on average lives less.

Serious dudes.

They showed us some of their boats and while we were there I spotted this pelican who bit more than he could chew. He was trying to swallow a whole live fish but it was too big and we could see the fish flapping inside his mouth.

We ended up at the cemetery.

Then they took us to where we were staying in La Bocana. This is the street we stayed on. We stayed with a man named Les who was ethnically Polish but grew up in England. He now lives down here full time with his wife Blanca.

This is their dog Rex, I think he is the only purebred I have seen in Baja.

Dinner time at Restaurant Andre. Basically a room added on to these folks house. We wanted beers with dinner and they told us they did not have any so they asked how many we thought we would drink and they went out and bought them. The food was great, we had scallops and shrimp caught right out front.

Another fisherman that we met was Joaquin. Here he is on the right showing us Joaquin's Cactus Bar. He takes people out fishing on his boat and throws parties here when they come back with some fish.

Wall of Fame. The man with his mouth open in the photo on the bottom left is Les. The man we stayed with.

Good morning La Bocana

Fishing is pretty much the only industry down here.

The whole town is built on sand. Blanca told us the local women complain their homes smell of sand.

A lot of the telephone poles have rope tied to them and they are the fishing nets that the men use. On the left you can see a man repairing his nets.

Getting ready to get out of La Bocana. Les and Blanca offered us a ride back to the plane.

Les and Blanca were leaving for a European Vacation so the inside of the truck was filled with luggage. Les estimated he could make it back to San Diego in a lot less time than everyone thought. He told us with this truck he can go 130+ mph.

Joaquin's Cactus Bar

Saul stoked to be getting back to the plane. There she is right where we left her behind the lobster traps.

The plane has covers and window panels that need to be removed before flying.

Adios Blanca

These are the mangroves outside Abrejos. This is the reason the fishing is so good here.

This is Laguna San Ignacio, our next destination. This is the place where people come to go out in little boats to pet the gray whales. Its a long drive from the U.S.

Dunes

I believe this is the town of Laguna San Ignacio.

LSI Airport. Coming in hot.

That's it, seriously.

These two cats run the airport. Unfortunately I do not recall their names. They were both really nice.

Looking East

That's our ride.

So here is the control tower or shed which ever you prefer. Oh yeah and there were jumper cables from the windmills and solar panels on the pole outside that powered all the equipment.

They were anxious to show us some indian artifacts that they found. These included teeth and scraping stones.

He was pretty proud of this tractor, this is how he maintains the landing strip.

Stuntin' like my padre.

Zach trying to decipher the rules of whale watching in broken English.

A few weeks ago some kids discovered some human bones and the police thought it was a murder. Turns out it was an old indian burial ground. Evidence of Indians on the right.

Heading back to the airport from the burial site.

The latest in size fit baseball hats. The clothespin.

So after Laguna San Ignacio we had to stop in Guerrero Negro. While the Wildcoast boys handled their business Eddie and I went out for food. We asked the cab driver "fish burrito?" and he replied "pollo?". So we said what the hell lets go. They sell grilled chicken, macaroni salad and cole slaw. That's it.

After getting the food I needed to walk around and here are some of the sights. A man hand painting the signage for his store.

Why we stopped here.

Salt pools again.

This photo on the left was run in Surfer magazine.

Adios Abreojos. Hasta pronto