Where the Desert Meets the Sea

During a week of days ending 2013 and beginning 2014, I sojourned in a land where the desert meets the sea:  Baja California Sur, Mexico. As one who is continually awed by the unexpected beauty of desert but who ultimately prefers terrain lushly green with prolific vegetation, I suspect I could reside in Baja's stunning rendition of a desert clime--at least its southern tip--more easily than others I have known.  

Truly Baja Sur presents iself as quite pretty desert:  tall, peaky mountains in its center, deeply-hued rock and stone to fashion cliffs and bluffs, appealing vegetation, . . .

and always in proximity to the sea, one painted in tropical blues and often caressing expansive sandy beaches--pale gold to platinum.

My friend Carolee and I flew into La Paz via Los Angeles and took up residence for the week in a hotel there in La Paz on the Malecon--the Spanish word for a stone embankment or esplanade along a waterfront. In the mornings we would walk/run along the Malecon with boats and sea as a backdrop and in the company of fellow walkers/runners, applicable statuary, a few fishermen, and plenty of pelicans.

Thanks to a rental car, we had the chance to spend the rest of each of our days exploring not only La Paz and its environs but also the loop of highway circling south and west from La Paz to Todos Santos, situated on the Pacific coast, and on down to Cabo at the southern tip. From Cabo, we turned northwards toward La Paz but this time on the eastern coast highway running along the Sea of Cortez.

There are two Cabos at the southern tip of Baja:  Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo. Both have gorgeous settings, and the 30-kilometer "corridor" between them is absolutely dazzling. Cabo San Lucas throbs with a party-city vibe, and the McDonald's where we stopped in the early afternoon for its restroom facilities and some refreshment was thronged with English-speakers, mainly with American accents, and it had already sold out its supply of ice cream and Sprite.

Beach moment--Cabo San Lucas.

Todos Santos, the town where Carolee and I decided we would like to stay should we ever return to Baja Sur, has a Hotel California, rumored to be the inspiration for the famed Eagles' song "Hotel California." Apparently this seemed a possibility because the Pacific coast of Baja near Todos Santos became popular with surfers in the 1960s and the Cabo San Lucas area was certainly popular with rock stars of the 1970s. Alas, I have discovered since my return home that it is an urban legend.  The song is not about a hotel at all; instead, it is a metaphor for the loss of innocence, particularly for artists who find themselves "ensnared in the 'glittering web' of life in the music industry."  In an interview with 60 Minutes in 2007, composer Don Henley described the song "Hotel California" as a "song about . . . excess in America, which is something we knew a lot about." He alluded to the fact that in a culture of decadence and wealth, it is easy to be trapped in the high life, dealing with the dark underbelly of the music industry. 

Still, once one has driven that loop of highway and wandered the cobbled walkways of Todos Santos and other coastal villages, those lyrics evoke the experience and conjure memories of scents and sounds and scenes, witnessed or imagined.

Hotel California

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night
There she stood in the doorway;
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself,
"This could be Heaven or this could be Hell"
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say...

Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the Hotel California
Any time of year (Any time of year)
You can find it here

Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes bends
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

So I called up the Captain,
"Please bring me my wine"
He said, "We haven't had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine"
And still those voices are calling from far away,
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say...

Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face
They livin' it up at the Hotel California
What a nice surprise (what a nice surprise)
Bring your alibis

Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said "We are all just prisoners here, of our own device"
And in the master's chambers,
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can't kill the beast

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
"Relax, " said the night man,
"We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave! "