A look at Baja’s plants, animals, and human creations, through Steve’s camera. New additions from April 2024 (are dated).
Photos categorized under: Plants, Landscapes, Humans and what they make, Animals and Critters.
Who is Steve Silver and what brought him to Baja California? See Steve’s biography at the bottom of the page, following his photos.
Plants:
Ocotillo (4-24)Big yuccas (4-24)Ocotillo (4-24)Bush flowers (4-24)Cholla blooms (4-24)Old Man Cactus (4-24)Bougainvillea in Loreto, 1995Palm shadow, La PazCholla bloomMore chollaBeautiful cactus flowerMore chollaBeautiful flowersGroundcover with flowersGrass!An older, tired cirioGarambullo, old man cactus, in bloomFlowering succulent ground cover, somewhere in BajaPassionfruit, Los BarrilesPalms in CataviñaBlue palm, Rancho Santa YnezThe first cirio cactus I met on my first trip to Baja, at the beginning of CataviñaCataviña with blooming bushStrange cactus tunasYuccas, I forget whereFlowers, Daisies? El RosarioFlowering desert plant, CataviñaDesert succulent, CataviñaDesert scene, unknown locationVizcaino desertTwins, Cataviña [cirio or boojum tree]Castor bean or Palma Christi, Los BarrilesBlue flower, Baja desertBlue flower on the side of the road to Bahía AsunciónRed barrel cactus, Baja desertSeed pods, Baja desertOcotillo flower buds, Bahía de Los AngelesCholla bloomBaby cirio or boojumOcotillo bloomingPrickly poppy with honey beeBarrel cactus bloomsCactus bloom
Landscapes:
Campgrounds at Playa Coyote (4-24)Bahía el Coyote (4-24)Rainbow or arco iris, Bahia de Los Angeles (4-24)Playa (4-24)Volcanic Island (El Huerfanito, 4-24)Desert scene outside of Bahia de Los Angeles, around 1996Morning at Playa CoyoteHighway [Mex #1, southbound from San Ignacio]Green fieldPlaya El Arbolito, East Cape, 4 kms. south of Cabo PulmoMulegé, on the road along the estuary to the lighthouseCampsite at Punta ChivatoMoon over Bahía de Los Angeles
Humans and what they make:
Chocolates in my cooler (4-24)My palapa setup at Coyote (4-24)Lunar eclipse projected through a hole in some dude’s hat (4-24)Tacos Sicodelicos, Santa Rosalia (4-24)El Chute in the harbor, Santa Rosalia (4-24)Roadside altar (4-24)Grrrrrrl graffiti, Ensenada (4-24)El Chamuco, the devil! (4-24)Guy photographing moon, Bahia de Los Angeles (4-24)Island with kayak (4-24)Fishing (4-24)‘Baño in the desert’ (outhouse, 4-24)‘Chocolates’ (clam meal, 4-24)Highway (Mex. #5, north of San Felipe, 4-24)Kayak (4-24)Restaurant Sta. Ines (Ynez???????)Old brief case in the desertBaja trucks passing, showing how narrow the highway is and how scary!Graffiti EnsenadaFrench guy on Triumph, Vizcaino I thinkEnsenada harborCat on the wallMy campsite Playa CoyoteYES, hamburger WITH meat!Bathers at river at San IgnacioCamp Gecko in the late 1990s (Bahía de los Angeles)The crossroads at Parador Punta Prieta (west end of highway from Bahía de los Angeles)Jars of seafood at fish market downtown EnsenadaLucha Libre sign on Highway 1Marco, my son, kissing his dorado, Los BarrilesAnything with cajones in the nameRoadside altar for R. Elio Cruz, most likely a truck driverEl Palomar Licores with smoking Fidel [Santo Tomás]Ladies Pizza, downtown Guerrero NegroA Mexi-hotrod muscle car, downtown EnsenadaDamaged road near Los BarrilesHamburguesas Travolta, Ciudad Constitución (thanks Rigo Velis)Yackburguer, in La Paz perhapsOld painted wall, El Rosario, from first trip in 1995 and now goneSign near San QuintínPharmacy sign, downtown EnsenadaStrange sculpture on the dirt road to Campo ArchelonCommunity well, Los FrailesSign, San José del CaboRestaurante Pancho Villa on estuary MulegéStorefront, possibly Guerrero NegroCool little car, El Titan, auto repair shop downtown EnsenadaPainted sign, San José del CaboCarnitas wagon with laughing pig, Guerrero NegroWonderful beach house, Playa Burro I thinkBakery, downtown EnsenadaAltars on the road from San Jose del Cabo to Los BarrilesDesert altar, I think in CataviñaBar sign, downtown MulegéGondola with guy, Ensenada (Italian restaurant?!)Old muscle car in the sand near Campo Archelon, Bahía de Los AngelesOctopus hunter, Bahía de Los AngelesSanta Rosalia hotel signOn the road north, Highway 5, to San FelipeGreen house, Santa RosaliaJugos y lícuados y………Happy pharmacy, EnsenadaKids and sculpture, Campo Archelon (Bahía de los Angeles)
Animals & Critters:
Hummingbird at feeder, Playa Coyote, with honey bee underneath (4-24)Some kind of thrasher (4-24)Dead gopher snake (4-24)Desert cat (4-24)Scary looking crab with death mask pattern (4-24)Dog with cone, relaxing (4-24)Pelicans facing off (4-24)Pelicanos at Punta Chivato twenty eight years agoCow on the side of Highway OneMy catch, Bahia de Los Angeles- spotted sand bass (cabrilla pinta?)Donkey at Mama Espinoza’sStrange lizardfish I caught but did not eat…….Horses, Rancho Santa YnezVultures on the roadA solpugid, found near Los BarrilesScorpionfish, Bahia de Los Angeles, we caught it and it was deliciousA strange chrysalis, Los BarrilesLittle scorpion, Rancho Sta. InezWasp nests, East CapeWhip scorpion, Los BarrilesSmall burrowing snake found under a rock in Los BarrilesUnknown “insect?” Pod with exit hole, CataviñaA cute little gecko at Camp Gecko, Bahía de Los AngelesSpotted bass and my kayak, Sea of Cortez, Bahía de Los AngelesChicklet, a dog living at Los Pescadores, Los BarrilesHotel cat at Terraza Hotel in MulegéBattered brittle star with Art Nouveau pattern at center of body, Bahía de Los AngelesDogs at Café Siete Filos, Campo Archelon, Bahía de Los AngelesSadie my neighborThe beetle that bit me in the arm in the middle of the night while I was waking up with a leg crampBig brittle star
Biography……….
*** I’ve lived in Seattle for all of my near 78 years and didn’t leave home until I was almost thirty. I was a hippie backpacker in 1973, and then I road a mountain bike around Europe in 1985. A friend of mine from work, Jacqueline, had just gone to Baja with her boyfriend in 1994 and told me to go there, that I would fall in love with it and return there the rest of my life. That’s what happened. And I got over my fear of Mexico pretty quickly.
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*** I was a struggling commercial artist for years, a freelance illustrator and had a basic fear of cameras. Then I got a job that required I learn how to use a computer and work with digital fotos. That involved using Photoshop, which saved me from the harsh chemicals of the darkroom. Taking digital fotos is so easy that I stopped drawing almost completely.
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*** First trip to Baja involved flying to San Diego and renting a VW bug in Tijuana and driving slowly down the peninsula to Cabo San Lucas and back. I was afraid to speak any Spanish at first for fear of making mistakes but got over it. Nearly passed out lugging my gear across the border, thought It was the heat, but I was just coming down with a mild respiratory infection. I’ve amused many Mexicans with my imaginative use of their language while speaking with them but have gotten better through years of practice. Many times I’ve been told “Speak English, my English is better than your Spanish”. Sometimes I reply, “And your English is probably better than my English”, hah.
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*** On the first trip I stopped at a roadside cafe just south of Camalu run by the Zuñiga family. It got dark before I realized how late it was, they told me to put up my tent on the side of their building. My first experience of Baja hospitality. When I got to Cataviña I stayed at Rancho Santa Ynez and had meals with Oscar and Matilda. My room had four or five beds! In Santa Rosalia a small dog befriended me and protected me from a pack of angry dogs while I was taking fotos. I saw graffiti that said “Matando Gringos” [Kill Gringos]
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*** Lately I stay at places a lot longer, spending less hours or days in a row driving. It’s far more humane and allows me to to get to know my neighbors better. I really like camping next to people with dogs, have made lots of dog buddies. I enjoyed staying at Camp Gecko at Bahía de Los Angeles until they sold all the cabins, now I stay at Campo Archelon when I’m in that city. It is wonderful to pitch a tent under a palapa right on the Sea of Cortez, with my kayak, and be able to get espresso and great meals a hundred yards away. And sometimes a young woman drives up in a cart with bread and flan for sale!
*** My first vehicle driven to Baja was an ‘89 Jeep Cherokee that made four roundtrips, then an old ’88 Mazda wagon without a working oil gauge so I had to check the oil twice a day. A ’92 Subaru Legacy wagon made four trips and finally a 2007 Mazda3 hatchback getting ready for its third time down and back. No breakdowns in all these years but I have gotten stuck in sand numerous times and have been helped out graciously by Mexicans every time. The worst thing that every happened was getting cursed out by a ten or twelve year old on his way to school in Santa Rosalia. I was in a tiny cafe and I think his buddy said “go hassle the gringo”. He came in and said “gimme money”, I replied “no gracias”. At that he cursed me out and left. The lady who ran the place came over and said something in Spanish that sounded like “his parents must have been cousins”. Hah.
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As I’ve gotten older it seems that the most memorable thing about traveling is the people I meet. The rest is wonderful too but the people are the tops! Steve Silver, 2023
