Mulegé

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Photo taken from the Mulegé Mission

Mulegé is a town in the municipality of Mulegé in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur, situated at the mouth of the Río Santa Rosalía. It had a population of 3,317 in the 2005 census. It is perhaps best known outside of Mexico for John Steinbeck's comments in his 1941 journal Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research: "the port charges are mischievous and ruinous" and "there may be malaria there". Although not much has changed since Steinbeck's time, malaria is in no way present in the area. A popular tourist activity is the pig roast hosted by Don Johnson every Saturday night at the Hotel Serinadad. The Sea of Cortez is named after the Spanish explorer Hernan Cortez. In the past Mulege made its living mostly from the very good fishing grounds in the Sea of Cortez. Today tourism is a major income for the folks of Mulege. A cold current from the North and a warm current from South out of the Pacific Ocean are coming together in the Mulege aera of the Sea of Cortez and are creating a rich variety of fish. Therefore, deep sea fishing is one of Mulege's tourist attractions. Marlin, Wahoo, Sailfish to name some are in the Mulege waters. Plenty of Dorado in season can be caught. Overall there are about 100 different species of fish in the Mulege waters of the Sea of Cortez.

There is much to see and do in this sleepy little town, from mountain biking, to scuba diving, kayaking and, most important, fishing chartes to catch a big game fish. To catch big game is of course dependant to weather and season. If no big game fish is caught, then it might be a lot of Dorado, Grouper, Snapper or Pargo, just to name some excellent fish for eating. Being only 1050 km (650 miles) south of the U.S. border at San Diego, California, also makes this town a very attractive, inexpensive break for visitors from the United States.

The Misión Santa Rosalía de Mulegé was founded here in 1705.
The Sierra de Guadalupe cave paintings are about 30 km (18 miles) west of Mulegé near the Rancho La Trinidad. They form part of central Baja's Great Mural Tradition and are an interesting example of rock art.

[edit] Transportation

By land, Mulegé is communicated by the Federal Highway 1, which runs from Cabo San Lucas to Tijuana. The highway was built in 1975. Before that, Mulege was only accessible via private aircraft to the outside world. Mulegé has been a popular pilot destination since the mid 1950's. Yes there was a road from Tijuana at the US-Mexican border to Cabo San Lucas at the southern most point of Baja. But that road was only a better donkey path. And traveling was kind of an adventure. The Baja peninsula contains mostly out of lava rocks. And many streets even today are covered with those lava rocks. As for air travel, Mulegé is served by three airstrips in the area: El Gallito (also know as Hotel Serenidad Airstrip, it is a graded dirt & hoof strip and is very well maintained. Mulegé Municipal, and the farest Punta San Pedro (at Concepcion Bay). Regional flights are available at the Palo Verde Airport (to the North of town), and international flights are available at the Loreto Airport (123 km to the South).