WEBVTT

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Santa Rosalía is
the end of the line

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for the ferry that
leaves mainland Mexico

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and crosses the
Gulf of California.

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But it is the beginning
of the adventure

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for exploring wild, woolly
and eccentric Baja California.

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Major funding for
        The Desert Speaks

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was provided by the Kemper
and Ethel Marley Foundation.

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Additional funding
was provided by

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Desert Program Partners and
Arizona State Parks.

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music

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Mention Baja California to
most people and they think of

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sandy beaches, golf resorts,
margaritas, scuba diving.

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Not much different from Alta or
Upper California, the state.

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That's fine for them
but it's not for me.

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I'm in search of the
authentic Baja California,

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the heart and soul
of the peninsula.

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A couple of friends of
mine, both ecologists,

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Yar Petryszyn from Arizona
and Alberto Búrquez

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from Sonora, Mexico suggest
that the best place to start

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is smack dab in the
middle of the peninsula.

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Most people traveling
in Baja California

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start at the extremes.

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They enter crossing the border
at the sprawling town of Tijuana

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or they fly down to the tourist
town of Cabo San Lucas.

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Few people start in the
middle at Santa Rosalía,

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the destination for the
ferry that departs from Guaymas

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a few days a week and
sometimes close to on time.

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Good morning. I've got
tickets for two vehicles.

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Where are you going?

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Baja California.

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First to Santa Rosalía,
then, who knows?

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We're going through
Baja California

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while bicycling
around the world.

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We want to see the desert,
nature and the people,

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so that our child
can see the worldóreal world.

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You have to walk farther
to get on here than you do

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to get off by quite a bit.

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I wonder how old it is.

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They've obviously
painted it over.

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But I bet it was made
before I was born.

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We may make it
to Santa Rosalía.

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We'll see.

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Twelve million years ago
you could have stepped

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off the shore at Guaymas on to
the shore of Baja California.

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It's now the longest, skinniest
peninsula in the world

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and moving to the northwest
at two inches a year.

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The best way to get there
is to hop on this ferry

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and leave the port of
Guaymas and cross

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the deep and deepening
Sea of Cortez.

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You look at those big
cacti on that island

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and there are probably a lot
of 'em thirty, forty feet tall.

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They are probably a thousand
to two thousand to an acre.

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Amazing that they could
be so thick on that island.

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Yeah, you're probably right
about a thousand per acre.

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I mean they are really
dense and you wonder why

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they would get that dense.

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Nowhere else that I've
seen are they that.

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Just on those little islands.

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Yeah.
Yes.

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You only find these high
densities on islands

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and it's probably as
you say is due to

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lack of predation on seedlings.

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I know that we're going to
see them but I'm interested

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to compare how thick these
are in Baja California.

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Baja California isn't
really an island but

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it might as well be, right,
for ecological purposes.

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It's a six-hour trip
across the gulf.

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The dolphins welcome
us to Baja California.

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Arriving in Santa Rosalía
we have a chance to think

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about a new adventure for
usóseeing strange plants,

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exotic rock formations
and places and people

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that very few in the world
have had a chance to visit.

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Santa Rosalía grew
first as a mining town

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but then the economy
diversified.

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And there is, from need
of goods and the shortest route

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and the historical route of
supplies, was Guaymas.

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So the ferry runs from
Guaymas to Santa Rosalía

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and brings all kinds of
supplies to this area.

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They say that they are going to
shut down the ferry service

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because now the highway
coming from the north

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will replace the ferry. The
ferry is becoming uneconomical.

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The next morning we can
see that Santa Rosalía

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is not your run-of-the-mill
Mexican town.

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It was more like the French
Quarter of Baja California.

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Santa Rosalía started
as a town in the,

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at the end of the 19th century.

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It was founded by the
French that came

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to exploit the copper
ore of Santa Rosalía.

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They settled down in Mesa
Francia, that is there and built

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very large houses
while the Mexicans

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were settled in Mesa Mexico.

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It is a busy place
where we stand now.

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How many years have you
made this simple bread?

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Is this a French recipe?

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I think people in Santa
Rosalía are very proud

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of their French heritage.

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All these recipes
are French ones.

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When they came to build the
mines, they brought the recipes

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for the bread and they
built the churches,

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pre-fabricated in France.

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They brought a lot
of things here.

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Steam engines for
electricity as well as

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steam powered
ships and trains.

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There's a long French
history here even still.

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In Santa Rosalía it was
popular to the French

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but they weren't the only
foreigners to appreciate

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the value of Santa Rosalía.

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Some Germans used the safe
harbor to hide out for

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four years during
World War I

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and then departed
without a trace.

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The French stayed awhile longer
and left more than just recipes.

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I get the feeling when I
walk down the streets

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of Santa Rosalía that I'm
not really in Mexico.

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I've never seen a place
that has such a different feel.

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Because of the French heritage
you see all these wooden rails

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and the wooden
construction of the houses

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and so on that the
French brought here.

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It is more like walking
down New Orleans

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and the heat is similar too.

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It smells better.

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I've been all over Mexico,
seen hundreds of churches,

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I've never seen
anything like this one.

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It must just be part of the
mystique of Baja California.

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Yes, the story of this
church is amazing.

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It's attributed to Eiffel,
the constructor of the tower.

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Of the Eiffel
Tower in France?

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That's right.

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But he apparently is not.

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And it's all steel.

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Yes it was assembled
somewhere in the world

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and somehow got stopped
in Santa Rosalía.

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There are a number of people now
questioning whether Mr. Eiffel

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really designed and was
responsible for this place.

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Would a brilliant French
engineer really attach his name

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to a building put together
with steel plates and rivets?

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Certainly no self-respecting
Mexican would allow a church

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of steel, anything but rock,
to be built in Mexico.

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But then we have to ask
also would the man who designed

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the Eiffel Tower have caused the
construction of a steel building

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in a place where the temperature
is over a hundred five

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to a hundred ten degrees six
months of the year?

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I doubt it.

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The French closed
the mines and left,

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taking their money with them.

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But local people have
figured out other ways

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to make money from the ground.

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There's an alabaster deposit

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just eight kilometers
north of Santa Rosalía.

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There's another one just off
the coast of San Marco Island.

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There are all kinds of mineral
and geological deposits

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found around this area.

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It's time to leave
Santa Rosalía

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and its Franco-Mexico
façades behind.

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We venture now into the
arid, wild, rugged

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and sparsely populated interior.

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It is what sets Baja
California apart

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from anywhere else
in the world.

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One of the first finds
are enormous crystals

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left behind when an
ancient sea dried up.

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So the water left and
it left this mineral.

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Oh, my gosh!

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Left this mineral behind.

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So it created these
huge crystals.

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This is amazing, isn't it?
Oh!

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Like a giant diamond.

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Gypsum is a mineral that
is very common on earth

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and it's sulfate and
it occurs everywhere.

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Can you taste it?

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You can find out if
you're willing to test it.

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It doesn't taste salty.

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I suppose. Well, the
salt is gone but

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the gypsum stays there
because it crystallizes.

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But then the salt dissolves
much more easily than gypsum.

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How did it get so torn?

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How did it get so messed up

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if it was just laid
down like a salt?

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The land has been
just torn apart.

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Okay, it's tectonic
activity then.

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That's right.
Yes.

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Even movement, breaking
these crystals.

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And this area is well
known by the tectonic activity.

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It's operating continuously.

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We might be standing on
a volcano right here.

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The quality of this is
very, very uncommon.

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There are very few
instances in which you find

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the size and the
purity of the crystals

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you find around Santa Rosalía.

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You can look
right through it.

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I mean, it's, if it were
clean, if we'd wash it off

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with a little Windex
it would be like window glass.

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That's right.

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Gypsum windows.

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I never dreamed such
a thing could occur.

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It's most likely that
these beautiful crystals

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will be eventually turned
into household products.

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In the tortured topography
of Baja California

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you're never
far from a canyon.

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We're lucky. This
one we can drive up.

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I've been in a desert for
about forty years and

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I've never seen a tree
like this with white bark.

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This is what locally is
known as palo blanco.

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Palo blanco, white stick.

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There are many theories
on why trees have

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different colored bark
and this white bark we see

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on the Palo blanco
could be a sort of sunscreen

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that will protect the
tree from the sunburn.

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If I take my thumbnail, it won't
hurt the tree, and scratch,

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the first thing I see

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when I get through the
sunscreen is all the green.

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And that's going to allow the
tree to carry on photosynthesis.

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If I scratch it a little more,
then I get a reddish color,

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a beautiful reddish color.

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And that's another pigment
that helps photosynthesis.

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The growths here are
really beautiful.

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And this is found
only around here?

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It's only found in
Baja California.

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It's throughout
Baja California.

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The wash seems to be the
place where it's growing.

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You don't see it
on the hillsides.

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Can it only
survive down here?

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Well, given that the
rainfall is so scant,

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they prefer this habitat.

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So the runoff is what
really keeps 'em alive.

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Yes.

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They need some water
to keep growing.

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And they put a lot of
energy in the trunks.

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They are high density
trunks, slow growing.

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Real hard wood.

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That need ample
moisture to grow.

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You think this tree, its
been cut, but do you think

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it's more than
a hundred years old?

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I would say that it's
easily more than

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one hundred years old, yes.

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While we're looking at
plants in a canyon,

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Yar is up on top
looking for critters.

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And he always finds them.

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This is a Paramiscis,
a cactus mouse.

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These little guys aren't
really that desert-adapted.

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They need free water

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and they get it from
greenery, plant material.

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They'll chew the leaves
or maybe suck on part of

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the bark like on ocotillo.

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Unlike the kangaroo rat
that can do without

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any free water at
all, this guy can't.

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So you'll find 'em in
among these rocks here,

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a little wetter, a little
more protected from the sun

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so you get more greenery
that they can feed on.

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We find kangaroo rats throughout
Baja and these little guys

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are the epitome of
desert survivors.

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They can go their whole
life without any free water

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like in plants,
that's stored in plants.

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They actually get some
free water out of seeds.

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The rest of the water that they
use comes from breakdown

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in carbohydrates and
get metabolic water.

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Between those two sources they
can survive their whole life,

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up to seven years or so,
on that water source.

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They have all kinds of neat
adaptations to consume water;

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a long snout and a counter-flow
system where they reabsorb

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moisture that would be lost
through breathing and have

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external cheek pouches
that they can store seeds

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in as they find them.

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That way they can keep their
mouth closed and not lose

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moisture that way
by putting seeds

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in these external cheek pouches.

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And then they carry them
down into their burrow

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and empty their cheek
pouches and store the seeds.

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Their urine is very
concentrated so they cut down

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on the loss of
water in that fashion.

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They're nocturnal
'cause it's cooler

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and more humid during the night.

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They're called a kangaroo
rat because, not that they're

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so much closely related to
kangaroo, but they hop on their

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hind leg like a kangaroo
and they have a

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long tail as a balance.

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And by hopping on two legs
they're much more efficient

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in covering a greater
distance foraging for seeds.

16:16.108 --> 16:18.410 align:start
All these rodents that
are herbivores, which means

16:18.410 --> 16:22.848 align:start
eat plant material, or
grainivores that eat seeds,

16:22.848 --> 16:26.552 align:start
are kind of at the bottom of the
food chain and everything else

16:26.552 --> 16:29.588 align:start
then feeds on themóthe foxes,
the coyotes, the snakes,

16:29.588 --> 16:31.924 align:start
the hawks, the owls.

16:31.924 --> 16:34.560 align:start
So if they're doing well,

16:34.560 --> 16:43.202 align:start
the rest of the
animals will do well.

16:43.235 --> 16:45.871 align:start
And they can actually
smell seeds that are buried

16:45.871 --> 16:54.680 align:start
a half inch under
the surface or so.

17:02.521 --> 17:04.456 align:start
The highways in Mexico
can be hazardous.

17:04.456 --> 17:06.658 align:start
They're narrow, they
have no shoulders

17:06.658 --> 17:09.995 align:start
and the curves can
be very sharp.

17:09.995 --> 17:13.132 align:start
The plants in their own
way can be different.

17:13.165 --> 17:18.837 align:start
They're strange, they're unusual
and they may be hazardous.

17:22.107 --> 17:25.177 align:start
We are now in higher ground a
few miles from the coast

17:25.177 --> 17:27.379 align:start
and the vegetation
is greener and

17:27.379 --> 17:30.816 align:start
much better shade
than in the cold.

17:30.816 --> 17:33.052 align:start
This is mainly caused by
changes in the soil

17:33.085 --> 17:38.690 align:start
and the humidity availability.

17:38.690 --> 17:41.226 align:start
Here we start looking
at new species.

17:41.226 --> 17:44.596 align:start
The species that will be
more common to the north,

17:44.596 --> 17:48.000 align:start
like the invicta cholla
with lots of sharp thorns.

17:48.000 --> 17:52.671 align:start
And thick stemmed species
of Bursura or elephant tree

17:52.671 --> 17:56.141 align:start
and some other trees
that have storage of

17:56.141 --> 18:00.045 align:start
water in their trunks.

18:00.045 --> 18:02.414 align:start
Here's one of these "euphorbs."

18:02.414 --> 18:05.150 align:start
They call this
       candelilla , candle.

18:05.150 --> 18:09.388 align:start
But it gives out milky sap.

18:09.388 --> 18:13.826 align:start
Oh, that stuff's coming out.

18:13.859 --> 18:15.694 align:start
In Chihuahua in Texas,
like in Big Bend area,

18:15.694 --> 18:17.463 align:start
they actually make wax
out of, extract the wax.

18:17.496 --> 18:19.398 align:start
They treat it with
sulfuric acid and are able

18:19.398 --> 18:22.267 align:start
to extract wax to
make candles out of

18:22.267 --> 18:26.772 align:start
and use it for other things
as well, lubricants.

18:26.772 --> 18:29.208 align:start
This stuff might make a
good wax but some of my

18:29.241 --> 18:31.743 align:start
indigenous friends have
warned me never to let

18:31.743 --> 18:34.379 align:start
that touch your skin or
if you do, you've got to

18:34.379 --> 18:36.748 align:start
wash it off because they
say it'll purge you as

18:36.748 --> 18:40.052 align:start
quickly as anything
in the world.

18:41.520 --> 18:44.323 align:start
The canyons in the
Santa Rosalía region

18:44.356 --> 18:46.859 align:start
have very curious naming.

18:46.892 --> 18:49.862 align:start
Starting from the south
with the names of saints,

18:49.895 --> 18:55.367 align:start
Heaven, San Bruno then
Santa Águila then La Solidad,

18:55.367 --> 18:58.604 align:start
solitude, La Providencia,
providence,

18:58.637 --> 19:01.406 align:start
where Santa Rosalía city is.

19:01.406 --> 19:06.845 align:start
And then northwards, El
Purgatorio, Purgatory,

19:06.845 --> 19:11.283 align:start
El Infierno, hell and
Lucifer, Lucifer which

19:11.283 --> 19:15.154 align:start
are the northernmost ones.

19:16.755 --> 19:19.358 align:start
Lucifer and his kind
might be comfortable in

19:19.391 --> 19:21.126 align:start
the molten lava that has
made this peninsula's

19:21.126 --> 19:23.962 align:start
topography so tortured.

19:23.962 --> 19:26.231 align:start
The most recent example
of the volcanic havoc

19:26.231 --> 19:34.339 align:start
is called The Three Vírgins,
Las Tres Vírgines.

19:34.339 --> 19:36.475 align:start
Tres Vírgines peak is one
of the highest points

19:36.475 --> 19:38.310 align:start
in Baja California.

19:38.310 --> 19:42.014 align:start
It's only used by navigators
inland and out in the

19:42.047 --> 19:46.485 align:start
Sea of Cortez to locate this
region of Santa Rosalía.

19:46.485 --> 19:50.155 align:start
It also has shown some
volcanic activity.

19:50.155 --> 19:53.025 align:start
In the 18th century it
erupted and created

19:53.058 --> 19:57.529 align:start
terror among the inhabitants.

19:57.529 --> 20:01.233 align:start
The presence of Tres Vírgines
also created a varied habitat.

20:01.233 --> 20:04.503 align:start
The lava flows of
different ages contained

20:04.503 --> 20:08.040 align:start
different vegetation and
they also collect a lot of water

20:08.073 --> 20:10.842 align:start
that infiltrates
and allows establishment

20:10.842 --> 20:13.478 align:start
of little oases in
between the lava.

20:13.478 --> 20:15.847 align:start
So there are
different life forms

20:15.847 --> 20:18.884 align:start
that will be found
in the region.

20:18.884 --> 20:21.853 align:start
This lava flow looks like
it could have come

20:21.853 --> 20:23.755 align:start
out of the mountain
three years ago.

20:23.755 --> 20:24.790 align:start
Of course, we know it's
a lot older than that.

20:24.790 --> 20:26.725 align:start
Yeah, it's probably older.

20:26.725 --> 20:29.695 align:start
We're on the leading
edge, the front of it,

20:29.728 --> 20:33.432 align:start
and this is called aa.

20:33.465 --> 20:38.303 align:start
It's broken up by the pressures
pushing the lava from behind.

20:38.303 --> 20:41.673 align:start
As you look down, I bet
we're forty feet up already.

20:41.673 --> 20:43.141 align:start
Yeah.

20:43.141 --> 20:45.611 align:start
This was a real
large flow.

20:45.644 --> 20:48.413 align:start
Yeah, it was pretty plastic
stuff when it came out here.

20:50.048 --> 20:52.818 align:start
A lava flow like this is
magma that's made it to

20:52.818 --> 20:57.122 align:start
the surface and erupts
from, it could be either be

20:57.122 --> 21:00.926 align:start
cinder-cone or a composite
volcano, a strata volcano,

21:00.926 --> 21:05.797 align:start
and typically breaches
from the base and flows out

21:05.797 --> 21:12.104 align:start
as a fluid very similar to
the consistency of honey.

21:12.137 --> 21:15.040 align:start
It's so rough up here I
don't see how any plants

21:15.040 --> 21:18.277 align:start
could survive and if you
think the temperatures must be

21:18.310 --> 21:23.615 align:start
in the 130s in the summertime,
it's a tough place for anything.

21:23.615 --> 21:26.485 align:start
Yeah with this dark rock,
I bet it absorbs a lot of heat.

21:26.518 --> 21:28.987 align:start
How in the world does a
big 'ol tree like that,

21:28.987 --> 21:31.123 align:start
found only in Baja California,

21:31.156 --> 21:34.793 align:start
come to survive in
this, this dead spot.

21:34.793 --> 21:38.497 align:start
It really looks
like a dead zone.

21:38.530 --> 21:42.834 align:start
This particular lava
flow is really raw.

21:42.834 --> 21:44.936 align:start
It has to be several
hundred years old because

21:44.936 --> 21:47.139 align:start
there's no written
evidence of it and these

21:47.172 --> 21:50.742 align:start
elephant trees are
probably a hundred,

21:50.742 --> 21:53.879 align:start
maybe even more years old.

21:53.879 --> 21:56.048 align:start
And it's so dry here that
there's not much erosion

21:56.081 --> 21:58.016 align:start
and breaking down
of this material.

21:58.016 --> 22:00.285 align:start
But there are
micro habitats.

22:00.285 --> 22:01.853 align:start
I have a feeling that
he's confident up there.

22:01.853 --> 22:03.488 align:start
He knows that we
can't move more than

22:03.488 --> 22:04.423 align:start
three feet a second
through this rock.

22:04.456 --> 22:06.358 align:start
That's right.

22:06.358 --> 22:08.593 align:start
Look at him looking back
and forth, just checking out all

22:08.593 --> 22:11.496 align:start
around for
anything that moves.

22:13.465 --> 22:15.467 align:start
I sure wouldn't want to
try running a hundred yard dash

22:15.467 --> 22:18.437 align:start
through this jumble of rock.

22:18.470 --> 22:20.672 align:start
It's hard to imagine what
it was like when it was red hot.

22:20.672 --> 22:21.907 align:start
It must take a
long time to cool.

22:21.907 --> 22:23.942 align:start
Yeah. It does.

22:23.942 --> 22:26.578 align:start
It has an amazing
capacity to hold heat.

22:26.578 --> 22:28.947 align:start
Years, huh?

22:28.947 --> 22:31.316 align:start
It's obvious that this
lava flow, looks like

22:31.316 --> 22:33.652 align:start
come from a different
planet, is quite different

22:33.652 --> 22:36.521 align:start
that what most
people experience.

22:36.521 --> 22:40.359 align:start
It adds to the mystique of
Baja because of its rawness

22:40.392 --> 22:43.462 align:start
and couple that
with the desert element

22:43.495 --> 22:51.002 align:start
that's intruded into this really
makes for a dynamic system.

22:55.874 --> 22:58.410 align:start
That dynamism not only
created the oddities of

22:58.410 --> 23:00.846 align:start
Baja California but it also
attracts individuals from all

23:00.879 --> 23:07.085 align:start
over the world searching for
their personal adventure.

23:09.154 --> 23:13.792 align:start
I'm realizing a
childhood dream.

23:13.792 --> 23:16.762 align:start
I grew up in eastern
Germany behind the iron wall.

23:16.795 --> 23:19.431 align:start
I was not able to travel.

23:19.431 --> 23:26.605 align:start
In '85 I left eastern
Germany, went to western Germany

23:26.638 --> 23:31.109 align:start
and I thought one day I
have to go to America,

23:31.109 --> 23:36.548 align:start
to realize that dream,
travel America by horse.

23:36.548 --> 23:38.417 align:start
This German found that
wandering in the United States

23:38.450 --> 23:40.051 align:start
was too restricted.

23:40.051 --> 23:42.854 align:start
So, he traveled south.

23:42.854 --> 23:45.524 align:start
I've seen a horse rental
station in Ensenada and I asked

23:45.557 --> 23:49.661 align:start
this guy if he would
agree to trade my car

23:49.661 --> 23:52.998 align:start
against one of his horses.

23:52.998 --> 23:55.133 align:start
And he said, "Yes, why
not." And I tried three horses.

23:55.133 --> 23:59.471 align:start
He was the third one.

23:59.471 --> 24:02.808 align:start
Nobody cares when I put
up my tent here anywhere.

24:02.841 --> 24:05.177 align:start
Nobody cares.

24:05.210 --> 24:11.149 align:start
And now I go
down to La Paz.

24:11.149 --> 24:15.120 align:start
In La Paz I take the
ferry over to the main country

24:15.120 --> 24:17.889 align:start
and then I
continue to Mexico City.

24:17.889 --> 24:19.724 align:start
A friend of mine is
living over there.

24:19.724 --> 24:23.228 align:start
I'm writing a book
about the travels.

24:24.863 --> 24:27.365 align:start
In Baja California the
main and only highway is

24:27.365 --> 24:29.901 align:start
eight hundred
fifty miles long.

24:29.901 --> 24:32.871 align:start
From time to time,
obscure roads veer off

24:32.871 --> 24:35.307 align:start
and fade into the distance.

24:35.340 --> 24:39.110 align:start
Places like those can
be perfect for the adventurer,

24:39.110 --> 24:42.848 align:start
for the traveler, who wants to
just be alone or perhaps

24:42.881 --> 24:47.652 align:start
with family or friends and enjoy
the native desert vegetation.

24:47.652 --> 24:51.389 align:start
It's also excellent for
anyone who wants to camp,

24:51.389 --> 24:55.961 align:start
pull out a chair,
kick back and enjoy a margarita.

24:59.664 --> 25:03.668 align:start
Baja California is well
known for its historic missions,

25:03.668 --> 25:09.307 align:start
its desert landscapes
and remote villages.

25:13.578 --> 25:15.313 align:start
But next time on
        The Desert Speaks

25:15.313 --> 25:18.884 align:start
what may surprise you is
its bountiful harvests,

25:18.917 --> 25:25.123 align:start
its lush oases, its cave
paintings and sea salt.

25:37.035 --> 25:58.690 align:start
music

25:58.690 --> 26:01.793 align:start
Major funding for
        The Desert Speaks

26:01.793 --> 26:05.597 align:start
was provided by the Kemper
and Ethel Marley Foundation.

26:05.597 --> 26:09.200 align:start
Additional funding
was provided by