Random Photo: Playing in the Crystal Waters of The Sea of Cortés

Camera: Canon 5D | Lens: EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM | Setting: f/4, 1/2000th sec, ISO 100

Just look at that water.  It's only a five-hour drive from home, too.  Notice the beach?  Clean and people free.  The Sea of Cortés, or Mar de Cortés as the Mexicans call it, is that little body of water that separates mainland Mexico from her 1000-mile peninsula known as Baja California.

The Mexican people who live on this coast sustain themselves by fishing and they eat a steady diet of incredible fresh seafood from these waters, and fresh fruits and vegetables from the farm lands to the immediate east.  Rural Mexican folk eat one of the healthiest diets in the world, and I'm not conjuring that from my hip.

The Sonoran Desert spreads out and wraps around the Sea of Cortés, bringing organ pipe and saguaro cacti right up the to coast - that makes for a wicked sight when you're used to picturing paradise-like beaches that sport South Pacific palm trees.

The fresh food and the remote beaches bring us here.  We can let the kids roam free for the most part, even though Chloe was only 18 month old in this picture.  Do you see any dangers here?

Finding this lonesome village is the benefit of looking at a map and embracing the adventure of chasing a narrow dirt road. Look worth it?

It might not last long.  The Sonoran Coast Highway is coming one day.  They'll pave paradise and put up all-inclusive resorts from Rocky Point to El Salvador.  And on that day, the only adventure left in life will probably be the kind you can only get by playing video games . . . until then, raise your glass (or your child) and toast to these beautiful and unmolested lands down in Mexico.