"El Golfo De Santa Clara" El Golfo de Santa Clara by malecon

My trip to Golfo de Santa Clara was frought with mystery, mainly because I couldn't find jack on the internet. What I knew was this place is remote and I better have hotel reservations or else.

El Golfo is like many other little towns I've visited in Mexico with mostly dirt roads reaching out into the neighborhoods but paved downtown. It's not any louder then the average town either, but it for its size it can sure hit some elevated decibles.

This town has some great Mexican folk living there though it's dominated by American offroaders. Still I had a great time observing a town so far from the border and somewhat isolated. You gotta really want to get out here.

View of the Sea of Cortez from the mainland side.

The town is poised on the Sea of Cortez not far from where the Colorado River empties into it while simultaneously dumping huge amounts of sediments. The sea is not continuous here but broken up by large sandbars.

To get here you have to go through the border town of San Luis Rio Colorado, named after the snaking river though none of it can be seen in the riverbed. The water is diverted into irrigation canals that water miles and miles of Ejido cultivated crops.

The town of San Luis Rio Colorado has some great shopping in a downtown that takes you back to the old days in the U.S. before malls appeared. There is even diagnal parking, just like the old days.

Looking east at the great Sonoran Desert

Once you've passed the last ejido, the cultivated land turns desert plains. Keep in mind that you're in the great Sororan desert and you've crossed into mountain time. There's no where to go but south to El Golfo de Santa Clara.

Who owns this land is anyone's guess and it looks forbidding. A number of squarters have set up makeshift houses back away from the road. Nobody stops them probably because if they can live off that land their welcomed to it.

• In a nutshell:The convergence of desert and water create one big playground.