Searching for Steinbeck's Sea of Cortez: A Makeshift Expedition Along Baja's Desert Coast

From Library Journal
Imagine hitchhiking in Baja's wilderness with a pair of toddlers in tow, then packing them into a sea kayak on the Sea of Cortez. Clearly, Romano-Lax, the author of several guidebooks to Alaska, where she resides, has a nonchalant and intrepid attitude toward travel. With her husband and two children (one still in diapers), she sets out on a journey in search of the tide pools explored by John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts 60 years ago. Her goal is to duplicate the route described in Steinbeck's The Log from the Sea of Cortez in a small sailboat captained by her mentally unstable brother-in-law. The captain jumps ship midway through the expedition, leaving the hardy family to continue by foot, rental car, bus, and charter boats as they make their way around the shores of the Sea of Cortez. Two months later, the journey ends in Guaymas with the travelers out of funds and both children recovering from minor (but frightening) injuries. This, though, is only half of Romano-Lax's story. The reader travels with Steinbeck and Ricketts as well, in combination with the author's own observations of the invertebrates that inhabit the shoreline of Baja's inland sea. There's sufficient information here for any naturalist, environmentalist, or trekker considering a similar journey to explore this little-known part of North America. The omission of photos is an unfortunate drawback. For most public and academic libraries. Janet Ross, formerly with Sparks Branch Lib., NV Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Motivated by John Steinbeck's 1941 book, Log from the Sea of Cortez, Romano-Lax, with her husband and two young children, completed a two-month, 4,000-mile journey in a 24-foot sailboat piloted by the author's brother-in-law. Mexico's Gulf of California, known locally by the more romantic sounding Sea of Cortez, is off the east coast of Baja California. The author recalls seeing schools of fish and stingrays, crabs, clams, mussels, and blue damselfish, to name just a few, and she describes the sheltered pools housing hundreds of tiny sea urchins. She observed pelicans, gulls, ravens, frigate birds, and sea lions, and she chronicles her trek through mangroves along the shore. She writes, too, of the oppressive tropical heat and seasickness, of trying to catch a fish for their supper, and she describes the arduous task of making a simple pot of coffee as the boat bobbed during a storm. Readers will find this a captivating guide to an extraordinary place. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
Andromeda Romano-Lax, with her husband and two children, set out to explore the dazzling waters of the Sea of Cortez in a 24-foot sailboat. Inspired by Steinbeck’s famous 1940 book The Log from the Sea of Cortez, the author quickly proves herself an experienced and lyrical guide to one of North America’s most unusual and rugged places. Her vivid descriptions of the abundant marine life turn readers into armchair naturalists. An encounter with a mentally unbalanced skipper, a baseball game with local villagers, and a kayaking trip in a violent storm are among the adventures — and misadventures — Romano-Lax chronicles here. Including a map, a delightful blend of adventure, science, and philosophy, Searching for Steinbeck’s Sea of Cortez is a memorable trip to some of the most biologically diverse waters in the world.


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Newcomer Alaskan Romano-Lax heads south to Mexican waters, charting the changes 62 years after Steinbeck's famous travels by shrimp seiner. Just before he got his Pulitzer for The Grapes of Wrath, the author and his biologist friend Ed Ricketts spent weeks collecting sea creatures and impressions, getting drunk, and more: "We search for something that will seem like truth to us; we search for understanding; we search for that principle which keys us deeply into the pattern of all life," Steinbeck wrote in The Log from the Sea of Cortez. Romano-Lax, accompanied by her husband and two children, is on something of the same quest in her own fashion; she seeks not for the keys to the universe but for understanding of what is happening to the Sea of Cortez, all but written off for dead by many environmentalists and journalists. She wonders if the creatures Steinbeck and Ricketts catalogued are still in evidence and, if so, in what abundance. In fact, she finds many of them, sometimes in great profusion; to her way of thinking, this indicates a population in flux, an opinion buttressed by her talks with local fishermen, who speak of the ups and downs of catches. These detailed observations come wrapped in the entertaining story of the family's voyage, which begins on a too-small boat in the company of her brother-in-law, Mr. Mood Swing, and continues in its second half as a combined road-kayak venture, with towns and harbors both getting good descriptions. Romano-Lax is a sharp delineator, whether seeing the water's surface as turquoise-tinted mercury or musing on Steinbeck's musings: "They were just fishing: putting out a long line into the dreamy current, to see what might bite." Theenvironmental picture of the Sea of Cortez is nowhere near complete, but her trip adds substantial strokes to the portrait. An appealingly shoestring odyssey chronicled with engaging, ever-ready curiosity. Author tour


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