Kayaking the Vermilion Sea: Eight Hundred Miles Down the Baja

by Jonathan Waterman

Book Overview

With two slender sixty-pound kayaks, a ten-pound medical kit, twenty pounds of books, triple-digit temperatures, and no contact with the outside world, Jonathan and Deborah Waterman spent two months paddling through the violent tides and storms that define the mythically charged Sea of Cortes. Amid the lore and romantic past of the Baja they discovered that what began as a mutual exploration would soon become an unforgettable test of will.

Exhilarating...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684803380
• ISBN13: 9780684803388
• Release Date: December 1996
• Publisher: Touchstone Books
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Awesome

Those who criticize this book as too "whiny" might be the type of person that is turned off by books without a Disneyesque happy ending. This book does contain a lot of darkness and has a existentialist tone throughout. The final sentance (a lyric) is "Life is worth nothing." If you are not comfortable reading a book that delves into the darker realms of our existence then you might not like it. If however, you enjoy reading an author who is brilliant and able to bare their soul, you'll like this. The author is very knowledgeable about history, science, culture, etc... and I found his observations to be spot on. His politics are to the Left of course... How many environmentalists and anti-racists are Rightists? If you are demented enough to have voted for George Bush forget about this book.

Modern Jesuit

It's very well written and full of interesting information. but it's one of these misanthropic ecology tracts. Much of what he says is well justified but, considered as entertainment, it was so full of grouching about the adverse effects of everything on the environment that it ended up with too many sour notes. I was struck by how close his moral attutudes were to those of the early missionaries he describes. He extols the virtues of mortifying the flesh, and relishes describing the hardships he has inflicted on himself. He keeps encountering residents who do not share his beliefs about how life should be lived. They commit such crimes as fishing and using toilet paper. They are not the original inhabitants of the country.

A must for anyone planning a trip into Lower California

I had the pleasure of meeting Jonathan Waterman during his kayak trip in Baja and have found him to be as interesting in book form as in person. In Kayaking the Vermilion Sea Jonathan provides us with more than just an adventure into the rugged Baja Peninsula. He allows us to view the Sea of Cortez, the isolated villages, the Mexican people, and a beautiful, but oftern hostile, landscape in a way seldom experienced by the visitor. And he occasionally holds up a mirror for us to look into.

Stimulating mix of history, ecology, culture and philosophy.

This surprisingly captivating book is not as much about kayaking as you might think. A select, but very useful, coverage of Baja's history, and observations on the current human culture and ecology, are continually mixed with philosophical thoughts on the human condition. I am not a kayaker but read the book essentially in one sitting. I'll be reading more of Waterman's work, hoping for the same spare but effective movement through interrelated and complex subjects.

There aren't too many over 50 year old Australians in Baja

Kayaking The Vermillion Sea, by John Waterman was my inspiration for a superb seakayaking holiday in Baja. During my solo trip I had some close encounters with whales, met some wonderful people(native and non-native), had some superb experiences and learnt a word of Spanish or two. Waterman's wonderful book should be on the "must read" list of every intending traveller to this remarkable part of the world. David Cregan Canberra Australia