As Snoopy II, our 24-foot sport cabin cruiser, slowly approached the smooth shore in the incredibly lovely bay of San Luis Gonzaga, several small cabins, shacks, and trailers came into view.  Perched on the edge of the beach like seagulls, the houses peeked out from thatched palapas that shaded them from the relentless sun.  A few small boats dotted the sand like beached whales.  We drew closer and spotted what we were looking for.  A small fuel shack was located toward the north end of the sand spit that separates Bahia San Luis Gonzaga from Bahia Willard.

 

Our guidebooks for this trip included Murray & Poole’s, Cruising The Sea of Cortez and Ray Cannon’s, The Sea of Cortez.  Our boat, a single-engine Fantasy, guzzled a gallon of gasoline every two miles and we were constantly looking for a place to satisfy his thirst.

 

We anchored, launched our dingy, Snoopito, and rowed ashore.  Timidly, we trudged up the sand to the fuel shack.  To the right of it we saw a cantina (a room with a thatched roof, a few tables, a small kitchen), and a pleasant looking woman.

“En que puedo servirles?”  She said with a great smile.  “How can I help you?”  Big brown eyes that seemed to sit on top of two of the rosiest cheeks that we had ever seen caught our attention.  Dan answered her in perfect Spanish and her eyes danced with mischief and we instantly fell in love with Alfonsina Urquidez Valencia.  A deep friendship developed that has kept us coming back for thirty years.

Over dinners and lunches and breakfasts, we have listened in awe to her tales and adventures.  Her story is one of courage and determination.  A woman who is as tough as she is beautiful, Alfonsina has earned a reputation of being honest and fair.

This book is about Alfonsina, truly a Baja Legend.  In a country and at a time when women “just didn’t do that” - she did.