Many visitors to the Cabo San Lucas region come for the beaches, nightclubs, or fancy hotels. Indeed, many tourists do not venture beyond the small tourist area in the city. On this special day, three of the Sea Bird’s crew members were able to explore and learn more about this area. We drove north of Cabo San Lucas to the smaller town of San Jose del Cabo. There we met two very special and hard-working local women.
Odi Hernandez is an organic farmer and supplies the Sea Bird and Sea Lion with lots of delicious vegetables. Odi grew up on the mainland of Mexico and helped her father farm when she was younger. She became interested in organic farming after seeing people there have allergic reactions to pesticides. Later, she worked on an organic farm in Santa Barbara, California and then studied agriculture at the University of La Paz. Odi maintains a three-acre “huerta”, or garden, that is planted for the Lindblad ships. She and her helper, Max, grow beans, tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, shallots, several varieties of lettuce, beets, radishes, garlic and flowers. We walked with her down the rows of this beautiful garden as she explained the joys and difficulties of organic farming. Her dedication to this project was obvious. The huerta is immaculately maintained and she is known to be up at sunrise to begin harvesting. In addition to her work maintaining the Lindblad garden, Odi has other responsibilities. Del Cabo Fruit Company is a major exporter of organic produce to the United States. The company began in 1987 and specializes in tomatoes and culinary herbs. At a nursery, Odi gets the seeds started and then sends off the seedlings to other organic farmers. From July through February, 100,000 young tomato plants are transferred every week from the nursery to an organic farm. Odi coordinates this project with all other growers in the area. At the nursery there is also a large dehydrator where they produce dried mango. These naturally sweet treats were a favorite among the crew. If all this wasn’t enough to keep Odi busy, she is also a mom. Her daughter, Alondra, at 14 months, looks like she shares her mom’s passion for vegetables—we saw her nibbling on tomatoes, beans and purple garlic!
The other young woman we met was Michele Greenstate. Michele has traveled the Baja peninsula for years, at first looking for good places to surf, and now, to find plants and scents for her soap company, Desert Soaps. Michele and her partner, Mario live along the coast just north of San Jose del Cabo on a ranch where they create natural soaps with the flowers and plant extracts of the desert. All the soaps are made by hand and their ranch is self-sufficient using solar power and their own well water. Mario does the artwork for the labels and packaging of the soaps. He also creates T-shirt designs that they produce and print at their home. Their creative, locally made products are a wonderful alternative to a typical souvenir. Michele is now frequently busy making deliveries to shops around the peninsula including the Sea Bird and Sea Lion on-board gift shops. Even with a growing business to manage, she still keeps an eye open for a good place to pull out her surfboard!
Everyday we are reminded of the richness of the waters around Baja California. The view from the ship makes the desert look harsh and barren, but Odi and Michele opened our eyes to the small miracles that can spring from the land.
