What is Baja? It is a whirlwind of the senses: all colors, scents, and sounds.

It’s the bright and peeling paint of distant houses on the tiny island of El Pardito, nestled between the larger, lusher, and uninhabited islands of Isla San José and Isla San Francisco. It is the painted coyote on the mural in La Paz, howling ceaselessly and silently at the rising of the real moon.

Baja is the acrid smell of mezcal wafting from a glass, chili-covered elotes grilling on a street corner. It is the tang of salt touching lips as our ship rides the swells in the Sea of Cortez.

Skateboard wheels clacking on the cement of the Malecón, the tap of dancers’ heels to the lively beat of mariachi music, children laughing, dogs barking, and the soulful voice of an opera singer carrying tunes across the sea and around the world…these are the sounds of Baja.

Today, like every day, is a window into this kaleidoscope: a concoction of stimulations that reminds us what it means to be alive.