Silhouettes
---Baja, California


On the bus back from Mexico to Los Angeles, you have to go through Baja, through its harsh desert. Here, surreal cacti with their backs bent over lean toward the south. They are dark sillhouettes as the fog rolls in. The air is heavy, and the clouds are those of an approaching storm.

In this desert the cacti are so profuse. Curled over from age and contact with the elements, they seem a vast hoard walking toward the tip of Baja, toward the sea. These ancient cacti have memories in their cells of the unchanging land. Like multitudes of people who are connected to the earth, they are stabilized by it, rooted strong, shaped by the climate and the hot blue sky.

This desert is so subtle, both lovely and harsh. When I woke up this morning, the sunrise was iridescent, the Saguaro cacti dark at first in silhouette against it. As I watched, part of the sky became a robin's egg blue against the orange luminescence. Here there are also bushes which have delicate pink blossoms on them. As we pass by, the flowers are tinted blurs upon the brush.

On this, our final day, we have come to a place where hawks constantly circle in the sky overhead. One flew in front of our windshield and was killed. Passing over large boulder formations, the hawks now seem the only life in this part of the desert. It is very stark and without plants, and the boulders are a smooth and monotonous gray.

Mexican music plays as we travel along in the bus. Our driver is a romantic, I believe, from his choice of groups. He plays slow ballads and the old New Wave group "The Police".

Looking up, in the distance I see that the hills are becoming obscured by fog. There are no other cars here, and we are totally alone. Crowded together, we chat and sleep while the music plays.

Breaking the immense silence of the landscape, it is the only sound.

.....


Copyright(c) Velene Campbell, 2006. All rights reserved.