Searching for Steinbeck's Sea of Cortez: A Makeshift Expedition Along Baja's Desert Coast [Paperback]

Andromeda Romano-Lax (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 9, 2002

Andromeda Romano-Lax, with her husband and two children, set out to explore the dazzling waters of the Sea of Cortez in a 24-foot sailboat. Inspired by Steinbeck’s famous 1940 book The Log from the Sea of Cortez, the author quickly proves herself an experienced and lyrical guide to one of North America’s most unusual and rugged places. Her vivid descriptions of the abundant marine life turn readers into armchair naturalists. An encounter with a mentally unbalanced skipper, a baseball game with local villagers, and a kayaking trip in a violent storm are among the adventures — and misadventures — Romano-Lax chronicles here. Including a map, a delightful blend of adventure, science, and philosophy, Searching for Steinbeck’s Sea of Cortez is a memorable trip to some of the most biologically diverse waters in the world.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Imagine hitchhiking in Baja's wilderness with a pair of toddlers in tow, then packing them into a sea kayak on the Sea of Cortez. Clearly, Romano-Lax, the author of several guidebooks to Alaska, where she resides, has a nonchalant and intrepid attitude toward travel. With her husband and two children (one still in diapers), she sets out on a journey in search of the tide pools explored by John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts 60 years ago. Her goal is to duplicate the route described in Steinbeck's The Log from the Sea of Cortez in a small sailboat captained by her mentally unstable brother-in-law. The captain jumps ship midway through the expedition, leaving the hardy family to continue by foot, rental car, bus, and charter boats as they make their way around the shores of the Sea of Cortez. Two months later, the journey ends in Guaymas with the travelers out of funds and both children recovering from minor (but frightening) injuries. This, though, is only half of Romano-Lax's story. The reader travels with Steinbeck and Ricketts as well, in combination with the author's own observations of the invertebrates that inhabit the shoreline of Baja's inland sea. There's sufficient information here for any naturalist, environmentalist, or trekker considering a similar journey to explore this little-known part of North America. The omission of photos is an unfortunate drawback. For most public and academic libraries. Janet Ross, formerly with Sparks Branch Lib., NV
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Motivated by John Steinbeck's 1941 book, Log from the Sea of Cortez, Romano-Lax, with her husband and two young children, completed a two-month, 4,000-mile journey in a 24-foot sailboat piloted by the author's brother-in-law. Mexico's Gulf of California, known locally by the more romantic sounding Sea of Cortez, is off the east coast of Baja California. The author recalls seeing schools of fish and stingrays, crabs, clams, mussels, and blue damselfish, to name just a few, and she describes the sheltered pools housing hundreds of tiny sea urchins. She observed pelicans, gulls, ravens, frigate birds, and sea lions, and she chronicles her trek through mangroves along the shore. She writes, too, of the oppressive tropical heat and seasickness, of trying to catch a fish for their supper, and she describes the arduous task of making a simple pot of coffee as the boat bobbed during a storm. Readers will find this a captivating guide to an extraordinary place. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Sasquatch Books (August 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570612552
• ISBN-13: 978-1570612558
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,570,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in 1970 in Chicago, Andromeda Romano-Lax worked as a freelance journalist and travel writer before turning to fiction. Her first novel, The Spanish Bow, was translated into eleven languages and was chosen as a New York Times Editors' Choice, BookSense pick, and one of Library Journal's Best Books of the Year. Among her nonfiction works are a dozen travel and natural history guidebooks to the public lands of Alaska, as well as a travel narrative, Searching for Steinbeck's Sea of Cortez: A Makeshift Expedition Along Baja's Desert Coast, which was an Aububon Editor's Choice. Andromeda lives with her husband and children in Anchorage, Alaska, where she co-founded and now teaches for a nonprofit organization, the 49 Alaska Writing Center.

On a more personal note, Andromeda also belongs to a book club of intelligent women who cook fantastic Alaska dinners and occasionally tease her for steering discussions away from the scallops and salmon and back to issues of character, theme, and language, of which she never tires. She keeps a log of everything she reads, including her personal reactions to those works, something she started years ago to address the gaps in her early education, which had previously focused on political science and marine science. She loves travel, especially with her husband and children, and running, cycling, and triathlons (well, maybe "loves" is too strong a word for those activities, but she does enjoy them in the company of friends). She has played cello off and on, but never a tenth as well as Feliu, the protagonist of her debut novel, The Spanish Bow. Her vices include red wine, tortilla chips and salsa (which she will eat to the point of stomachache), and towering piles of yet-to-be-read books on most surfaces. On a first weekend-long date with her future husband over twenty years ago, they argued late into the night about the Holocaust (his interest, not hers), neither expecting that she would later become a novelist interested in writing about Nazis and the Third Reich. Her favorite novelists include Ian McEwan, Philip Roth, Kazuo Ishiguro, Paul Theroux, Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, Meg Wolitzer, Zoe Heller, Lionel Shriver, and Jon Clinch.

Andromeda blogs at www.romanolax.com and enjoys hearing from readers.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sea of Cortez - Searching for the spirit of Ed Ricketts, June 7, 2003

By 

David B Richman (Mesilla Park, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Searching for Steinbeck's Sea of Cortez: A Makeshift Expedition Along Baja's Desert Coast (Paperback)

This was a great read! I have been to many of the places in the late 1960s and early 1970s that Romano-Lax visited, and I can vouch for the accuracy of her descriptions. I admire her courage (or possibly foolhardiness) in going on such an odyssey with her husband, two young children and a mentally questionable captain who also happened to be her brother-in-law. Oddly, I can identify with being with a mentally deranged person in Baja California. I was also in that same fix in 1968 when I joined a zoology field trip to San Felipe, Baja California Norte, only to find that one of my companions was seriously depressed to the point of being suicidal (it later turned out that he was on drugs). Travel to the Sea of Cortez seems to result in such strange associations.

I used to own an old copy of Steinbeck and Ricketts that I had been given for cleaning up a storage shed. It was the only book in the shed and I was surprised to find it. I fingered through Ed Ricketts' descriptions and photographs of porcelain crabs and murex shells. I read the text and pondered Steinbeck's philosophical diatribes. But most of all it made me want to go to Baja. Within a few years of my discovery of the book I traveled to northern Baja three times and later made an extensive trip as far south as La Paz in Baja Sur. Despite the problems, Baja left its mark on me and I never regretted any time that I spent there. My main grief is that I missed a trip to Cabo San Lucas in 1971 that I had an opportunity to take.

The mangroves, the beauties and problems of Bahia Concepción, Mullegé, La Paz, Loreto, the Colorado River delta and Golfo de Santa Clara are well known to me and Romano-Lax has described each of these so well that I almost felt that I was back on the beach smelling the salt air and watching v-shaped formations of pelicans as they seemed to float almost effortlessly over the surging tide.

Ed Ricketts would have approved of this book. Although he never liked to get his head wet, he was apparently most alive when wading in the surf and tidepools. In some ways this book is more a tribute to him than to John Steinbeck, but in this case you really can't separate them.

If you are at all interested in the sea and/or Baja California, you need to read "Searching for Steinbeck's Sea of Cortez: A Makeshift Expedition along Baja's Desert Coast." It is the next best thing to going there yourself!

.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Steinbeck (and Ed Ricketts) would love it., January 5, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Searching for Steinbeck's Sea of Cortez: A Makeshift Expedition Along Baja's Desert Coast (Paperback)

This is an ambitious book, well done. Its special beauty comes from Romano-Lax's ability to weave together so many elements into an enticing, captivating whole. There's the travel narrative, of course, with a string of adventures (and misadventures) involving her family -- including 5-year-old son Aryeh and 2-year-old daughter Tziporah -- and the challenges presented by an increasingly unstable brother-in-law who's also their boat's captain. There's the literary element, presenting new perspectives on John Steinbeck's Sea of Cortez explorations with buddy Ed Ricketts and fresh insights into their relationship. Toss in science, natural history, environmental issues, glimpses of Baja California's rich culture, and marvelous descriptions that give a strong sense of place. Then add in Romano-Lax's search for answers, her desire to understand how the Sea of Cortez has changed since Steinbeck's time, and, finally, her own shifting perspectives on what it means to know a place (or "know" anything) -- and the many ways of knowing. In the end, Romano-Lax's travels are multi-dimensional: across the Sea of Cortez, through time, and -- perhaps most important of all -- internally. The trip was well worth taking and I savored it from start to finish.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Dull and slow at the start and unfocused, March 4, 2007

By 

CGScammell (Cochise County, AZ) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Searching for Steinbeck's Sea of Cortez: A Makeshift Expedition Along Baja's Desert Coast (Paperback)

There were so many ways of tackling what could have been a splendid sea voyage. Instead, it appeared to have been a taxing, challenging, emotional and financial disappointment for the crew.

Although the book picks up in pace and focus at page 133 on, the author was confusing toward the reader in not letting us know at the beginning what this book was about. Was it truly to discover Steinbeck's old route, was it to explore the sealife of the Cortez waters? Was it a family sailing trip with a grumpy captain and a toddler who wailed and vomited almost daily? Was it just a mundane journal of a sea voyage gone wrong? I really wanted to enjoy this book and tried hard.

Sometimes I felt lost with the nautical or marine terminology. That's why I only gave this book three stars instead of four. The author becomes more of an environmentalist toward the end as well, ranting about how Mexico and its people and the tourists should take better care of the shores and the Marine life or else so many fragile ecosystems will perish, as they surely have since Steinbeck's time.

The family didn't truthfully follow the Steinbeck/Ricketts voyage as the four spent more time in northern Baja along the coast, a region so unlike the southern Baja with its colder climates and gustier winds. Since I live in Arizona and the Sea of Cortez is only a four-hour drive on Mexican backroads, I was especially wanting to read more on that part of the waters. But, that part of the trip came toward the end of the journey and was a hasty finale void of many more detailed observations given at the start of the book.

I will agree with other reviewers who said Andromeda was very critical of her former brother-in-law. She seemed critical of EVERYONE. Sometimes her descriptions of the Mexicans was downright rude, based on whatever bad experience she was going through at the time. In fact, she comes across as a very critical person toward everything, which makes enjoying her book hard.

The end, like many mediocre travelogues, ends anticlimactically. Time and money ran out and so did the book. The end meant an end of the sour mood and that was a relief. Still, I was left wondering what the main purpose was of this book? There were so many things the travelers should and could have done better through more thorough planning and better accomodations. The two young children would have been happier, too and not been so traumatized by some of the incidents that they endured toward the end.