By Jonathan Vargas

On June 14th of 2017, a tour was carried out to promote trails and stations in San Quintín with the partners of the College of Professional Architects, together with Architecture students from Xochicalco University and CUT San Quintin.

With more than 70 guests, the tour began with a breakfast in Molino Viejo restaurant where the Executive Director, César Guerrero, welcomed the attendants and gave a brief talk about the work Terra Peninsular does for the conservation of the Baja California peninsula.

At the end of the breakfast we began the tour with an 18-vehicle procession towards the nature reserves in San Quintin Bay. The first stop was at the interpretive trail named Mirador Chapala, there we chatted about the ecological importance of maintaining healthy wetlands for wildlife survival, so that the future generations continue enjoying the natural resources in a sustainable manner.

Later, we visited the Mirador Valle Volcanico station, where we walked on the interpretive trails and we appreciated the beautiful landscapes of the bay and the serpentine swamp channels that are formed by the stream due to the tide changes.

There we talked about the geological history of San Quintin Valley and the age of the volcanoes, some of them are 180,000 years old. In this same place, we talked about the importance of the nature reserves for the protection of endemic threatened or endangered species, as well as the emblematic Golden Eagle that visits the San Quintin volcanoes every winter.

After finishing the tour in Valle Volcanico, we went to La Chorera community and the Punta Mazo Nature Reserve to visit the beach where the river stone is extracted; in this place, we discussed the implications related to the extraction of this resource and how this activity impacts negatively the dynamic in the shoreline because, without the stones, the sand dunes are left unprotected against tide impacts and the flora and fauna habitats that have high conservation value are put at risk.

After visiting the Punta Mazo Nature Reserve, we visited Ostrícola Nautilus, an oyster farm, where the owner Vicente Guerrero kindly gave us a talk about the production process in the bay, we also had the opportunity of eating delicious oyster at the end of the tour. For sure, this is an experience you must have when you visit San Quintin Bay.

In this tour participated some of the staff members of Terra Peninsular, including César Guerrero, Enrique Alfaro and Karen Sandoval.