A serious question continues to nag at my professional pride as I'm leaving the town of Los Barrilles, and am driving north out of town along the East Cape coastal road through stunning, rugged Baja seaside views. I pass a couple of palatial homes, and then climb down into the property of the Punta Pescadero Paradise Hotel.

The question was why hadn't I ever even at least HEARD of this hotel before Cabo Living magazine's publisher brought it to my attention? Publisher Dave Leathers asked me to visit and produce a feature on this hidden, little, all-suites boutique hotel. "Which hotel?" I asked myself. "Punta Pescadero what?" For days, now, I'd often asked myself: just where it was located, I thought to myself, after getting the assignment.

Silly me, I thought I knew of, or had at least heard of most every hotel, especially throughout the Los Cabos' region. All the more so, and especially so after having spent the better part of 2008, researching, and then writing, the Fodor's Los Cabos & Baja Peninsula travel guidebook.

Silly me, for being such a brash know-it-all, I laugh to myself.

To be perfectly truthful, though, I'd hadn't heard of Pescadero Paradise, although I'd been out to Buena Vista/Los Barrilles on several occasions to watch the expert sailboarders and kite surfers ride the wind and waves. I'd covered several sport fishing tournaments held out here, too, very near Punta Pescadero in years past, even published articles on the top sport fishing hotels located here at Buena Vista. I'd visited the small East Cape fishing hotel at Punta Colorada years before, but, darn it, never a word of this little hotel!

I arrive at the small, tranquil, resort, set out on the edge of what I'm guessing is Punta Pescadero. They're friendly and cordial as I check in. I meet Sandra Delgado, the hotel's General Manager, and she asks how my drive in was, and if I'd had a hard time finding the hotel. I say no. But the question continues its nagging in the back of my mind.

So, I begin my journalistic enquiries.

What do you recommend I do during my stay here, I asked the trio that has assembled at the desk: along with Sandra, she is joined by managers Felipe Lucero and Angelica Partida. With a name like Punta Pescadero (fisherman's point) I tell them that I'd imagine that fishing would be good here. Can I go fishing? I enquire of Sandra. "Sure," she says, "we have two pangas and a cruiser, and you can go out on Saturday morning with Enrique."

"We also have two kayaks down on the beach that you are welcome to take out," suggests Felipe, jumping into the conversation.

And snorkeling and scuba diving is "fantastico," adds Angelica, a professional scuba guide, who also speaks Italian, I later discover.

What else? I ask.

"Well, there are ATV tours out to the pinturas rupestres," suggests Felipe.

"You have Indian cave paintings near here?!" I respond excitedly, having always wished to see these curious, quizzical and artistic creations of Baja's first Indian inhabitants, made millennia ago.

"Si, amigo," answers Felipe. "Raul can take you out on our ATVs.

"Wonderful, great!" I exhort, "Sign me up! Can I go out to see the paintings manana!" I jump at my chance, finally, getting the opportunity to fulfill a long-time Baja dream. Felipe says "Si" and I'm jazzed.

Who'd 'a thought, I think to myself, amazed at the many activities available here at the small, relatively-unheard-of hotel. It IS a "Paradise!" Buenisimo!!

And Indian cave paintings, too!! What a treasure I've found!

From the hotel's back office, a radio crackles, and someone jumps to answer the call, and responds to the caller. It's from an incoming plane, announcing that he's on a final approach to the Punta Pescadero runway, and could he have someone come out to meet them at the airport and pick them up.

Aha & Eureka!!! A bell of recognition goes off inside my head, as I overhear the interchange on the hotel's radio.

It is at this very moment that I experience what I call my "Eureka moment," and it's in a flash that I am rewarded with the answer to that troublesome Punta Pescadero Paradise question that had been plaguing me for so long. Over the past couple of weeks, I've been trying to fathom why the hotels' existence had remained such a secret- especially from me. Por que, Dios? Tell me why, God??

The answer to that perplexing question, I finally realize, is that I'm neither a pilot, nor have I been a fly-in hotel guest. And THAT'S why I'd not heard of Punta Pescadero - because it's been one of those "secrets" so dearly held "close to the chest," and protected by the cadre of fly-in pilots, the winged secret circle that has enjoyed frequenting Baja's many hotel airstrips over past decades.

I call them F.I.G.s, or fly-in gringos, and after having recently done an article on Abelardo "Rod" Rodriguez and his popular Rancho Las Cruces fly-in resort in an earlier issue of Cabo Living magazine. During the article, I'd been surprised to learn of the unexpected number of pilots with their own private planes that actually do transit the Baja, visiting hotels that make it easy to visit, with their own runways. I'd also been amazed to discover how many of these avid pilot-people "do-it-yourselfers" still exist, and enjoy the liberty of flying themselves into the Baja Peninsula hotel of their choice - an enviable talent and ability, I must admit, considering how many times I've flown on commercial airliners, and wished I could do the same.

"El Doctor Blum will be landing soon," announces Gildado Burquez, Punta Pescadero's Sales manager, out to the group of us now arranged at the front desk. "Enrique, will you drive out to the airport and pick them up, por favor," he continues.

"May I go out, to meet el doctor and photograph el avion (his plane)" I ask of Sandra. She says yes, and as I jump into the hotel's SUV with Enrique and head out to the airport, I realize that I've already signed up for an ATV adventure out to see cave paintings, happily experienced my hotel "Eureka moment," and still not even been to my room yet!

Fantastico! I already LOVE this place, I'm thinking - Punta Pescadero really is paraiso, or paradise.

Once out at the airport, Enrique and I meet the Cessna 414, a sleek, sizable twin-engine plane as it's taxiing in, and the pilot cuts the engines. Four people emerge, sighing, perhaps a bit air-weary, and obviously glad to have arrived at their destination. We help them pull an impressive amount of baggage and belongings from more compartments than I knew planes had - in the nose, from the wings - bags of food, bottles of wine, an assortment of suitcases and even a couple of Christmas presents.

"Looks like you'll be staying here awhile," I observe to the pilot, who introduces himself as Dr. Marvin Blum, and his wife, Betty, along with another couple, Mitzi and Sid White.

"Yes, we're staying a couple of weeks," states El Doctor. "We love it here, and come to Punta Pescadero at least a couple of times each year."

His simple comment that they come to Punta Pescadero a couple of times a year, contrasted with the simple fact this was my first visit - confirms my suspicions that this fly-in hotel has, indeed, been a well-kept secret for some time!

"How long have you been coming to Punta Pescadero?" I ask

"Oh, for YEARS," states simply the doctor. Oh my, I think to myself, what a secret!

I awaken the next morning excited and ready for my ATV Adventure, and meet Felipe in front of the hotel, and he introduces me to Raul Aviles Ruiz, who'll be my guide out to the cave paintings. After directions on how to ride and shift the four-wheeled ATV (all-terrain vehicle, much like sitting astride a mini-jeep), and after I've taken a couple of practice spins around the hotel cobblestoned parking lot, we take off down the dusty coast road.

I follow behind Raul along the rough, rugged road, through the small village of El Cardonal (where I'll learn that Raul and many of the hotel's employees live), and then we veer onto a small, unmarked dirt road that winds through cactus-studded arroyos of the surroundings.

At the end of our wild, energizing and dusty hour and a half ride, Raul stops his ATV at the foot of a hillside, points out a giant boulder, and tells me the paintings, pinturas rupestres, are to be found in the range above us. Following a climb along a trail that I would never have found, nor would I have been able to follow, we arrive at a clearing to find the primitive, simple paintings of animals, a marlin and red stick figure people painted upon the giant boulder. Perhaps they lived here? Raul suggests that this little nook underneath the boulder was their "house," or perhaps camp.

As we sit in the shade, discussing current life in Baja, I learn about Raul's family life in El Cardonal. As I view the figures, I try to imagine the difficult lives of the creators of these drawings, they who lived here as long as thousands of years ago in this rough, demanding Baja environment, and their enduring the high heat of summer. It must have been a tough life for them, we agree, living on berries plucked from cactus, maybe catching the occasional fish out of the sea. We're thankful, after our conversation, to be able to jump back onto our speedy ATVs, and head out of the arroyo, along the roads, through the dust, and back to the comforts of the hotel and civilization.

Arriving back at Punta Pescadero Paradise, I'd forgotten that I had scheduled some food photography for the afternoon, and so immediately I've more work to do, shooting several new hotel dishes on an outdoor dining table overlooking their pool. It's work, but, then, I also get to enjoy the "fruits" of my labor, getting to sample the dish, a wonderful concoction, Camarones al Coco, Coconut Shrimp along with the prop glass of Chardonnay, too, of course!

Working at Punta Pescadero Paradise is a family affair, I find. Just about everyone living in the nearby village of El Cardonal has worked at the hotel or has family that does. Later, that night at their open-air bar a small group assembles, and over a couple of cervezas, I enjoy insightful conversation about planes and the fly-in gringo guests, and the colorful history of living here at Punta Pescadero, with the manager Felipe, and his son Edwin, (speaking of a family affair) who's currently my bartender.

Also at the bar, is another hotel employee, Oscar, and Felipe introduces us. I learn that Oscar's fisherman-father also once worked here at the hotel years ago, and thought nothing of regularly ROWING his slender 14-foot sailing-fishing canoe on four day trips, to deliver the sharks he'd caught, to the capital city of La Paz.

The next morning, after witnessing yet another glorious, golden Baja sunrise, (the sun appears out of the sea which I still can't get used to), I head down to Playa Palo Blanquito with Felipe. He introduces me to Captain Enrique Gerardo Aviles. Enrique and I waste no time, and immediately head out for fishing in the hotel's cruiser. Fishing has been slow lately, he tells me, perhaps subtly telling me not to expect too much, as he puts out the "plumas," or feathered lures. Within minutes, we're hooked up, and I reel in a small five-pound Sierra - not the dorado I was hoping to catch, and later enjoy for dinner at the hotel's La Punta Restaurant.

Enrique tries various lures, hoping one of the different colors will bring us "suerte," or luck. Around mid-day, he tries his favorite, an orange and brown "petrolero" lure, and it does just the trick. Half an hour later, as we're both eating our lunches, we get a big strike. Looking back, we both catch only a glimpse of flashing silver shape as it's disappearing back into the sea, hooked up, and pulling the line off the reel screaming.

Our mystery fish puts up a great battle. I've thrown on a fighting belt and fight the fish, whatever it is, for the better part of an hour, with the lightweight Penn reel and the relatively-light, 40-pound test line. Enrique shouts "Marlin, marlin!" as I reel the large silver shape nearer to our panga. "White marlin," he exclaims excitedly, clapping me on the back, and reaching for the gaff.

"No, no, Enrique, I want to release him," I tell my capitan. "Please, let's let him live, por favor!" He understands and nods in agreement; tossing aside the gaff, he then grabs the line and expertly brings the white marlin alongside the boat. He grasps the bill of the marlin and removes the hook from the fish's mouth. I take the wheel to drive the little cruiser, realizing that he wants to revive the marlin by towing it alongside the boat for a few minutes, which passes oxygenated water through the marlin's gills, much like we would breathe from an oxygen bottle after running a marathon.

As we work together, towing the marlin alongside the little boat, a giant Gray whale surfaces noisily nearby, off our starboard side, and exhales in a giant plume of mist that covers us, its long dark back and tail breaking, and then re-entering, the surface of the Sea of Cortez.

I shake my head in amazement as I try to imagine where else in this big world of ours one might be able to ATV out to view thousand-year old Indian cave paintings one day, and then enjoy whale watching while catching a marlin the very next? Only here in Baja, I realize.

Punta Pescadero definitely is paraiso, Paradise!!

For more information on making reservations at Punta Pescadero:

E-mail: info@puntapescaderoparadise.com

Website: www.puntapescaderoparadise.com

Telephone:
• (52) (624) 141-0101 (local Mexican number)
• (866) 332-4442 (USA toll free number)
• 1-877- 818-5010 (Canada toll free)