Searching for Steinbeck’s Sea of Cortez: A Makeshift Expedition Along Baja’s Desert Coast
Andromeda Romano-Lax
In 1940, John Steinbeck and biologist Ed Ricketts embarked on a six-week sailing trip down the coast of Mexico’s Baja California Sur. The friends explored teeming tide pools, philosophized about nature and life, and published their experiences as The Log From the Sea of Cortez. Sixty years later, writer Andromeda Romano-Lax set out to re-create their journey through that fertile but threatened environment. In Searching for Steinbeck’s Sea of Cortez: A Makeshift Expedition Along Baja’s Desert Coast (Sasquatch Books, $16.95), she relates her joyous exploration of Baja’s creatures, places and people—as well as the trials and triumphs of journeying on a cramped sailboat with a husband, two small children and a grumpy skipper in tow. Romano-Lax’s bright prose bursts with strength and good humor, making her a traveling companion par excellence.
—Katherine Sharpe
