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Almost an Island: Travels in Baja California
Long frequented by pirates and haunted by pariahs, Baja California has become a favorite destination for whale watchers, hikers, and scuba divers. For Bruce Berger it has been more. In Almost an Island , he takes readers beyond the Baja of guidebooks and offers a wildly entertaining look at the real Baja California.
Eight hundred miles long, Baja California is the remotest region of the Sonoran desert, a land of volcanic cliffs, glistening beaches, fantastical boojum trees, and some of the greatest primitive murals in the Western Hemisphere. In Almost an Island , Berger recounts tales from his three decades in this extraordinary place, enriching his account with the peninsula's history, its politics, and its probable future—rendering a striking panorama of this land so close to the United States, so famous, and so little known.
Readers will meet a cast of characters as eccentric as the place Brandy, who ranges the desert in a sand buggy while breathing from an oxygen tank; Katie, the chanteuse; nuns illegally raising pigs. They will encounter the tourist madness of a total eclipse, the story of the heir to an oasis, a musical Mata Hari, rare pronghorn antelope, and a pet tarantula. In prose as glittering as this desert engulfed by the sea, Almost an Island is a fascinating journey into the human heart of a spectacular land.
Eight hundred miles long, Baja California is the remotest region of the Sonoran desert, a land of volcanic cliffs, glistening beaches, fantastical boojum trees, and some of the greatest primitive murals in the Western Hemisphere. In Almost an Island , Berger recounts tales from his three decades in this extraordinary place, enriching his account with the peninsula's history, its politics, and its probable future—rendering a striking panorama of this land so close to the United States, so famous, and so little known.
Readers will meet a cast of characters as eccentric as the place Brandy, who ranges the desert in a sand buggy while breathing from an oxygen tank; Katie, the chanteuse; nuns illegally raising pigs. They will encounter the tourist madness of a total eclipse, the story of the heir to an oasis, a musical Mata Hari, rare pronghorn antelope, and a pet tarantula. In prose as glittering as this desert engulfed by the sea, Almost an Island is a fascinating journey into the human heart of a spectacular land.
- GenresNonfictionTravel
224 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 4, 2012
Great book to read while in Baja California. Interesting mix of history, commentary, etc.
January 19, 2014
Bruce Berger loves Baja California and I caught his passion reading "Almost an Island." I already had a slight infatuation with the place, but it grew to a full blown fever as I read the collection of pieces in this book. Midway through the first piece, "Main Transpenninsular High" (or MTH as it is called throughout the book), I decided I had to drive to Todos Santos when I return next fall. I loved reading about the swiss cheese history of the Baja in "Air and Fire", and how the place does not kowtow to human survival let alone history. Cindy and I have had mixed experiences in Las Paz, and Berger's stories about this place helped me come to terms with that variance and generated a little pride in understanding the city better. I think my favorite story is "Under the Cypress." I want to visit San Ignacio and hope I can make a stop there on my trip down the peninsula next fall. That chapter ends with this line: "I wanted Hector to resume tending his plants unseen while I vanished into a nearby quiet, a recording eye or just a cow with sneakers." This line captures what Berger teaches about writing and about loving a place: be a respectful, reverent observer, who realizes nothing is exactly how it first seems. I'm grateful to Berger for elucidating and expanding my nascent affection for Baja California.
March 2, 2013
I liked the fact that this was kind of hodge-podge of styles; part narrative, part history, part auto-graphical. The author can be quite amusing. I was in stitches reading about the nuns in the monastery. My favorite part was when he took the time to delve into the history of the area. It really set the contextg for the rest of the story. Good read.
July 25, 2010
This book is one man's account of his romance with the Baja. I highly recommend it.
June 21, 2017
Rating: "A": entertaining tales of travel, people and life in Baja.
We're at an old hotel in Santa Rosalia:
"Katie, showering first, yelled halfway through that the water had
gone off and would I *please* rouse someone to get the water back
on. I told one of the kitchen girls, who led me to the water tank,
showed me the valve, and warned me to be sure to turn the water
off afterward. I deposited the towel and shaving equipment in the
room before turning the water off. During the interval, unknown to
me, the hotel manager turned the water off himself. I returned to
the valve, thinking to turn the water off, and turned it back on.
When Katie heard water across the hall, she remarked that it was a
Mexican custom to shower with the door open. We heard the
manager charge to the tank and turn the water off again. Pitying the
imaginary bather caught with soap drying, I turned the shower back
on. On my return from the water tank, I faced the manager striding
toward me like a struck bull. What, he demanded to know, was
going on? I explained the sequence as I knew it and he supplied the
missing link. Wasn't it funny? I said encouragingly. He glared at me
with an infinitely pained expression and stomped back to the
kitchen."
Good stuff.
We're at an old hotel in Santa Rosalia:
"Katie, showering first, yelled halfway through that the water had
gone off and would I *please* rouse someone to get the water back
on. I told one of the kitchen girls, who led me to the water tank,
showed me the valve, and warned me to be sure to turn the water
off afterward. I deposited the towel and shaving equipment in the
room before turning the water off. During the interval, unknown to
me, the hotel manager turned the water off himself. I returned to
the valve, thinking to turn the water off, and turned it back on.
When Katie heard water across the hall, she remarked that it was a
Mexican custom to shower with the door open. We heard the
manager charge to the tank and turn the water off again. Pitying the
imaginary bather caught with soap drying, I turned the shower back
on. On my return from the water tank, I faced the manager striding
toward me like a struck bull. What, he demanded to know, was
going on? I explained the sequence as I knew it and he supplied the
missing link. Wasn't it funny? I said encouragingly. He glared at me
with an infinitely pained expression and stomped back to the
kitchen."
Good stuff.
November 13, 2021
Un bel mix di generi. Non è un libro di viaggio perché Berger non era di passaggio ma si è stabilito nella Baja, non è un'autobiografia perché c'è tanto spazio per scienze naturali, storia, folklore e innumerevoli varie ed eventuali. Non è un libro umoristico anche se è pervaso da un senso dello humor molto spiccato. Non è un romanzo anche se contiene molte vicende e personaggi da romanzo. Traspare la passione sincera di Berger per una terra dove è tornato a varie riprese nel corso di una trentina d'anni. Una terra che anch'io ho avuto la fortuna di visitare in lungo (e per quel poco che è possibile in largo) e che affascina davvero per la bellezza e l'unicità. Quasi da isola, appunto. Sono molto felice di essere entrata in quella libreria di La Paz, di aver fatto due chiacchiere con la libraia e di aver acquistato una copia del libro autografata dall'autore!
April 27, 2021
A history of Baja California, mixed with very entertaining personal anecdotes. Traveling and living in Baja California Sur part time over 3 decades gives Bruce Berger lots of intimate knowledge of the peninsula and its people.
June 26, 2017
Art travelogue part history lesson of the author's experiences in Baja California.
It was nice to read about some of the sleepy little towns and the characters who live there.
It was nice to read about some of the sleepy little towns and the characters who live there.
Want to read
August 5, 2007From Publishers Weekly
While the natural marvels of the 800-mile-long Mexican peninsula called Baja California are not scanted in this freewheeling exploration, it's the human inhabitants that underscore its uniqueness. Berger, award-winning author of The Telling Distance (1990), erstwhile piano player ready for adventure, chronicles his three-decade love affair with this timeless landscape of desert, lagoons, caves and remote ranges, as well as the people of its cities and towns. One of those cities is LaPaz in Baja California Sur, to which a third of the book is devoted. ("LaPaz was one of those places that bored the tourist while whispering to a struck minority: here you must live.") As a resident foreigner whose affection does not close his eyes to contemporary societal evils, Berger is an objective observer. As a "specialist in the state of Baja California," he treats the reader to a pithy history of the upper and lower peninsula, with views of the Spanish colonizers, the controversial missionaries, especially the Jesuits, and the ongoing flinty relationship of the U.S. and this Mexican territory. Berger the raconteur entertains as he cautions against the intrusions made possible by paved roads and highways.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Berger, a Western States Book Award Winner for The Telling Distance (Univ. of Arizona, 1990), lived and traveled in Baja, CA, for three decades. Here he paints a vivid picture of this unique place he refers to as "almost an island." In a fight to protect this shrinking wilderness, he covers the history of the native peoples, the invasion of the Spaniards, modern-day tourists, contemporary settlements, and the everyday life of the permanent and transient residents of the peninsula. He also charts how the 20th century has finally caught up with Baja; as tourism flourishes, the rich history disappears. More homage to a once-wild corner of the North American continent than guidebook, this is recommended for public and academic libraries. Sandra Knowles, Univ. of South Carolina Sch. of Medicine Lib., Columbia
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
While the natural marvels of the 800-mile-long Mexican peninsula called Baja California are not scanted in this freewheeling exploration, it's the human inhabitants that underscore its uniqueness. Berger, award-winning author of The Telling Distance (1990), erstwhile piano player ready for adventure, chronicles his three-decade love affair with this timeless landscape of desert, lagoons, caves and remote ranges, as well as the people of its cities and towns. One of those cities is LaPaz in Baja California Sur, to which a third of the book is devoted. ("LaPaz was one of those places that bored the tourist while whispering to a struck minority: here you must live.") As a resident foreigner whose affection does not close his eyes to contemporary societal evils, Berger is an objective observer. As a "specialist in the state of Baja California," he treats the reader to a pithy history of the upper and lower peninsula, with views of the Spanish colonizers, the controversial missionaries, especially the Jesuits, and the ongoing flinty relationship of the U.S. and this Mexican territory. Berger the raconteur entertains as he cautions against the intrusions made possible by paved roads and highways.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Berger, a Western States Book Award Winner for The Telling Distance (Univ. of Arizona, 1990), lived and traveled in Baja, CA, for three decades. Here he paints a vivid picture of this unique place he refers to as "almost an island." In a fight to protect this shrinking wilderness, he covers the history of the native peoples, the invasion of the Spaniards, modern-day tourists, contemporary settlements, and the everyday life of the permanent and transient residents of the peninsula. He also charts how the 20th century has finally caught up with Baja; as tourism flourishes, the rich history disappears. More homage to a once-wild corner of the North American continent than guidebook, this is recommended for public and academic libraries. Sandra Knowles, Univ. of South Carolina Sch. of Medicine Lib., Columbia
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
May 7, 2012
Bruce Berger writes this compilation of Baja California history, adventure travel and stories of the characters he has met in periods of ex pat residence. The book is worth the paper in just the second chapter, which is an extensive summary of the geology, prehistorical period and people, missionary period and more recent twentieth century events.
The prehistorical people survived in a brutal desert, where the only good times were the fruiting period of the organ pipe cactus. Somehow they created over 250 large scale murals of animal, fish, plant and human form. With some over thirty feet off ground level, no one is quite how these works of art were created.
The mission period was a disaster where the population went from 50,000 to roughly 4,000 in 70 years of Jesuit missions. By the twentieth century, most of the inhabitants were descendents of the soldiers which guarded the missions. Even Father Serra gets a bad rap in this report. Great individual stories for the reset of the book, all of which ring true to my experience.
Kind of a paradise lost for me to remember how Baja California was in my youth during the 60's, surfing and living on the cheap there.
The prehistorical people survived in a brutal desert, where the only good times were the fruiting period of the organ pipe cactus. Somehow they created over 250 large scale murals of animal, fish, plant and human form. With some over thirty feet off ground level, no one is quite how these works of art were created.
The mission period was a disaster where the population went from 50,000 to roughly 4,000 in 70 years of Jesuit missions. By the twentieth century, most of the inhabitants were descendents of the soldiers which guarded the missions. Even Father Serra gets a bad rap in this report. Great individual stories for the reset of the book, all of which ring true to my experience.
Kind of a paradise lost for me to remember how Baja California was in my youth during the 60's, surfing and living on the cheap there.
February 1, 2016
it was "ok"
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews