Just a few miles of the highway, along a washboard road that cuts through fields, Navopatia is a small, off-grid community. Surrounding the village is an Organ Pipe cactus forest – one of the best preserved in the whole world – and on one side is a large salt-water estuary which attracts countless species of birds and animals. This place has got to be one of our most favourite ever – the field station is run by natives from Washington State who come here every year to catalogue the wildlife and host students and the occasional lost travelers. We had such a wonderful few days here: kayaking, celebrating New Years Eve, morning walks watching the dolphins and meeting some of the people who have houses here and even helping out with the construction of the field station’s new kitchen (hope that table doesn’t collapse – you could hardly get a screw into that hardwood they use – it was like concrete).
