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I have used many names on my website when referring to various geographical features. The names I use, to the greatest extent possible, are those used by the locals and/or the Mexican government. I've had people write me from time to time, inquiring how I came to know these names. I've also had queries regarding how to obtain topo maps for the area that I frequent. Hopefully, this page will provide at least a little useful reference material.

I decided to copy the official Mexican topographic map for the Isla San Luis to Bahia Gonzaga area published by the Instituto Nacional de Estadistica Geographica E Informatica (INEGI). I scanned them in a relatively high resolution format. With this resolution level, you can download the images to your hard drive and then manipulate them as you see fit. Of course, the downside to high-res images is that they take a little longer to download, as they run from about 250 kB to about 600 kB in size. Once you have them downloaded on your hard drive, you can open them in Photoshop or some other trick image software and shrink or zoom to your heart's content. To keep the file size manageable, I scanned the Isla San Luis quadrangle into 6 parts: northeast, northwest, northmiddle, and their corresponding southern counterparts.

Click on the part you want and the full size map will come up.

In a similar light, I have included several links to the University of Arizona. Some cool satellite images of the Baja peninsula are located there. I'll add more good reference material as I find it or it otherwise becomes available. If you want a hard copy of the Baja topo maps, they are available at The Map Centre, 2611 University Avenue, in San Diego. I think they're 8 or 12 bucks each. The quad to the North of Isla San Luis shows mostly water, so I have resisted buying it. Also, it only shows one island. I can't remember whether the one shown is Isla Lobos or Isla Cholludo (the one Neil Kelley calls Isla Encantada). I do know there's only one island on the map, while we all know there's two out there.

Another good source of image maps is the Arizona Regional Image Archive (ARIA). They have landsat photos available for the whole peninsula, similar to the one in the background. If you just want Puertecitos or Isla Angel de la Guarda, by LA Bay, you can download them here:

I found this site that has images of Baja taken from the Space Shuttle. Actually, George on the Amigos de Baja Site found it, but it's mine now. It's a little on the slow side, but you'll get there eventually. Unfortunately, the Encantadas area isn't shown, but maybe your favorite area is. I suspect that more images will show up in time. Visit the:

NASA has some cool images, but they're hard to find. I found some though, and here they are:

I downloaded a zoomed portion of the air navigation map of the Encantadas area from the Earthkam site. Hit the link to get it.

You're cartophile Numero , by my reckoning.

Web page design and all images contained herein, except where indicated otherwise, are © 2000 Dean R. Charles and are the exclusive property of the author/photographer. Limited license is granted to download these images for personal use, or to use these images on a non-commercial basis. Any other use is prohibited without express written permission of the owner. Violators will be subjected to public ridicule.