The Log From The Sea of Cortez

After sorting and labeling specimens, the crew goes ashore to the cannery and then rides with Chris, the manager, and Señor Luis, the port captain, to San Lucas, a town damaged by winter surf and flood. At a dusty cantina, morose young men linger while the proprietor plays loud records. There is no ice or electricity, only gasoline lanterns and many cockroaches. The crew drinks beer, buys straw hats, and departs when everyone seems “too far gone in sorrow” (56). Chris describes a local liquor, damiana, said to be an aphrodisiac. The crew purchases a bottle intending to test it “under laboratory conditions” (56), but US customs in San Diego later confiscate it because it contains alcohol. Steinbeck notes that there is “no true aphrodisiac” (57) aside from the act of sex itself.

That night, the party walks through sandy hills under a black sky and comes upon a rough cross lit by a candle in a kerosene can, marking the spot where a fisherman “fell down and died” (59). The group returns to the pier; since the Sea-Cow predictably refuses to start, they row back to the Western Flyer. The same sad young men appear on the pier watching as the skiff pulls away.