Just before COVID, I drove my van halfway down the Baja peninsula with my old buddy Keith, with the objective of getting up close to the gray whales that winter in the protected waters there. Unfortunately my first 24 hours in town were spent in dashing distance to the hotel bathroom. Happily, I survived, got this song out of the experience, and did get out the see the whales, courtesy Whale Magic Tours.

It’s pouring down buckets in Guerrero Negro
Nobody’s taking the boats out today
The water is knee-high outside the hotel
And I’m sick as a dog anyway

I wanted to see the whales from a panga
It’s the end of the season I heard Shari say
With sickness and storm it’s not likely to happen
But mañana’s always another day

It’s pouring in Baja Sur
Streaming out of the sky
Nothing is going according to plan
And I feel like I’m gonna die

The house on the corner is taking on water
Despite all the sandbags they’ve piled round the porch
Someone called in the city pump wagon
The harder they pump, the harder it pours

It’s pouring in Baja Sur
Streaming out of the sky
Nothing is going according to plan
And I feel like I’m gonna die

Shari is working the phone in her office
Whale bones and photos fill up the shelves
She takes no shit from American tourists
A business in Baja won’t itself

It’s pouring in Baja Sur
Streaming out of the sky
Nothing is going according to plan
And I feel like I want to die

The maid comes around with some sort of potion
I take it, why not, can’t feel any worse
What do they do if you die down in Mexico?
Drive your dead gringo ass home in a hearse

It’s pouring in Baja Sur
Streaming out of the sky
Nothing is going according to plan
And I feel like I’m gonna die