About 6 p.m., on a cool and partly cloudy February evening, we charged up to the open Sky Deck aboard Holland America Line's Ryndam, two jaded sunset connoisseurs about to be astounded. An hour earlier. the 1,200-passenger ship had left Loreto, Baja California's historic mission settlement on the Sea of Cortez, and we had sailed south paralleling the jagged and majestic peaks of the Sierra de la Gigante mountain range.

Then, to our amazement, the sun set--not once, but twice. As the calm blue sea began to darken in the fading light, the orange orb dipped behind ancient volcanic peaks. And while only a few passengers were on hand to see the ensuing glow spreading across the sky, even fewer hung out after darkness fell, as we did. Finally, we turned go, our cameras packed up. Then, suddenly, as though some celestial painter had brush-stroked it, the sky lit up in fiery red, and long, wispy clouds seemed to burst into flame. The second sunset, more stunning than the first, lingered in a 10- to 15-minute light show as reds, purples, and magentas played across the sky.

It was the fourth day of a seven-day cruise out of San Diego aboard the Ryndam, one of HAL's elegant, midsize cruise ships, entering service in 1994. She would take us south along the west coast of Baja California Sur, around the southwest tip of the peninsula at Cabo San Lucas, and then north up the east coast to Loreto, Bahia de la Paz, and Pichilingue, the port for La Paz, and finally, a stop in Cabo itself before heading home. The scenery here is spectacular, a combination of desert and mountains, and the marine life is abundant and diverse. Two bodies of water--the Pacific Ocean on the west side, and the Sea of Cortez to the east--provide different characteristics and marine environments. On the second morning at sea, we awoke in our stateroom with the sun rising on our portside veranda, and a magical sight outside. We were only 15 miles offshore, and between us and the laud, a pod of gray whales on a parallel course was headed for spawning waters in the warmer and nutrient-rich Sea of Cortez. At least six different types of whales make this migration from Alaska and Hawaii between December and March, including California grays, fin-backs, humpbacks, and even blue whales, the largest mammal on earth.

The sighting set the tone for this cruise, a mix of scenery and wildlife blended with the friendliness and history of small Mexican towns. The itinerary is one of the few west coast Mexico cruises which include the seldom-visited towns of Loreto and La Paz, with shore excursions to the charming Todos Santos, a place whose perfect climate and small-town ambiance make it a refreshing contrast to the congested commercialism of Cabo San Lucas just down the road.

That a cruise liner stops in Loreto is another happy digression from the usual. Spanish galleons have been more common here over the last several centuries than cruise ships in the 21st century. In 1697, 162 years after Hernan Cortez failed to conquer Baja California, a Jesuit priest named Juan Mafia de Salvatierra managed to establish the first Spanish mission in Loreto. It's been restored with a museum and quiet courtyard where tourists and school children can get a lesson in history. On a side street in back of the church, my wife, Cathy, and I discovered a family-run restaurant called Fonda Canipole, where the owner, Duena Sofia, served us a delicious lunch of tortilla soup and enchiladas with mole, the cocoa-based, sweet-flavored sauce famous in many southern Mexican recipes.

Later we wandered through Loreto's main street, under arches covered with vines and flowers, shopping in small craft stalls and tiendas. The ship was anchored offshore a short distance from the main town thoroughfare, and since we arrived here at 7 a.m. and left at 5 p.m., there was plenty of time for exploration.

At dinner that evening in the two-level Rotterdam Dining Room, we had plenty to talk about over our pan-seared grouper "Vera Cruz" and roast prime rib of beef. Like all HAL's S Class ships (the Ryndam, Maasdam, Statendam, and Veendam), the ship is refined and tastefully decorated throughout. The Ryndam features fresh flowers everywhere and an art collection worth more than a million dollars. There is an air of elegance in every public room, but the dining room--with its china, silver, and crystal--was my favorite, an opinion perhaps biased by the excellent food and service. The outstanding Pinnacle Grill, once the site of a video arcade adjacent to the dining room, is the ship's alternative restaurant.

That night we sailed southeasterly and then south through islands and channels to Bahia de la Paz and the port city of Pichilingue. Several tours were available, including scuba-diving, snorkeling, and visits to La Paz--Baja California's second largest city after Tijuana, but in a totally different world. The marine life in the area includes seal lions, whales, dolphins, and an assortment of game fish that has made La Paz and the Sea of Cortez prime waters for sportsfishing for more than half-a-century. La Paz itself has a thriving downtown area, plenty of shopping, history, a rebuilt cathedral, and a Museum of Anthropology.

We opted for a six-hour excursion to the town of Todos Santos, about 60 miles southwest of La Paz. The town sits on a low mesa in the western foothills of the Sierra de la Laguna mountains, where Pacific breezes and sunshine produce ideal winter weather. Orchards of mango and avocado trees are everywhere, and the town's colonial architecture and small-town ambiance are refreshing. We wandered through brick streets lined with craft shops and stalls, joining the group for lunch at Los Adobes, a covered, outdoor restaurant. Todos Santos, with a population of around 5,000, has a few small hotels, including the Hotel California, a renovated, colonial-style building. While the lyrics seem to indicate this is the place, rumors that this is the "Hotel California" from the hit song by the Eagles have been debunked over the years. Still, it's fun to imagine that it might be true.

That evening, we sailed northward toward a series of islands, Los Islotes and Isla del Espiritu Santo, before retracing our previous route along the southeastern coast of Baja. At 10:30 p.m. we succumbed to the Ryndam's "dessert extravaganza," in which temptation always wins. Chocolate mousse, truffles, chocolate-covered strawberries, and other goodies drew passengers like helpless children to sugarcoated dreams. Thursday morning at 7 a.m. found us anchored in the bay off Cabo, our last port-of-call, on the fifth day of the cruise. Like Key West at the end of Florida's U.S. Highway One, Cabo is a resort town at the end of Mexico's Highway One. The town, and the so-called "corridor" between it and San Jose del Cabo 20 miles north, has evolved over the years from remote sport-fishing hideaway to major tourist and time-share mecca, with all the attendant traffic congestion and hawkers. The terrain is nevertheless spectacular here, where the mountains and desert meet the sea in a series of unusual rock formations, including Los Arcos, a natural rock monument where excursion and fishing boats pass by sunning sea lions and tiny, picturesque beaches.

We opted for a whale-watching and snorkeling expedition aboard a "pirate ship," whose colorful captain, flawlessly groomed with a black beard and dressed for the role in black swashbuckling apparel, gave us an informative, if jarringly biased, history of the area, and ordered his men to wage mock warfare on a shoreside time-share complex. It was great fun, especially since the fake cannon fire from the fake ship echoed with resounding realism off the time-share canyon configuration.

Cabo's other redeeming qualities include excellent shopping and plenty of good restaurants and cafes, although getting there often required running a gauntlet of cheap jewelry vendors dangling merchandise at us and asking "How much you pay?" This was a different world from the more sedate and low-key towns of Loreto and Todos Santos we had left behind, but we were nevertheless laden down with new Mexican crafts to add a bit of color and fun to our bathrooms and kitchen at home as we rushed back for the Ryndam's 4 p.m. departure.

From here we were headed north toward San Diego and two full days at sea. It was a fine time to enjoy ship amenities and review what we'd experienced, both aboard and ashore. The ship has the roomy feeling of a larger vessel. We liked the wide passage on Upper Promenade Deck, which ran from the dining room aft to the Vermeer Lounge forward--both of which have two levels.