Field Notes: La Ventana
Before Origen opened, Manu and Pollo spent some time in La Ventana.
At that point the restaurant was still taking shape. The trip was not about planning menus or finalizing ideas. It was simply time spent in Baja, moving through the places and landscapes that have always influenced the way they think about food.
La Ventana sits along the Sea of Cortez, about forty minutes from La Paz. The water there is clear, the wind is constant during the season, and marine life moves through the channel almost daily.
Most mornings started on the boat.
They would head out early, watching the surface and stopping whenever something interesting appeared in the water. Mobula rays passed through in groups, dolphins surfaced nearby, and large schools of fish moved along the drop offs.
One morning they spotted an orca from the boat.
They slipped into the water and watched from a distance. The animal was hunting a seven gill shark, a deep water species that rarely appears near the surface in this area.
The interaction did not last long. A few fast movements, a sudden shift in the water, and then the ocean returned to being quiet again.
Moments like that are hard to predict and even harder to forget.
Trips like this were part of the early days of Origen. Time spent in places like La Ventana, close to the water and paying attention to the landscape and wildlife, helped shape many of the ideas that would later find their way into the restaurant.
La Ventana was one of those places.
