Baja California. "The very air here," wrote John Steinbeck, "is miraculous." Was it the air, or was it something else that attracted C. M. Mayo to the Baja peninsula? Whatever it was, Mayo has devoted years to traversing this land, researching it, inhaling it. The result is Miraculous Air, a travelogue that takes the reader on a remarkable journey through history, economics, literature, and politics, from mountaintop missions to beachside tourist towns. Along the way she introduces a stellar cast of intriguing characters including daredevil aviators, sea turtle researches, starving Jesuit missionaries, goat ranchers, hawkers of plastic virgins, and many more. Sometimes awash in tackiness and poverty, often lifted by the richness of its heritage and natural beauty, Baja California is a world of contrasts. Mayo beautifully, sometimes heartbreakingly, captures candid moments of a place and its people.