How to draw maps like in m_map tool?

This may be a question for Jeffrey Whitaker but welcome anyone's help.

I used to use the m_map tool for matlab (http://www.eos.ubc.ca/~rich/map.html <http://www.eos.ubc.ca/~rich/map.html>). Does anybody know how to draw the same maps in matplotlib (BaseMap)? Specifically, how to draw axes in such figures: http://www.eos.ubc.ca/~rich/private/extblueocean.gif or http://www.eos.ubc.ca/~rich/private/exmiller.gif ?

Thanks a lot.