Ski Baja - 10-22-2003 at 12:22 PM
Hurricane Trip
Day 1.
Left Rosarito with van rack full up with donations, new transmission and ready to drive about 2000 miles. Made it to BajaMar ( about 45 min.
south) before the so familiar smoke screen is spewing out the back of the van. Alrighty then, off to a flying start. With the trans. just having been
all rebuilt. I am not a happy camper.
Fortunately, I had picked up a cell phone and called Baja Search and Rescue who had my mechanic from Rosarito to me within 2 hours. Awesome. I get
the free tow service to the San Miguel Toll booth where Jose, (my Mech.) checks it out, finds too small of a seal installed, replaces it from an auto
parts in Ensenada and I am now getting a late evening start rather than an early morning start.
Pull into Catavi?a boulder fields and set up a camp for the night. Yes, I did drive at night but with the spotlights on top, it?s just like daytime.
Took some photos of the cactus, made dinner for the 3 of us and settled in to the sounds of the desert.
Day 2.
Left Catavi?a and arrived in Santa Rosalia to see the road 3/4 gone from waves and tides. Lot's of washouts between there and Mulege but easily
passable. Stopped in Mulege for ice and talking to the lady I found out about the serious problem they were having with Dengue. Mulege has always been
one of the buggier areas in Baja and the hurricanes just increased the bug population. They definitely were one of the hardest hit and many trailers
along the river were flooded and mudded. Gave her some repellant and decided to head a little further south. Made it to Tripui and set up camp in
spite of the bugs. Lots of bugs !
Apparently, Big and Andi recognized this spot as they beelined it out of the van and into the water and I was hot on their tails. It was hot. And
we had been driving for 2 days now. And did I mention buggy ?This is when we discovered the water temp. Ive had colder baths. Very unrefreshing but
after the drive, we would have jumped in mud. I am wondering if the water might have been cooler in Mulege which I passed up because of bugs. So far I
only have the 2 bites in spite of my 1-8 inch layer of 5 kinds of repellants.
Bob H - 10-22-2003 at 01:49 PM
JR, nice trip reporting so far. I guess you have been experiencing a lot of bugs! Good thing you have an ample supply of repellent with you. Keep
up the good work. Looking forward to your photos of how green everything is down there.
Bob H
Greenery
Ski Baja - 10-22-2003 at 02:09 PM
Thanks Bob, I put some greenery and bug photos in the Baja News section under the Dengue heading. But I am putting the majority of the trip at my MSN
Group where I have all the trips. http://groups.msn.com/TheBajasBestGuidesPhotoAlbum. I hope yall join, it's free.