BajaNomad

Palapas Alvinos in San Quintin

oladulce - 1-10-2008 at 04:08 PM

Has anyone stayed here? Are there people on-site thru the night?

Pabellon down the beach is still ok, but lately we've been the only one's there overnight and although no problems, it's a little creepy being out there in the open with a big ol camper and ute trailer. It would be nice to have another option since we seem to be in this area going north and south.

Alvinos is listed on the BajaNomad Interactive Map but I haven't heard much else about it.

Fred - 1-10-2008 at 04:33 PM

Wow, that whole beach to yourself at Pabellon. I love it that way, but understand what you are saying. To each his own......................

oladulce - 1-10-2008 at 05:41 PM

It does sound ideal to have a beach to yourself Fred, but here's the history:

In El niño winter of '92 we were stranded for 2 weeks with 80 other vehicles (RV's, cars, Mexican truckers..) at an abandoned Pemex in SQ, about 2 miles north of Pabellon. Unrelenting rain had washed out the Hwy #1 bridge south at El Socorro and North near Pinos and we were stuck between the bridges .

It looked like a huge refugee camp at the Pemex.

During that time, nighttime thefts at the campo Pemex became rampant . Since this wasn't too far from the migrant farm worker housing, these were the most suspect. Even guys sleeping in their trucks would get broken in to and not hear a thing. After the first week the Army posted soldiers round the clock at the encampment, and the thefts came to a halt.

We've been staying one night at Pabellon on the trip north and south about 4 times/year since then, with only a hint of wariness. Going south in August, and North in Sept, we were the only one's in the whole place- which was a first.

The Campo Pemex experience and thefts left a lingering uneasiness about the area that we probably wouldn't feel otherwise.

[Edited on 1-11-2008 by oladulce]

BajaWarrior - 1-10-2008 at 07:30 PM

Oladulce,

I remember those rains real well, and while we did not get trapped between arroyos, I remember the arroyos running for years after that.

Just south of Pabellon, and just north of Socorito, where the dunes end, there was a literall 1000' long wall of driftwood that had gone to sea then returned on the point. You couldn't have packed it as tight as it was, very impressive. We saw all this the summer after that storm, it was still intact all those months.

oladulce - 1-10-2008 at 11:54 PM

Warrior-

The bridge across the arroyo at Socorro was already damaged when we got there and we were in one of the last groups of vehicles that the army led thru the rising water across the riverbed below the bridge. They shut down traffic after that. I don't remember the debris as much as I recall the moving water as we crossed there.

I never saw that beach, but to pass time each day while stranded we'd walk over to check the Rio San Simón water level, then down to the beach near the Pinta hotel. You're right, an impressive amount of stuff came down those arroyos and went out to sea. Eventually (around day 10 or 11, I think) there was a brief break in the rain which lowered water level enough to allow us to be towed across the San Simon riverbed by a 4wd tractor. In retrospect, not our smartest decision and we were lucky we didn't end up as part of the flotsam.

Once we got across San Simon, the rain started up again and the army put a stop to the tractor towing of cars behind us. We only made it 10 miles north and got stuck between damaged bridges and unpassable arroyos again.

Spent another 6 days at Don Pepe's in Vincente Guerrero until they were able to dam up the river North of that town, and repair the bridge.

Doesn't seem like there's much traffic at Alvino's Rv (the old location of "Honey's Camp") judging by the response. hmmm

vacaenbaja - 1-11-2008 at 10:35 AM

Oladulce, You must have been stuck at the same time I was back then. We camped out at the Pemex along with two couples that had diesel 4X4's with campers. They were surfers and had a weather fax. One gent was a teacher from Texas I believe and the other was a fireman. Also in our group was a commercial fisherman on vacation towing a 17 foot aluminum boat. He had a nice dog. His name was Craig, I think that he lived in San Diego. He had caught a lot of yellowtail and it fed us all for a few days. Another member of our "group" had brought back a case of some good tequilla in ceramic bottles from Jalisco to take home. He broke out a bottle a night to keep our spirits up. You are right after that first night when the locals came braving the mud and the rain to steal everything that was not bolted down and even had bolt cutters for the bikes and motorcycles that were chained to the RVs. They cased the camp in the morning and came back prepared at night. After that night we all got together to pull a 24hr guard, Anyone walking by camp that was not part of the stranded group was watched very carefully. There was one very nice lady in town that offered up her house to all tourists for a shower and a hot meal. She was prepared for this thing and had plenty of food stored up. She said she did this in appreciation for the help that the Flying Samaritans and other north of the boarder groups have done in the past to improve things in their area in times of need. That trip had forever soured me on San Quintin as far as camping goes.

Fred - 1-11-2008 at 11:24 AM

You are talking 1992.......I think this is 2008. I also remember hearing stories about a couple being killed there. But that also was about 15 years ago. I still love the place. But to each it own. I still go down sandy roads to camp alone to this day.

oladulce - 1-11-2008 at 07:44 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by vacaenbaja
Oladulce, You must have been stuck at the same time I was back then. We camped out at the Pemex along with two couples that had diesel 4X4's with campers. They were surfers and had a weather fax. One gent was a teacher from Texas I believe and the other was a fireman...


vaca-

We're the ones with the weather fax .

Guess you had to be at campo Pemex to grasp where we're coming from about San Q, huh. Whether it happened yesterday or 50 yrs ago, it left a lasting impression of the southern SQ area.