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Author: Subject: Awesome First Baja Weekend!
surfdog
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[*] posted on 2-21-2007 at 01:48 PM
Awesome First Baja Weekend!


We hit the road in Torrance at 1:30pm on Thursday (2/15/07) and drove through TJ to Puerto Nuevo where we stopped at Chelas for a drink and a short break. We then continued on to Ensenada where we found ourselves in the midst of a Madri Gras festival. It was an interesting way to get acclimated to Mexico on the first evening. After a rather late night we got a late start on the road Friday (2/16/07). We drove to La Buffadora which was very nice and not very busy at all. We spent some time there enjoying the view. We left Ensenada for San Quintin mid day. We were all very surprised at the quality of Hwy 1 all the way down. We arrived in San Quintin and went directly to the Old Mill for lunch. Old Mill was awesome and if I stayed in San Quintin I would highly recommend it. We hit the road after lunch to continue our trek. We tried to find the La Lobera but were not successful. We continued on through El Rosario and made a side trip to Punta Baja. Very nice. Although it was late in the day we decided to push on to LA Bay. We realize now that this was wwwwaaaayyyy to fast and wished we had spent more time on the Pacific side exploring around El Rosario.

We got to LA Bay around 8:00pm and quickly found Villa Bahia. This place was recommended but I have to say the room we had and another one I looked at the next day were pretty bad. I would not recommend this hotel in the future. LA bay was spectacular!!! The sunrise Saturday morning (2/17/07) was incredible, the Panga’s headling out to the islands, the dolphins moving up and down the beach, life is good. We headed into town for breakfast and to look around. For the most part the town is under construction, but when it is complete it will be unbelievable. Heading out of LA Bay we took a side trip to visit the painted cliffs. Another worthwhile excursion. Afterwards we headed back to Hwy 1 and north to the San Felipe cut off. Here is where the real fun began!

We started down the road toward Coco’s, the road was rough but not bad, we were traveling at about 20-25 mph. We saw an old pick-up with an old local couple inside approaching from the opposite direction. We decided to flag them down and ask about road condition through to Gonzaga. At this point we were only about 2 miles into the journey. We asked them how the road ahead compared to what we were on they quickly replied “Much, much worse!”. So, we all looked at each other and said, “let’s go!”. As we continued on as expected the road did get worse but was easily passable. We quickly learned that whenever we discovered a side road paralleling the main road it was usually the better choice. It was funny because the first few times we moved from one road to the other we signaled and check for on-coming traffic. This became a standing joke that we continued throughout the trek. We arrived at Coco’s about an hour later and had a good visit and a beer. He looks great and is getting around just fine. He told us a few stories and gave us some advice for the remainder of the drive. The bad news he gave us was that Alfonsina's was booked. This was the one place that I was told I did not need a reservation. Oh well, we trekked on. We had decided last minute not to bring camping gear because we had all our hotel stops planned ahead, big mistake. We continued on to Gonzaga and based on Coco’s advice knew where the bad spots in the road could be expected. Gonzaga is incredible!!! We were very disappointed that we didn’t have a reservation after seeing it. I did pick up a business card and have the info to make them in the future. We had to drag ourselves away from Gonzaga to continue on because it appeared that we had to get to San Felipe that day. We asked again in Gonzaga about the road condition to Puertecitos. Again we got the same response, “it’s worse than the road coming in from Coco’s”. This time we thought “yeah right, how much worse could it be?”. Let me tell you it’s worse, but beautiful. My only regret is that we did about the last hour (6-10 miles) in the dark. This was probably the worse part of the journey as far as conditions go. I’m sure it was beautiful because as we progressed from Gonzaga the view just kept getting better. Being dark was probably a godsend because some of the section of road took us right up to the edge of the cliff and I’m not sure if any of us would have like that if we could see down. We hit Puertecitos around 7pm and then went on to San Felipe. The road is still under construction a few miles out of Puertecitos and from reading previous posts it doesn’t look like they are making much progress. There is still a good 2-3 miles under construction.

San Felipe was great. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed a full day of relaxation (2/18/07). It was the last day of Mardi Gras and we took in all the sights. The next morning, Monday (2/19/07) we set out for Mexicali. One of the guys with me was from there so we had lunch with his sister who is still a resident. We hit a sand storm on the way and were close to a “brown out”, just added to the experience. After lunch we took the toll road to Tecate. This was a beautiful and pleasant drive. The mountains along the way were very nice. By the time we reach Tecate it was raining. The border crossing was uneventful and took about 1.5 hours on a holiday around 5pm. I didn’t think that was so bad. The remaining drive home was fine, it rained up to about Oceanside and then it was clear to Torrance.

This trip was a real eye opener. We are all hooked on Baja and have already started planning our next trip.

Thanks to all Nomads for the help in planning this. Hopefully I will be able to help some of you in the future.
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David K
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[*] posted on 2-21-2007 at 02:04 PM


Nice report!

La Lobera turnoff is between Km. 47 and 48 on a curve with curve arrow signs you go between... The main way to find is is the power line that goes right over Hwy. 1 to La Lobera and the road follows it there (3.0 miles).

Too bad about Villa Bahia, as there was a lot of nice talk about it and Graham stayed there... I hope you didn't mean the Villa Vita in town? That place should be avoided until we hear better news and it has new owners!

I hope you went to Alfonsina's and checked on a room to be sure... Coco has no way of knowing about the motel other than educated guess.

Check my photos for some of what you missed going in the dark...

Thanks for the report!

[Edited on 2-21-2007 by David K]




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surfdog
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Posts: 38
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[*] posted on 2-21-2007 at 02:19 PM


Coco knew what was going on because he was in radio contact with them. He had turned back a couple of people earier in the day after radioing the hotel.

We did double check when we arrived.
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