Family Guy
Junior Nomad
Posts: 95
Registered: 9-8-2003
Location: Bay Area
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Trip Report, Part 3: The Drive to San Ignacio
The missing map, cows in vados, flashing Lights, and a heapin? helping of Rice and Beans
I think my wife held her breath for most of the stretch between Guerrero Negro and San Ignacio. When the sun set leaving us in total pitch darkness,
we had no choice but to play the blame game. If I had not taken that extra 20 minutes searching for a bank in Guerrero Negro we wouldn?t be in this
position. The person riding shotgun is the one responsible for reading the guidebooks?you should have reminded me about the time change! After about
10 minutes of this futile finger pointing, we both agreed that the stupidest thing we did was to forget the AAA map. We planned this trip for 3
months and worked out every detail?we had 6 quarts of oil, fan belts, an extra battery, a fold-out table and canopy, waterproof matches, a satellite
phone, jumper cables, a tow rope, a dozen flashlights...you name it we packed it. We even had glow sticks in case we were stranded at night. But we
failed to bring a map of Baja! The most fundamental necessity of any traveler, we forgot. If we only had the map, we could have had a better idea of
how many kilometers to San Ignacio. And it wasn?t that we didn?t have a map of Baja. My wife and I each made a special trip to AAA to pick up a map.
We probably even took the extra time to cross it off the checklist?got it! But when I posted them on the wall above the computer at home I needed to
use both of them because each side only showed half of the peninsula. For three months I read posts about Baja and followed everyone?s travels on my
wall-mounted maps, but when it came down to my trip I left them hanging on the wall. I think I became a little too preoccupied with car parts,
fishing equipment, and how many pairs of shorts to bring.
But the fact remained that we had 130 kilometers to travel to San Ignacio with no moonlight or aid of a map. In each vado we fully expected a big fat
cow to be lounging in the darkness. To make things worse, every car that passed us going the other way flashed their brights. But I didn?t have my
brights on?or did I? Click, click?click?.click, click. Hell I couldn?t tell which were brighter. Thinking that maybe it was some special signal I
threw all three guidebooks at my wife and politely asked her to please find the section that explains driving signals. I even began to question
whether the regular beams were brighter than the high beams. Only one way to test I thought. The next car flashed me and I switched to the brights.
This only seemed to upset him as he flashed back in an angry tone. So there we went traveling down the road to San Ignacio holding our breath for
vados and flashing our lights like idiots. But the eternal optimist that I am, I continued to point out the bright side. The road was in excellent
condition. There were very few stretches without reflectors. At least we were not heading down the Santa Rosalia grade in darkness. Of all roads to
be on at night in Baja, this was probably the best. Just when I thought I had everything under control a voice from the back of the van whines, ?I?m
hungry?.when are we eating.? I guess a diet of stale cookies, jelly sandwiches, tamale scraps and chex mix isn?t satisfying enough for a 12-hour
drive through the desert. So we responded like any other caring parent, ?eat the rest of your jelly sandwich and don?t talk to us?we need to
concentrate.?
The 90-minute drive from Guerrero Negro felt like 3 hours, and when we finally arrived in San Ignacio we were not prepared for taking any risks. We
broke Keri?s first gold rule about not driving at night in Baja. This time we were going to follow her advice. So we drove straight to Rice and Beans
Hotel and asked Ricardo for a room. I could have sworn it was past midnight when we arrived, but in reality it was more like 6:30 pm. After a
filling dinner of fat fish fillets, Mexican combination plates, and well-deserved refreshments we settled down in our spacious, clean, and quiet room
for $45.00. Two or three other parties arrived and left in the night before we made it out of the room in the morning for breakfast. At 8:00 am we
were the only hotel room occupied.
It was Saturday, the 20th of December and we began what was to become our daily ritual of firing up the Coleman stove and teapot and brewing up our
morning cup of freshly ground French roast coffee outside our room. No one seemed to have a problem with this, and neither one of us are big fans of
instant Nescafe. As I sipped my coffee I spent the next hour uploading and resizing pictures from the drive down on my laptop. I promised to email
friends and family and was told by Ricardo the night before that they have internet access (the hotel?s computer). About 9:00 we all headed up for
breakfast, me with laptop in the hand. Because the pictures were too big to load up on a disk and I didn?t have a cd-writer drive, I was hoping to
hook up my laptop to their internet connection. Ricardo was not yet up, but a very nice young man about 17 was handling the tables and working the
counter and insisted that is was no problem. He navigated through my internet options with ease and typed in strings of numbers?turned this on, that
off, and within about 20 minutes, broken up by taking out orders and filling drinks, he had me off and running. Actually it was pretty slow going.
But in about an hour I managed to send out about 15-20 pictures, set up a mail group and compose a brief message explaining that everyone was doing
fine and having a great time. All for $2.00.
In the meantime, Lori and the kids were visiting with the boy and an elderly relative of Ricardo?s. They introduced our five-year-old to a slide on
the side of the patio?a slide we were reminded of throughout the trip. In conversation later the young man?I could kick myself for not remembering
his name--explained that he was a senior in high school. Computer science was his favorite subject and he loved his internet classes. He worked from
10:00-3:00 at Ricardo?s, went to school from 4:00-10:00 at night. He lost his mother, father, grandfather and grandmother to cancer and was living
with his sister. About 10:30 that morning Ricardo surfaced from the kitchen with a steaming cup of Nescafe no doubt. When we finally left to see the
town, and head to Santa Rosalia and Mulege, Ricardo, his relative and the boy gathered to see us off. We were very happy we followed Keri?s tip,
smiling as we waved goodbye to our new friends at Rice and Beans Hotel.
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64541
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Great Report, again!
With your van loaded down with ice chests and other gear, the weight in back pitches the front up... Low beam lights become high! Even in my Tacoma,
when it's loaded, I get flashed by every car at night (on Hwy. 5 or Hwy. 1 north of San Quintin*). A quick flick of my true high beams proves to them
I am not being rude and they lower their lights.
* no: range cattle, wild burros, or stunning scenery to miss.
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