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oxxo
Super Nomad
Posts: 2137
Registered: 5-17-2006
Location: Wherever I am, I'm there
Member Is Offline
Mood: If I was feeling any better, I'd be twins!
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When was your first visit to Baja?
I remember the date of our first visit to Baja very well. We were married on June 10 in Santa Barbara, CA. We spent our honeymoon night at the
Holiday Inn in San Diego. The next day, June 11, 1966 we drove my VW bug across the border at Tijuana at about 10am. The trans peninsular highway
was not a reality at that time, and wouldn't be for another 6 or 7 years. I think the paved road went down as far as San Quentin. The paved "road"
was so rough, it popped a hubcap off my left front. The Mexican guy behind me drove over it, dead on, and smashed it flat. We bummed around Ensenada
for a while with our "Mexico on $5 a Day" book (I still have it), drove over to Mexicali, and eventually made it as far as Guaymas on the mainland. I
remember that "hotels" were about $5 per night for two. Pepsi's were 10 cents and tacos were 10 for a dollar. Mexican gasoline was around 25 cents a
gallon, and it was really nasty stuff. Women could not wear shorts in public (and neither could men)! Women had to wear a dress, no pants. Oh, if
you had a foreign plated car, you didn't have to put money in the parking meters in downtown Ensenada. We spent a lot of time at the beach and both
of us were burned very bad. We had to sleep in twin beds we were in so much pain! But not to worry, we made do.
I don't have any pictures because we couldn't afford a camera then, but we do have some cheap Mexican trinkets from that trip packed in a box
someplace.
Ah, those were the days! Memories, cherished forever.
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Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
Member Is Offline
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Whoa, beats my first trip in 52. Me and two other high school buddies skipped school in Las Vegas, drove to TJ, got drunk at Housongs, made our way to
the house of awesome repute. A memorable trip but one not laced with nostalgia. Maybe a rite of passage thing.
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Udo
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6323
Registered: 4-26-2008
Location: Black Hills, SD/Ensenada/San Felipe
Member Is Offline
Mood: TEQUILA!
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Both stories are similar to mine.
My first Baja trip was to Tijuana, in 1965. Walked across, got shnockered. Took a taxi to check out the driver's seester. Ended up going to a black
& white porn flick. Somehow we managed to walk back across.
In one of my subsequent trips, I remember taking an old bug to get it re-upholstered and tried to smuggle some tequila under the rear seat.
BUSTED!
My first bust.
Been busted 6 more times since.
Also remember during my early twenties, I was heavily into weight lifting and I was fairly large. Everyone wanted to take me on so I got busted at a
bar in TJ and ended spending 1-1/2 days in jail,  and six
moths later for the same thing in Ensenada.
After that I decided to make San Felipe my Baja hang-out.
My first trip to La Paz was in 1967. Been back 5 times. Loved the place, and love it even more now
[Edited on 8-23-2008 by udowinkler]
Udo
Youth is wasted on the young!
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Barry A.
Select Nomad
Posts: 10007
Registered: 11-30-2003
Location: Redding, Northern CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: optimistic
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Roughly 1947, to TJ with my Mom, and her friends-----cruized the "tourist" streets, and took in the Jai Lai palace------I was 9, or so. My Mom (a
widow) often went to TJ and Ensenada just after the war (and before) with her friends, but usually I was not allowed to go with them.
I fell in love with the place, even then-----------
BA
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elgatoloco
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4323
Registered: 11-19-2002
Location: Yes
Member Is Offline
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Memory is a bit foggy - I am fairly certain at least once on that first trip I crapped my pants and spit up all over myself and possibly others - it
was my first birthday April 1959. 
MAGA
Making Attorneys Get Attorneys
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wiltonh
Nomad
Posts: 300
Registered: 2-2-2007
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My first trip to Mexico was to the main land in about 1958. We rented a trailer house in Tucson and pulled it to Guymas/San Carlos. Our starting
location was Spokane Washington which is about a 1000 miles above the border.
We did the trip every other year until highway 1 was paved on Baja. The year after it was paved we drove to Cabo. We did Baja every other year until
the late 80s when we started building a house in the Columbia River Gorge. We spent all our vacation time on the house and missed our trips to Baja.
In 2003 we decided to go back and have made 5 trips to the Lapaz area. We have stayed for a month each time but this year I plan to extend that to 3
months.
Baja does get in your blood.
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Tomas Tierra
Super Nomad
Posts: 1281
Registered: 3-23-2005
Location: oxnard, ca
Member Is Offline
Mood: Tengo Flojera
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'74 or '75 for me...8 years old or so...to TJ with my mom and new step dad.my only real vivid memory is of the kids that were about my age catching
pennies from under a bridge we were walking over..they were so dirty and desperate..I remember one girl who was a little younger than the rest and
very pretty, she just couldn't get to any of the pennies fast enough.she started to cry at one point.I remember feeling so sorry for her...
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thebajarunner
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3687
Registered: 9-8-2003
Location: Arizona....."Free at last from crumbling Cali
Member Is Offline
Mood: muy amable
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When we were kids the Old Man used to take us all from Tacoma down to SoCal every summer, and a few times just across the border.
Those visits were so benign as to stir absolutely no memories, just know that I was there.
Then, in 1971, my future racing partner asked me to accompany him to help with his Mexican 1000 (sic) effort.
He gave me his pickup, his young son, a AAA map and told me to go to El Arco and wait for them to come through.
Meanwhile, staying at the old Flamingo Motel in Ensenada, I was drinking warm Coke straight from the bottle (no contaminated ice for this boy) , and
eating leftover sandwiches from San Diego.
Man, how times have changed!!
Long story short, we made El Arco, he did not,
I was hooked,
raced most of the 1000's and 500's for the next 12 years, adopted an orphanage at La Mision, took four boys home and raised them and the became
"thebajarunner" and helped Bernie write a book.
By the by,
my handle comes from the Firestone tire we ran on the truck
"Baja Runners"
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jeans
Super Nomad
Posts: 1059
Registered: 9-16-2002
Member Is Offline
Mood: Encantada
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In the late 60's with my mom & step-dad. I was in High School and had been taking Spanish classes every year. They would prod me to, "Say
something in Spanish". I was painfully shy but the worst part was the lousy curriculum they used had us just memorize dialogue. I could only carry on
the conversation I memorized. I've been waiting for someone to ask me what's for lunch so I could answer,
Seguro que albondigas!
A few years later I married a guy whose parents had a house at El Faro Beach below Ensenada.
Mom always told me to be different - Now she says...Not THAT different
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BajaWarrior
Super Nomad
Posts: 2307
Registered: 9-27-2006
Location: Mission Bay, San Diego. Playa Hermosa, San Felipe.
Member Is Offline
Mood: Anxious to get south
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Surf trip, 1975, Rosarito Beach.
Skipped school with some older boys from my neighborhood (I was 15, parents didn't know where I was) to go on a surfing trip.
There was almost nothing in Rosarito Beach at the time...
Got bit by the "BajaBug" right then and there.
33 years later, I almost have Baja travel perfected, maybe another 30 years or so and I'll get the hang of it...
Haven't had a bad trip yet....
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rpleger
Super Nomad
Posts: 1087
Registered: 3-12-2005
Location: H. Mulegé, BCS
Member Is Offline
Mood: Was good.
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1954
Some friends and myself from Newport Harbor High jumped into a 41 Hudson and headed for TJ...checked out the bars, hoar houses, threw up all that we
drank...some how found our way back across the border and made it home...Wow...youth is great..
Richard on the Hill
*ABROAD*, adj. At war with savages and idiots. To be a Frenchman abroad is to
be miserable; to be an American abroad is to make others miserable.
-- Ambrose Bierce, _The Enlarged Devil\'s Dictionary_
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Oso
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2637
Registered: 8-29-2003
Location: on da border
Member Is Offline
Mood: wait and see
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TJ, 17, on back of stolen Harley with Hell's Angels buddy, The Blue Fox, busted in Imperial Beach, buddy got time. I didn't know he was stealing the
bike. They shipped my butt back to mom & stepdad in Maryland.
All my childhood I wanted to be older. Now I\'m older and this chitn sucks.
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Barry A.
Select Nomad
Posts: 10007
Registered: 11-30-2003
Location: Redding, Northern CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: optimistic
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Oso
TJ, 17, on back of stolen Harley with Hell's Angels buddy, The Blue Fox, busted in Imperial Beach, buddy got time. I didn't know he was stealing the
bike. They shipped my butt back to mom & stepdad in Maryland. |
Ahhhhhhhh, the "Blue Fox"---------such memories!!!!
--------and Barry (aka "Oso") , the year was--------??????
Barry (aka Barry A.)
PS ---I first visited San Carlos Bay (Sonora) in 1955, and there was NOTHING there but a beautiful bay, and an outlying Rancho nearby. We camped
alone for 8 days, skindiving in the pristine waters, and never to return-------I understand there is "more" there now??? 
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oxxo
Super Nomad
Posts: 2137
Registered: 5-17-2006
Location: Wherever I am, I'm there
Member Is Offline
Mood: If I was feeling any better, I'd be twins!
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Barry A.
PS ---I first visited San Carlos Bay (Sonora) in 1955, and there was NOTHING there but a beautiful bay, and an outlying Rancho nearby. We camped
alone for 8 days, skindiving in the pristine waters, and never to return-------I understand there is "more" there now??? |
Yeah, we went out to San Carlos when we visited Guaymas in '66. Nothing much there except some pangas pulled up on the beach. We went back on our
40th, reliving our honeymoon trip. Didn't like it. It was like Bakersfield by the Sea and no offense to my Bakersfield friends. Baja is better.
If you think this Board has some squabbles, you should check out some of the San Carlos Boards....right Hook?
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Paulina
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3810
Registered: 8-31-2002
Location: BCN
Member Is Offline
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My first trip was in 1964. My mother and I accompanied my grandfather on one of his last fishing trips to Baja. We stayed at Papagayo's, north of
Ensenada. He always stayed in the two story house, just to the right as you drive in past the guard gate.
I fished in the bait tank, using the sleeve of my sweater to catch the bait fish. The fish were slippery and fast, falling out of my sleeve before I
could catch them in my hands, landing in between the slats of the floorboards of the boat. I'm told that I insisted on trying it topless hoping to
make a difference. (I still try that trick to this day.)
I also remember dancing in the restaurant, my feet on top of his. He was such a smooth dancer. Our family photo was taken at the dinner table.
I made a memory box from the photos of that trip after finding them in his tackle box in my grandmother's garage, this was almost 30 years after he
died. Also included in the box are the old peso notes as well as a couple of lures and the bottle of Bufferin that probably came to his aid a few
times. You'll see me sitting on my mom's lap as well as fishing in the bait tank.
We also drove out to La Buffadora where I chose this lovely hat. I also talked my mom into a pinata that I have to this day.
P<*)))><
[Edited on 24-8-2008 by Paulina]
\"Well behaved women rarely make history.\" Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64490
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Great stories!
Most of you have heard mine... for the new Nomads:
1965 (8- ish years old): Jeep Wagoneer to Gonzaga Bay with parents... Dad heard it was awesome for fishing and you need a Jeep to get there, so he
bought the Wagoneer and away we went!
We were hooked on Baja... the next year was the big adventure, Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas then back to La Paz to ferry across to Mazatlan for a speedy
return on highways.
In 1966 the pavement ended a couple miles north of Colonet and didn't start again until a hundred miles north of La Paz, and ended again 10 miles
south of La Paz! Basically 800 dirt miles and most of that was unimproved (not graded) track through the desert!
Photo from the '66 trip of me off of Cabo San Lucas and my first dorado (dolphinfish, mahi mahi)!
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Bajaboy
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4375
Registered: 10-9-2003
Location: Bahia Asuncion, BCS, Mexico
Member Is Offline
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I'm right there with El Gato Loco....some time before I was one years old so that would be in 1968 or so...
Zac
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CaboRon
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3401
Registered: 3-24-2007
Location: The Valley of the Moon
Member Is Offline
Mood: Peacefull
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According to my Mom it was 1947 .... whenever relatives came we always had to bring them to TJ or take the drive to Ensanada .... Here is a pic of me
, my Mom and my aunt Lucille in TJ in 1949 .... I am Pancho age 4 ...
CaboRon
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Ken Bondy
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3326
Registered: 12-13-2002
Member Is Offline
Mood: Mellow
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Paulina that memory box is priceless. My first visit south of the border (Tijuana) was in 1957, the summer between high school and college. In
1962, at the ripe old age of 22, I got married in Ensenada (Paulina we honeymooned at Quintas Papagayo - small world). My first trip south of
Ensenada was in 1968 to Rancho Buena Vista. Flying trips started in 1974. ++Ken++
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aha baja
Nomad
Posts: 221
Registered: 1-19-2005
Member Is Offline
Mood: wherever you go, there you are...
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1968- I was 15 and going on my 1st out of country scuba safari w/my older brother to Bahia Kino and Isla Tiburone (mainland) almost directly accross
the Cortez from Bahia de Los Angeles (almost). 1st time in Baja was 1975 to Husongs in Ensenada. Drank and became somebody (?) got into a fender
bender spent the night in jail, paid for damage(my bad) All in all was hooked on Baja... it REALLY does get into your blood. Still madly in love with
it all
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