BajaNomad

Just some thoughts on Traveling Hwy 1

MICK - 12-4-2003 at 07:39 AM

Over twenty years ago when I first started driving to cabo the cars were few and the road was bad. The one thing I remember most was when ever you saw another car you both waved and many times you would stop on the side of the road and talk. Over thanksgiving we drove to La Purisima and my wife and I noticed that the roads are now great (compared to days past) the cars are many, and we waved at everyone. On average 1 in 10 waved back. People seem to be in a bigger hurry. I know everyone on this board would wave it just seems a shame that the bond we had back then(daring to travel south) is gone. You now find that friendly attitude only on the bad roads of Baja. I guess what mama Espinosa said is true. GOOD ROADS BAD PEOPLE, BAD ROADS GOOD PEOPLE. As we see more and more roads getting paved. we, like our ancesters will just have to keep moving farther out.
Anyway I'm glad there are still allot of good people in Baja. Everytime I go I meet someone new. Keep the Faith
Mick

4baja - 12-4-2003 at 07:51 AM

just a sighn of the times. i have broken down a few times in baja and have never had a gringo stop to help but allways a mexican, useually ends up in a party after all has been fixed. o yes the gringo has allways waved on the way by.:fire:

FrankO - 12-4-2003 at 11:13 AM

I'd stop, but it would cost you a 'gar! I'll have a couple of boxes for after Christmas. And I always wave, sometimes with the whole hand, sometimes with just a finger:biggrin:.

Packoderm - 12-4-2003 at 02:09 PM

BAD ROADS - GOOD PEOPLE / GOOD ROADS - ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE

bajabum - 12-5-2003 at 01:34 PM

I too have broken down several times and had the same experience. The gringos drive on by and each time a local mexican stopped to help and went way out of their way to help. One time I was standing by the side of the car looking down at smoking wheel bearings on the boat trailer when a car full of gringos stopped, I thought he had stopped to offer assitance...WRONG, he had to pee! Never even said hello, just watered the weeds and split!

Even weirder......

Debra - 12-5-2003 at 02:14 PM

Last summer the Humfreville's, Brendan and I were headed back north....a Mexican man with 3 kids were broke down, so of course we stopped and offered help..."No" the man said, he had a tow-truck on the way, but he asked if we would take the kids north.....we did, can you imagine a American family giving their kids to perfect strangers? The kids were great, very polite, wouldn't even except the offer of a soda, water or snack.

Neal Johns - 12-5-2003 at 02:18 PM

Yep, If you don't stop and help people in the desert, God will get you - I hope!

Anonymous - 12-5-2003 at 02:46 PM

Here's one for you.

About three years ago I was making the annual holiday run to CSL when I encountered a "gringo" waving frantically in the middle of the road at the San Fernando de la Sierra intersection. I have been going long enough that I still follow the old code, so I very quickly stopped in the middle of the road and asked what was wrong.

The man ran to my Jeep at which point a woman joined him stating that they needed a ride. Now, my trips down the peninsula are designed so that I don't need to talk to anyone for two days unless I want to. Consequently, this couple's intrusion on my solitude was not appeciated. I "huffed" a bit and pulled off the road. The "gringo" pounded on the back of the Jeep as I pulled ahead. Once over to the side of the road, I exited my vehicle and angrily asked him why he was pounding on it. He said he thought I was leaving him. I responded that I was not, but that I was getting us all out of the middle of the road so that we did not become bloody spots on an eighteen wheeler's grill.

It seems that they were on their way to Santa Rosalia so I squeezed the two of them and their gear in the already loaded Jeep. They then spent the next hour or so complaining about how expensive Baja California was compared to the mainland where they had hitchhiked their way about many times.

When I dropped them in Santa Rosalia, I pulled the man aside and told him what the old rule was - never, ever leave anyone along the road. I also advised him that standing in the middle of the road to flag down a ride would usually be thought terribly rude and that the traditional thumb in the air along the roadside would generally work just as well.

The run to San Buenaventura and Feliciano's shrimp dinner was blessedly uneventful and silent.

In many, many trips downa and back, this is the only event that could be described as unpleasant. A pretty good track record, actually.

PS: I told the "gringo" that he would be better off not coming back to Baja - cheaper and safer.

Reply to Anon.

Mike Humfreville - 12-5-2003 at 03:54 PM

My first trip into the interior was in the late 1960?s and dirt ruled the roadbed south from somewhere starting in Colonet or Camalu. I was hitchhiking. I never even put my thumb out. I just waited until I could comprehend what was happening around me and someone would offer me a ride.

My first host was having lunch at rancho San Luis, between where Catavina is now and Santa Ines was then. Epifanio was a ?servicio particular? trucker and having breakfast at the small caf? at the ranch. We spoke and he asked me where we were going and I said north. My friend had lost interest in pursuing our goal to drive down the entire peninsula. Epifanio told me he was going as far as San Ignacio. He offered me a ride. I offered to share his gas expenses. The beginning of a symbiotic relationship.

A few days after riding with Epifanio, I stumbled into some folks going south more directly than Epifanio, who was stopping at every forlorn rancho to deliver goods from Ensenada. I took Roberto up on his offer of a ride. He drove me into Guerrero Negro where I re-connected with Epifanio after breaking down in the desert. Epifanio and I continued south, got stuck in a cyclone in the central desert south of Guerrero for 3 days before we wound slowly into San Ignacio.

My third and final ride was provided by a boilermaking Gringo, Jesse and his wife driving a 1950?s vintage Nash Rambler. They had brought that car over hundreds of miles of high-centered dirt road and were going further south. They picked me up at the junction of the ?highway? and the road into San Ignacio. Our southernmost point was Santa Rosalia after a breakdown in the desert.

In each of these quickly formed relations I looked for something that was needed in our mutual situation that might repay my debt to the driver. With Epifanio and Roberto it was financial (gas); with Jesse and his wife it was social. They had been on the road for so long they just really wanted to find some way to entertain themselves (and me).

Most of us want to do more than our share in anything we undertake. A few of us just don?t give a damn and will take whatever there is to be taken without consideration or conscience. It?s just human habits with a few sprinkles of natures balance thrown in.

But I think I would draw the line if some jerk were smacking my truck and demanding a ride. On the other hand, once I got him into the vehicle I?d really have a captive audience. The Lecture begins at the first curve.

Packoderm - 12-5-2003 at 04:12 PM

"Yep, If you don't stop and help people in the desert, God will get you - I hope!"

I think it would be the other guy who would get you!

whiteelephant - 12-5-2003 at 05:01 PM

Good Writing!!

The other guy

Mike Humfreville - 12-5-2003 at 10:17 PM

Guess I'm goin' slow tonight. I was thinking that in Packoderms post "the other guy" was the hitchiker banging on Anon's car. Then I realized that Packoderm's "other guy" was the devil. DOH!

Skeet/Loreto - 12-6-2003 at 09:40 AM

Over many years I have Hitched from TJ to La Paz and never have a minutes worry, However I would not do it now only South of San Quintin to about Constitution.
I left in my Airpalne from Los Banos with a replacement Tire for my Truck which was stuck in Santa Inez with my wife and my 80 year old Mother.
Could mot clear out of Fresno so hoped an Airline with my Tire in Baggage. Offed at San Diego tood a bus to the Trolly, to the Border. Walked across the Border carrying the Tire. Hitched several different rides and arrived on the Hwy at the turnoff to Inez at 10;00 Pm the same nite , with rides from Mexicanos and Americans.
Before the road opened the best way to Loreto was to fly to La Paz then Hitch to Loreto or go across the Ferry.
Times have changed!Skeet/Loreto

What goes around comes around!

BajaVida - 12-6-2003 at 01:15 PM

Over 10 years ago, some locals were out of gas between San Felipe and Punta Estrella; of course, I let them siphon gas out of my truck. The offered to pay me, I refused.

A couple of days later, on our way back north the electrical system in my 66 Chevy C-10 fried. My friend towed me to town; it was dark. We went to an electric shop; it was closed. A nearby store owner took us to the owner's house who told me that he could not fix the truck the next day but he told me to another guy who referred me to someone else.

I went to this house at 7:00 AM and woke the guy up. His shop consisted of many pieces of wire, a dwell meter, electrical tape and wire cutters. I showed him the problem; asked him how long it would take, he said 3 hours (the wires from the key to the battery were glowing and smoking before we disconnected the battery). He said it would cost $70. We shook hands and went to town for breakfast. As we arrive, I can hear my optional cow horn mooing. He fixed everything.

Unfortunately, I was short of money but had $40 in cash and some travelers checks. He had never seen a travelers check. I told them what they were and gave him a post card with my address so that I could send him the money if he had problems cashing the checks. Never heard from him. And the wiring still works.

Que viva Baja y los Bajenos.

Bagheera - 12-6-2003 at 04:27 PM

On my only trip down highway 1, I passed a lot of hitchhikers by the side of the road. Do you mean to say that it's perfectly safe to pick these folks up? I know that doing so stateside is just begging for trouble.

Anonymous - 12-6-2003 at 05:36 PM

Bagheera, Because of my very limited income,whenever I visit Baja I have to hitch-hike and bus my way along the peninsula. I enjoy meeting new people while being a passenger in a total stranger's vehicle. Usually, after the ride, we are no longer strangers, but friends. I make every attempt to exibit politeness to the driver, and appreciation for the ride. I never know if I'll get a ride or not, and that's my number one worry. I understand a driver's fear about picking up a hitch-hiker and have no hard feelings against anyone who passes me by. Of course I feel a little frustrated as the car whizzes by, because there is no way that I can magically communicate to the approaching driver that I am a nice guy who is simply looking for a lift to the next town. How do you convince a speeding car within a time frame of 1 to 10 senconds that you are worthy of a ride? You can't, so you patiently wait and hope that there is someone out there willing to look at the odds, and choose to pick me up. It's about numbers, too. The odds are that out of 50 cars that approach, one of them will stop for me. So, if you're not the one in fifty that stops, that's okay; there will be another 50 vehicles on the way. I have found that 90% of the people who stop for me are Mexicans. Not implying anything; just a fact! By the way, when anyone driving a truck stops for me, I offer the suggestion that I sit in the bed of the truck and not up front with the driver. I do this to help alleviate any worries that the driver might have. Sometimes the driver agrees, and sometimes the driver scoffs at the thought and lets me ride in the cab with him. Now, after saying all this, "Would I pick up a hitch-hiker in Baja?" My answer is, "Yes!" Would I pick up a hitch-hiker in the USA? My answer is, "I doubt it!" Interesting, eh?
"El Mochilero"

Skeet/Loreto - 12-6-2003 at 05:47 PM

Hey I just remembered that I was going South out of Tucson to catch the ferry across to Sta Rosalitita. Hooked up with a Hippy Couple to the Ferry. She showed me how to get Pot through the sniffing Dogs.
She took a Rubber ,put the Pot inside and then put it into jars of Peanut butter. She got through both check points with no trouble. those Hippies sure had a way of doing things. Skeet/Loreto

hitch hikers

jerry - 12-6-2003 at 05:55 PM

im not saying that its a good idea but when im headed out by myself i usally pic up a mexican hitch hiker it makes the trip a lot more fun and i get to use my spanish on them and they cant get away from me
all kidding aside i have never had any problem with mexican hitch hikers many time ill see an old man walking down the road with a jug of water and a big stack of tortillas wraped in tinfoil in the middle of nowhere 20 ,30 miles from the nearest town well i have picked them up and found out that they had ranches out in the bush some as far as 25 miles down a trail off the main road he had come to town to do his nessary buisness and was headed back home told me he went to town every 3 months and it usally takes him a week round trip offered to share his food and drink and even help pay for gas i refused dropped him off as close as i could drive and had another memeral trip and no i wont pick up a hitchhiker in the states
i think that a lot of gringos are really missing out on he full flavor of the mexican ppl when they dont spend time with them even with the language barrier seems i allway gain a different perspective of my own life as well as theres

Bajaboy - 12-6-2003 at 07:59 PM

I agree with the majority on this post. I've given many folks a lift while travelling through Baja. A few times I have been asked at a checkpoint to give a soldier a lift which I do. Other times, I am helping out someone with a broken down car. It's just another great way to experience the wonders and marvels of Baja.

Follow your instincts and you'll be fine.

Zac

David K - 12-6-2003 at 08:57 PM

During the Viva Baja Van trip, going from Tinaja de Yubay to Bahia de los Angeles, we came to a broken car along the road. Plenty of room for one more, so we glady gave the man a ride into town (30 miles). It was the owner of Las Hamacas... our favorite restaurant there!

Beware of Instant Friends - 12-6-2003 at 11:04 PM

On Highway 1, I keep both hands on the wheel. Why would you not?

If you want the "Kum-Bay-Ya" feeling whilst traveling H1, I suggest you forget it and look for same on the varied, dirt backroads of Baja that are 'a plenty. The "remote and compadre" like values of many locales is just as it was 30 years ago.

As for Hitch Hikers: I never pick up gringos unless they display distress. I have picked up locales because I was empowered from their own society (recent or past) to express kindness.
Quote:
Originally posted by MICK
Over twenty years ago when I first started driving to cabo the cars were few and the road was bad. The one thing I remember most was when ever you saw another car you both waved and many times you would stop on the side of the road and talk. Over thanksgiving we drove to La Purisima and my wife and I noticed that the roads are now great (compared to days past) the cars are many, and we waved at everyone. On average 1 in 10 waved back. People seem to be in a bigger hurry. I know everyone on this board would wave it just seems a shame that the bond we had back then(daring to travel south) is gone. You now find that friendly attitude only on the bad roads of Baja. I guess what mama Espinosa said is true. GOOD ROADS BAD PEOPLE, BAD ROADS GOOD PEOPLE. As we see more and more roads getting paved. we, like our ancesters will just have to keep moving farther out.
Anyway I'm glad there are still allot of good people in Baja. Everytime I go I meet someone new. Keep the Faith
Mick


[Edited on 12-7-2003 by Beware of Instant Friends]