11-06 Baja 1000, and MORE!!! (Part 4: Gonzaga Bay and Shell Island)

Continued from Part 3: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=21088

From Coco's Corner the next 23 miles to Gonzaga Bay were pretty fast and easy, arriving sometime after 2 pm.

If you have ever been to Gonzaga Bay you know it is a place that is hard to leave!

Baja Angel and Josh at the beach in front of Alfonsina's with Punta Final in the distance...



[Edited on 11-28-2006 by David K]

Clear water and a dog that thinks he is a fish!

Alfonsina's Motel and Restaurant from the beach...

Antonio (the manager of Alfonsina's) introduces us to his new wife, Marta... Roy offers to buy dinner for us and since the best garlic shrimp dinner is right here, how could we refuse!

It was about 3pm and Antonio said fixing an early dinner for us was no problema!!!

Last time Baja Angel and I stopped here, was on January 2, 2005. Antonio greeted us with a free margarita for Baja Angel. Always a great experience with Antonio at Alfonsina's.

By the way, their Pemex station back on the main road was open...

The Squarecircle enjoyed his shrimp as much as the rest of us!!!

The view across Bahia San Luis Gonzaga, north towards Papa Fernandez' camp.

This made a good photo subject... "Just another Day at Gonzaga Bay..."

I think it was 3:30 when we got on the road again... This meant it would be dark by the time we reached Puertecitos... and camp at Shell Island. Oh well, the great meal we were treated to at Alfonsina's outweighed anything else that afternoon!

The road over the hills from El Huerfanito to about 10 miles from Puertecitos was very bad (for a graded road)... The rains of a month previous had done a lot of erosion and washing fill dirt away to expose base rock. Also, the Baja 1000 just came over it 2 days earlier...

Gonzaga to Puertecitos is about 50 miles and it took us in Toyotas 2 hours. About 10 miles from Puetecitos the road was improved... almost smooth by comparrison!

Here's a photo of some of the Enchanted Islands between Gonzaga and Huerfanito...

[Edited on 1-19-2007 by David K]

We passed slowly through Puertecitos and were shocked to find new pavement at the edge of town!!!

It lasted for just a mile and was followed by 2 miles of unpaved road until new pavement was again reached and is solid all the way back to San Felipe!

The 15-25 miles of pot hole hell in the previous highway to Puertecitos will not be missed. Any dirt road is better than a pot holed paved road!

We arrived at the turnoff to Shell Island (Km. 26) and waited for Roy to catch up, looking at the millions of stars on this moonless night. The big question was, would be able to get onto the island? It was near a new moon and big tides do make access impossible! Last August, we came here with HotSchott and Val only to find the island was just that... and moved our camp plans to Nuevo Mazatlan (Km. 32).

Roy soon arrived and we headed in on the 2 1/2 mile sandy road to the mud/salt flats that seperate the beach from the rest of Baja... the flats that can be covered with sea water at the highest tides of the month.

We were in luck! The mud flats were dry and we got right to the sand... aired down the tires and cruised up a couple miles to my favorite spot in the dunes... Tents were set up, campfire started, drinks poured... It was great to be back on our favorite Baja beach!

Here was sunrise, Sunday, Nov. 19, 2006...

We got Josh up and told him the tide was coming in... the low tide shell discovery opportunity was limited!

Here's Josh in front of our camp...

Shell Island is 4 miles long and we drive to the south end to show Josh the whole island...

Pelicans were having an easy meal in the canal that seperates Shell Island from the north shore beach of Bahia Santa Maria...

We also saw 'kite surfers' (or whatever they are called) in Bahia Santa Maria...

[Edited on 11-28-2006 by David K]

We drove back north along the water and found this fellow...

Closer examination determined the poor bird was blind... As he put up no fight when Josh checked to see if his feet or feathers were tangled in fishing line... as we first suspected when he didn't fly away from us.

We showed Josh the north point of Shell Island, across from Percebu and returned to the dunes to break down our camp.

We had tacos in San Felipe, used the Mexicali East border to cross and were pleasntly surprised that it only was a 40 minute wait beginning at 4:40 pm on the end of a Baja 1000 race week.

The trip was great... Josh was impressed and maybe a little hooked... It's a good thing too because he is a new mechanic at an off road racing fabrication business. Some of the trucks we pitted (including Mouse McCoy's), he helped get ready before the race! We wish Josh all the luck and hope seeing what demands are put on vehicles, in person, will help his career.

Viva Baja everybody!!!

Many thanks go to great service and generosity we recieved from:

Baja Cactus Motel and Pemex, El Rosario.

Baja's Best Restaurant, El Rosario.

Carlos Orozco and his Baja Pits organization.

Las Hamacas Motel, Bahia de los Angeles.

Guillermo's Restaurant, Bahia de los Angeles.

Las Hamacas Restaurant, Bahia de los Angeles.

Coco's Corner, Calamajue Jcn.

Alfonsina's Restaurant, Bahia San Luis Gonzaga.

The Fish Taco Plaza on the Malecon, San Felipe.

Great pics and narritive, David-----

Good Stuff, as always David...

...just one comment...you might try to force the 'flash' when you are taking those close-up shots of people in front of bright backgrounds...I know their 'tans' aren't that dark!...

Wow, I've just got to make it down during one of the races, next year - just to hear the exhausts roar by has got to be great, for a while, at least!

Shell island

It is... when you can get out there...

More (recent) Shell Island photos at http://vivabaja.com/618




[Edited on 11-29-2006 by David K]

David,

Our group stopped briefly at Shell Island for a late lunch, and to repair one of our Jeeps - a knocked O2 sensor (Mission Impossible damage). I took my Jeep out in the mud, and my Interco tires barely got me back to terra firma! It sure made for dramatic video that I can't wait to share with you...

To Ken

Hey Ken, are you the Ken Cooke my father in law, Elwyn Gates, of Gates Underwater camera housings, Encinitas and Bay of LA talks about, always favorably I might add?