Trip report Nov. 14th - 30th, part 3 (long)

Sunday the 26th was the day of exodus for everyone in camp except for Rick and Dorothy who were planning to head south for San Ignacio the next day, and for us. We needed to head north since our vacation time was now getting short. The west wind had started to blow the previous day and all through the night. Reuniting the truck and camper meant jacking the camper several feet higher off the ground than it had been sitting. The wind would create more instability in the already unstable situation so when about mid-day we had a lull in the wind, we jacked up the camper and Rich skillfully backed the truck underneath it. Janice was more than a bit nervous, seeing how precarious the camper looked that high off the ground, balanced on cut-offs in the sand on just the four skinny jacks. After we had the camper re-mounted securely on the truck, the couple from BC came by and mentioned that they had "put one of those on it's side once". Janice asked if theirs had been damaged by the mishap"Totaled it. It was a real mess for sure. had to get a crane to haul it out o' there". Turns out they had gotten a permit to spend one night on the island, and were about to set off in their kayak. Camping on the islands requires a permit as they are protected by the Mexican government as part of the "Islas de Golfo California Parque Nacional". Isla Raza is "a reserve for migrating waterfowl and a standout spot for bird watching" according to our AAA guide. Sounded like a great adventure to us.

We spent our last full day in Bahia De Los Angeles enjoying the sights and sounds of the Bay and even talking about plans for our next trip. We also discussed the fact that we have decided we want a kayak of our own, since renting can be quite expensive, and more importantly rentals are not always available at each spot that we have wished for one. The day before, Caroline, one of the campers in the cabanas offered to let us use their tandem kayak. Their group was going out on their boat for the day and so they would not be using it. We took advantage of the generous offer and took the kayak out for a paddle. We had found sometime earlier that riding a tandem bicycle was not our cup of tea (really, Janice was the one that did not care for it) so we were curious to see if a tandem kayak would be any more appealing. As it turned out, we discovered that it was easier than the bike, and a lot of fun. We will probably start off with individual kayaks but we will revisit t!he tandem kayak idea in the future.

Dinner turned out to be a simple one and we sat under the palapa as the sun set sipping cerveza and enjoying the transition of the bay from sunset to night. There was a quarter moon that made the silhouettes of the mountains stand out against the background the of opalescent black sky with its peppering of stars. We made certain to savor the sights and sounds of the evening so that the memory would remain vivid despite the fact that in the morning we were leaving the Bahia. The wind came up later that night but we were dreaming peacefully in the camper and neither of us noticed it very much.

The following day we were up early enough to catch another amazingly beautiful sunrise over the bay while sipping coffee under the palapa before packing the last of the gear and toys away in the camper. The Patron, Antonio invited us over to his house for coffee and we had a very interesting conversation about the differences in our two countries. Culturally we have many similarities to Mexico. We are still often caught off guard at some of the observations we have heard from Mexicans who have visited the states. Antonio mentioned that he was recently in San Diego county lecturing on the sea turtle project. "Everyone seemed so happy and they were all driving very expensive vehicles". We told him that few of those people probably owned their vehicles outright, " they all have loans to pay". It is the American way to be in debt. He seemed stunned that people in the states seem to gamble so much with their income, that if they were to lose their jobs (he mentioned Enron!) tomorrow, they would lose everything. He stated that he would never take such chances with his wife and children's future. It made sense to us. How is it that we as Americans see having huge debt ratios as "a sign of a good economy"? We told Antonio that in our case at least, if we were to lose our jobs tomorrow, we would just go out and get others. We have such a varied skill set and so little debt compared to many people we know that we could get jobs right away and we have enough saved to get by until we had new jobs. Still we had to admit that many people would not able to do that and would indeed be in a lot of trouble if they lost their jobs.

After a nice visit with Antonio and Bety, we said our good-byes and promised to keep in touch and to come see them again soon. We really plan to keep that last promise. We had come to Bahia De Los Angeles with the expectation of staying four days but had ended up spending most of our vacation there. Some day we will probably live at least part of the year there. On this trip we had truly discovered that living there would be hard to beat. We said good-bye to Rick and Dorothy, leaving them with one full "Ballena" (whale), a Pacifico in a large bottle that equals about three beers, and bottle caps to be turned in for a free one. We learned from the Nomads site that these special caps could be collected and turned in once you had five of them for a free one as part of a promotional offer.

Taking one final longing look back from the top of the hill we drove west toward the trans peninsular highway and soon the last views of the bay were left behind us. We headed on down the highway with San Quintin as our destination for the night. It would be a comparatively short day, about 220 miles. We have found that the truck and camper handle better in the wind than the van ever did, the weight of the camper does not seem to make much of a difference in our fuel mileage either. It was a bit windy but we still had a pretty smooth drive. We are very pleased overall with the new combination. It adds a number of elements (shower, cook top, fridge, comfy bed) that have made for a very comfortable trip.

The drive was mostly uneventful with the exception of being just past Catavina when a pickup truck behind us turned on their headlights. Figuring that something must be wrong we pulled over. The Mexican family in the pickup truck were all pointing at the back of our truck. Rich knew immediately that the back door of the camper had probably come open. Sure enough, that was what it was. We had replaced the door lock just before leaving on our trip and it did not fit quite right. Not wanting to lose valuable Baja time on trying to find a better replacement we resorted to using a bungee cord to secure it after the door, which we thought had been securely locked, flew open during a wind storm one night. We had been so distracted by leaving that morning we forgot to put on the bungee cord. There was no way to tell how long the door had been flapping but we must have looked pretty dopey. We thanked the people for letting us know, checked to make sure we had not lost anything irreplaceable, and then secured the door with the bungee cord before pulling back onto the highway. Need to add "check the bungee cord" to the pre-departure list.

On the way south, we had come through three military checkpoints, where we were waved through without having to stop. In the past, although we have been waved through on the way south, we have usually been stopped and thoroughly checked for "armas y drogas", guns or drugs and shaken down for sodas or beer or propane canisters while going north. This trip we only saw one of the checkpoints in operation, but as we slowed for the inspection, we were surprised to find that the only military personnel at the station were several cardboard cutouts of uniformed soldiers. No real ones were in evidence at all. This was the first time that we had seen these pseudo soldiers� being used and we wonder if the military is just trying to lighten up the whole checkpoint thing or if they just don't find cardboard soldiers silly. We laughed at the stern looks that had been painted on these figures, standing there holding up an orange flag. We stopped at the "ALTO TOTAL" sign but when no one showed up we moved along. We figured maybe it was siesta, as this was one checkpoint that we have always been stopped at in the past. Or maybe the money for the program has dried up? It could have also been that the unrest on the mainland has diverted the forces from the checkpoints. Whatever the reason it was way different and kind of uncomfortable.

We stopped in San Quintin to re-supply our depleted cash. One major thing Bahia De Los Angeles does not have is a bank of any kind. We had brought extra money to avoid the situation we found ourselves in last year when we had been saved from the non-functioning ATM in Guerrero Negro by a 400 peso loan from a Mexican General (read last years trip log). Even though we had brought what we thought would be plenty of money for our stay in Bahia De Los Angeles we had stayed for two weeks when we had planned to leave after only four days. We were not broke this time but we had spent most of our cash so the ATM needed to be the first stop. We then headed over to La Pasadita for fish and shrimp tacos. We had decided to give the place another try since the last time was over a year ago and we had been disappointed because the quality was not what it had been on past trips. The quality had improved a lot. Apparently the Father of the family that owns it had come out of retirement and the place was back on track. Janice put too much of the green sauce on both hers and Rich's tacos, so they were a bit warm however they were very tasty. La Pasadita goes back on the list of must stop at taco stands. After lunch we went to the market down the street to pick up a few items before heading to the Old Mill to camp for the night. We went by Jardines De San Quintin to see if we could find the place in the daylight, and planned to come back later for dinner. We had read and heard wonderful things about this restaurant and wanted to give it a try. The place is a converted mansion surrounded by beautiful landscaping, as the name implies, translated it means Gardens of San Quintin. We were disappointed to find a large sign out front proclaiming them to be closed for re-modeling, with a projected re-opening of "soon". Might as well have said manana.

Once at Old Mill, we took about ten minutes to set up for a night of camping. Another wonderful improvement over our previous camping rigs is the ease and quickness of set up. We wandered over to the restaurant to pay for our site and to inquire if they had lobster. After an affirmative reply on our inquiry, and paying $10 for the night, we went back to camp and to check out the facilities. We had stayed here once before and remembered the restrooms and showers to be nice enough with hot water too. This time however the place was in such disrepair, with no hot water available, that we decided to try out our own shower in the camper. We had yet to use it and were curious to see how well it worked. Rich lit the water heater and it fired right up. In about 15 minutes we had hot water and It turned out to be the best shower of the trip. If we could keep a full tank of water, this would be the answer to our bathing needs for the rest of the trip. After showering we went to the Old Mill restaurant for a delicious (but overpriced) dinner of lobster and shrimp. The margaritas we ordered were very good, (but were also overpriced). Up to this point, we have not spent much on eating out, so we didn't feel too bad about dropping a comparative bundle this time. When we were almost through with dinner, the same mariachi duo that had entertained us on our previous visit to the Old Mill came by. Since we were now the only guests in the place, we were their prime target. We enjoyed being serenaded and even requested a song. Rich tried to tell them about the time that we were here before and that they were the ones that told him where to find the guitars in town. But with our limited Spanish, it was unclear if we got the message across. It is unlikely that they would recognize us. All of us gringos probably look alike to them anyway. We are pretty sure they had no idea what we were trying to tell them but we tipped them pretty well so they were happy.

The next morning, after taking a few sunrise pictures, we slowly packed the camper for our continued journey northward. We had decided to check out a few new places on the Pacific side on the way home so that we could say we did some exploring this trip. Our first side trip would be Puerto San Isidro and Punta Cabras. It was a short drive after the turnoff which is just north of the town of San Vincente. The road is partly paved and has a lot of potholes. It turns to dirt closer to the seashore. The road winds through an arroyo and enters a small village before reaching the shore. There was a lot of activity in the fields as some sort of onion-like product was being harvested. What looked like crates of leeks were being loaded onto trucks and taken to a nearby warehouse. We drove through the town and several miles down the coast to the small cluster of homes at Punta Cabras and then turned around. We went back south a bit and found a place overlooking the water a short distance down the beach from the point. We are so used to camping in tourist areas that we wondered if there would be anyone to collect a fee for camping there (there wasn't) and wondered if it would be safe (it was). We decided that we were probably the scariest people out there, what with machetes, grizzly spray and two very protective perros bravos. We had a simple dinner, wonderful hot showers from our trusty camper, and then we drifted off into a very peaceful sleep.

We awoke well rested the next morning and had our coffee while watching the waves breaking just yards from where we were camped. They had good enough shape to make for some good rides but we decided to push on and do some exploring that day since our vacation time was dwindling and we wanted to see some more new places before we had to go home and back to work. Before we left Janice took the dogs for a walk along the beach. She watched as wave after perfect wave peeled parallel to the shore, spray streaming back off the top of each from the offshore wind. As she prepared to get a few pictures of the waves a pod of dolphins moved into the breakers and began showing off their hot local surfing moves. She managed to capture a few action shots before the dolphins moved on. It was quite a show. Once back at camp we packed up and prepared to move. As stated earlier, preparing to drive compared to the old Scooby Doo van was a breeze and we were soon heading back for the highway.

The next stop on our journey was La Bocana and Puerto Santo Tomas. We have driven by the the sign on the highway indicating the route and always wanted to see what was there. We had heard very little about the area but it was new. This road was not paved and quite a bit rougher, but the truck handled it fine. It took most of an hour to go eighteen miles. When we got to La Bocana we drove past a sign saying to pay at the store for camping. We looked around and not seeing anywhere to camp, we drove on towards Puerto Santo Thomas. At the end of the road, we still did not see anywhere obvious to camp, but we did see many more signs advising us to pay at the store. The only problem was there seemed not to be anywhere to camp and there was also no store that we could see. Puzzled, we turned around and headed back the way we had come, passing about a half dozen of what looked like gringo summer or weekend homes. We joked about just pulling into one of the driveways of these (since no one seemed to be currently occupying them) and just camp there overnight. If anyone had asked we would say "Oh, Bob said we could camp here anytime we were in the neighborhood". We decided not to press our luck. We headed back toward La Bocana.

We were discussing our options as we passed the store in La Bocana when Janice spotted an American guy inside. Rich went in to ask about camping in the area and were given directions to an area just south of there. The place was described as "wide open to camping and no one will bother you�". We went to check it out and found a great campsite overlooking the ocean. The view was beautiful. Rock arches hung from the weathered cliffs and huge kelp beds sat a few yards off shore. Rich pointed out that the area directly in front of our camp as well as the cove on one side and the point on the other were all breaking very nicely . Three surf-able waves in just a few yards of our campsite. Unbelievable. If this spot was anywhere on the other side of the border there would have been at least a hundred people out in the line ups. As it was we saw no one and we were pleased to have it that way.

We set up camp, once again half wondering if anyone would come by to collect, but we were not surprised when no one did. We actually saw no one at all and had the whole place to ourselves. We had another simple dinner then after another awesome Baja sunset we lit the last of our duraflame logs for our campfire. We drank the last of our Pacifico ballenas before turning in for the evening. Sometime around midnight the wind came up and the noise woke us briefly but we were soon asleep again. The camper is just so cozy and comfortable the wind was not a problem.

In the morning we walked down the coast looking at tide pools and just enjoying the day when we came upon what appeared to be an old salt water swimming pool . At least that was the best we could figure it was. It was made of a rock wall about two to three feet in height located in the tidal zone which was filled with seawater at high tide. The pool was filled with sea anemones, urchins, fish and other sea life. We were not really sure what it was for, or who had made it but Rich stated that he wanted one. Bravo got in and swam around making sure at least one of us got to go swimming in the mystery pool. After taking more photos, we then drove the short distance back to the store to specifically thank the two guys there for the recommendation on the campsite. There was a lot of activity at the cove where a production company was working on a shoot, according to Brad and Jim a movie about the end of the world. There was a Mercedes convertible parked on the bluff overlooking the ocean that probably had just been on one of the roughest roads of its life.

It was probably close to noon before we headed back to the highway. We knew that there was another checkpoint soon after reaching the paved road, so we had dog leashes at hand, cameras and GPS units stored away and were all set to be thoroughly searched. We were stunned to see only one militario in attendance, and even more surprised that he did not stop us for inspection. We figured it was siesta or lunch or something. It's very odd to spend three weeks traveling in Baja and not be stopped at a military checkpoint even once. We have always had to stop at this one in the past. Something has apparently changed.

Janice has wanted to stop at La Bufadora every time we have come to Baja but we have never made time for it before. This time we decided to take the turnoff there in Manadearo and headed out on the road to Punta Banda. We figured we at least need to be able to say "yeah we got splashed, ate the churro, dodged the hawkers". Dodging the hawkers turned out to be easier said then done. The very persistent shopkeepers came at us from all sides with phrases in English like "hey lady".."check it out" and "we got it"�. Rich has always disliked this kind of Mexican market place. It seems to exist solely in tourist areas like Cabo, Cancun and here around Ensenada. While some we are sure see this kind of high pressure pandering as all good fun, we see it as undignified and more proof that tourists are a bad influence. It's sort of like someone convinces shopkeepers that if they are rude and obnoxious enough you will buy something. This is not the Mexico we come to see and anyone who thinks that this is how Mexico is needs to get away from the tourist traps some time. Oh well we ended up buying a couple of things including a real Mexican guitar (hecho en Mexico) when the guy selling it dropped the price so low Rich could not resist. We made it through the gauntlet of hawkers and watched the "bufâ�" for a while. The blow hole actually shot a few good plumes up and we took a few pictures (while declining to have our picture taken by the persistent guy with the Polaroid). We also ended up having some pretty good Carne Asada tacos. The fish tacos were good too and we even bought the churro. We got out of there and can at least now say "yeah, we did it".

We made a quick stop in Ensenada at the Calimex to pick up two bottles of El Jimador, then got out town. As noted many times we do not care for Ensenada but they have good prices at their super mercados. As we drove down the mallecon we could see that a big cruise ship was in the harbor. Oh boy.

We headed back to the wine route and on to highway 3 toward Tecate. Highway 3 is the winding road that travels through the hills on a very narrow stretch of blacktop with drop-offs and not much of a shoulder for most of the way. The semi trucks use this route extensively, and we always get stuck behind a slow moving one every time we travel this way. We know people who refuse to drive this road because they have had bad experiences with trucks on it. We have also been told that "the trucks own the road"�. At one point we were sandwiched in between two slow moving trucks ahead of us and several impatient ones behind us. Everyone in line was very anxious to pass. At a clear point, Rich signaled his intention ahead of time, then pulled out to pass. The F250 has a 7.3 liter turbo diesel and it has plenty of power for passing even with the camper on top. This should have been an easy pass but just as we crossed into the oncoming lane the slow truck immediately ahead of us pulled out and tried to pass the slightly slower truck ahead of it. This cut off our passing attempt and we hesitated a moment, still straddling the centerline of the road. Suddenly another truck that had come up very quickly from behind us laid on his air-horn and proceeded to force us back into our lane. We had no choice but to abandon our passing attempt and scoot over so that we would not be run into by the truck with the steadily blaring horn. Once back in our lane we watched as unbelievably the pushy semi, horn still blaring, proceeded to pull into our lane and actually squeeze us completely off the road. There are moments when you do not have the luxury of thinking through the situation. This was one of those moments. Rich has spent many years driving off road and is used to instinctively picking a line through rough terrain. In this case his instincts were the best thing to have. Just in time he spotted the one place for miles on the side of the road that the camper and truck could make it through. Without thinking he deftly maneuvered the rig between two dirt mounds and onto a rough but fairly clear strip of dirt several yards off the side of the road. We bounced to an uneasy stop and sat there for a few minutes to catch our breath and try to get a grip on what had just happened.

"Chukey" is the Mexican slang term for meth. They call it that because it refers to the homicidal demon doll in the Child's Play� movies, Chucky. They say that you become like "Chukey" when you start using it. We have heard that meth has become a very serious problem in Baja and that Mexican semi drivers use it routinely. We have always had respect for the Mexican truck drivers but now we see them quite differently. When they start purposely running people off the road they probably need to ease up on the Chukey.

We decided that from now on we would follow a new rule of never passing anything for any reason on Highway 3 and we would be a lot more wary of the truckers. In any case, the incident was more excitement than we cared to have on a drive home. Looks like Rich still has good reflexes though.

We reached the border at Tecate, having gone through the new re-route that takes you east, away from the crossing before heading back west again. It seemed that more thought needed to be put into the route, but we made it without too much trouble. We were singled out for secondary inspection, probably because of the camper, that could have potentially carried two dozen illegal immigrants. After a quick look and the usual questions about importing fruits and vegetables, we were on our way again. We retraced our route of a few weeks earlier only in the opposite direction and pulled into the driveway at Japatul fire station.

We had another epic trip and it will not be soon enough that we can load up the camper and head south again. We bought the full year of insurance and our tourist cards are good for six months. Finding a reason not to go back soon will be the hard part.

Thanks for the trip report Janice.