BajaNomad

OTAY BORDER CROSSING TO TODOS SANTOS TRIP REPORT 7/26-7/28

amir - 7-30-2007 at 03:58 PM

Hola Nomads,

A couple of days ago, with the Grace of God, Gnome-Ad and I finished our trip through California, Baja California and Baja California Sur, and we arrived safely at our new residence in Todos Santos, BCS, to resume our 20-year-old-honeymoon and to continue the rest of our lives.

This trip was the culmination of the hardest transition that we have ever made in our lives, individually and together. Little did we realize, when we started this whole process, that this move to Baja would separate us for almost a year!

So last Tuesday I flew Alaska Air from Los Cabos to Los Angeles to rendezvous with my wife who had driven down from Oregon, and we both departed Hollywood on Thursday morning driving our Jeep packed to the gills with the last remains of our belongings in the United States and a considerable amount of art, photo and chiropractic supplies.

We followed the instructions generously suggested by many of you, and the whole trip went sooooooo smooth, that I can’t imagine why I was so worried before the trip… That is why it was so good for me to post my questions here, receive your Nomad answers, and research the Nomad archives.

We crossed the Otay border at about 9:30 a.m., took the “Nothing to Declare” lane, and we barely had to slow down – the Mexicans flagged us through, there was neither a red NOR a green light. No primary, no secondary, no nothing! The Boulevard 2000 is fabulous! Detailed directions got us unto the Cuota road and through the Malecon of Ensenada, which is soooooo much easier that getting lost trying to go “around” Ensenada…

The first two military checkpoints we were waved through without stopping. At the next checkpoint they only wanted to know where we were going, and where we were coming from. At the only other checkpoint that we were actually stopped, all the questions had to do with my beard – about 17 questions if I counted right! And I answered them all in perfect Castilian Spanish, which almost always confounds them. The checkpoint near Catavinia was not activated. By the way, we both love the graffiti on the boulders, well, most of it. We know there is some controversy about these painted rocks, but hey, they’re there, so might as well enjoy the show! The last two checkpoints required no stopping at all. There was gas everywhere and amenities as always.

A fish taco from a roadside stand somewhere along the coast around San Quintin brought our blood chemistries immediately to normal levels.

At the Guerrero Negro Agricultural Checkpoint they asked us if we had fruits and vegetables. We didn’t. The tires were sprayed by machine nozzles as we drove over an automatic trigger. I miss the guy dressed in a white moon suit who fumigated the tires by hand in the past, when we had to pay 10 pesos per axle for the service. Sometimes we wondered if it was just water in those spray cans and they had a pretty good racket going by collecting the fee, but one year we smelled the strong toxic fumes of some insecticide so we’re glad that the poor guy doesn’t have to be exposed to the chemicals any more. The Immigration stop to get our FM3’s stamped took less time than it takes to say “Buenos Dias!” and “Adios!”

We made it to Baja Cactus in El Rosario before 5:00 and our room, reserved by email, was magnificent. We chose a room in the back because we heard it would be more quite if it was away from the highway. Room #204, with one king size bed for $35 dollars was one of the best accommodation we EVER got during several trans peninsular trips.

There was enough daylight left before dinner so we took a long enough stroll up and down El Rosario de Arriba to capture well over 100 photo images and buy delicious bakery-fresh pastries for first breakfast in the room with coffee prepared with supplies thoughtfully provided in the room by the motel.

The second night we spent in Mulege. Many favorite places recommended by Nomads were full, no vacancy Friday night; so once more we stayed at The Orchard. It was sad to see what Hurricane John did to the old quaint bungalows and vegetation along the river! Much of the reconstruction everywhere is evident, but much more is waiting to be done. A short walk before a sumptuous dinner at Los Equipales that evening yielded many nice late afternoon pictures of this quaint little town. We love Mulege.

An early morning drive through Bahia Concepcion is always eye candy! Brunch in Loreto was another opportunity for camera work. I should have taken pictures of the torn up streets. Some stores were spraying hoses for dust control; and what was that smell? What a mess! But remember Loretanos, there will be new streets again soon… The asphalt and cement from the torn up streets everywhere appears to be collected in long lanes along the highway towards Nopolo, almost looking like if they are removing layers of Old Loreto to make a new road to Loreto Bay… Symbolic, no?… Anyway, everybody we met was very friendly and had beautiful smiles on their faces and a glint in their eyes.

Traffic was very light the whole length of the trip, until the intersection south of La Paz at San Pedro, when we got off Highway 1 and took Highway 17 to Todos Santos, then traffic in both direction was moderate. There were cops in their usual hunting locations but only once saw any patrol activity, some kind of roadblock with four police pickups, but they just looked at us and waved us through. At least once each trip we encounter these police checkpoints. Oh, and at one of the military checkpoints, there was no military at all for the southbound traffic, but the forced stop there was for a solicitation for donations of money for the local chapter of the alcohol and drug rehab program. I figured that if these people are allowed to be in the military checkpoint, that they are legit, so I gave them a few coins that we always have hoarded in the ashtray for such occasions.

There were detours around four or five bridge construction areas starting south of Santa Rosalia, these have already been described by another Nomad in another thread in this Forum recently. There are more detours around the new bridge and overpass south of La Paz, and there are some rough areas south of San Pedro where the highway continues to be widened into four lanes. A historic shrine of the Virgen de Guadalupe had to be moved to make way for the new road. The new shrine is only the upper portion of the old monument. I hope somehow they can get the funds and the labor to rebuild a safe temple of devotion and prayer – the old shrine had multitudes of lit candles and flowers in perpetuity, and there were always at least 3 to 5 pilgrims in attendance…

Some areas north of Todos Santos have already been cleared and graded for the planned four-lane from La Paz to San Jose. I confirm here that some of the potholes on all these detours are pretty bad, again, as described in another Nomad thread recently. Our Jeep Cherokee has a 3” lift package and BIG tires, so these rough areas were not a real problem for us. With our other car, a Toyota Corolla, which we drove in our last two trips, we would have damaged something under the car, for sure!

And the TOPES!!! Don’t even get me started!! Some day I want to count how many topes there are between the border and home in TS… There seemed to be less topes in El Rosario, though, maybe they wore down or they filed them down, or people have noticed that it is a cute town and now they slow down anyway. There used to be an unmarked tope somewhere near Punta Prieto and San Ignacio, but it is marked now! And in some places there are fake topes! These are fun, because you slow down to go over it, but the tope is just painted on the pavement, there is no raised speed bump…

We arrived home at around 5:00 o’clock in the afternoon after three easy days on the road, and I thought to carry my bride across the threshold, but I didn’t want to burst my hernia, so I didn’t. And anyway, before I opened the house door, a patient showed up and was soooooo glad I wasn’t gone for the whole summer! (The Chiropractic Clinic and our home are on the same property.)

To make this trip in the winter we would have to get up earlier to be able to cover the same distance every day and arrive to the motel before sunset. We follow the rule: No Driving In Baja After Dark. Now in the summer it was nice to be more leisurely and have more time before sunset for photography.

Signage over the length of the peninsula seems to have improved a little bit, but it still leaves much to be desired. The arrow pointing to one detour was pointing in the wrong direction, and we ended up at some Santa Rosalia Airport (?) where a soldier in black uniform and an M-16 machine gun was guarding a tiny building no more than 15 square meters. I didn’t see any runways; and the guard kindly pointed back the way we came and told me the detour was just alongside the bridge… This isn’t always so obvious, since in another detour we were taken around a dirt road for quite a ways around a ravine over which the bridge was being built. Added bonus adventures!

This particular three day car trip through Baja, starting in Los Angeles early in the morning, crossing at Otay Mesa, first night in El Rosario, second night in Mulege, and Todos Santos by the afternoon of the third day, has been the most relaxed and the least traumatic of all the similar trips we have driven up and down so far. All my worries were for naught! No customs, no inspections, no hassles of any sort.

And my romantic dreams and expectations about reuniting with my dearest beloved have become a reality. We have already started to play house and we are very excited about our future plans. This is really the beginning of our new life in Baja California Sur, TOGETHER.

Thank you all, and you know who you all are, who kept me company in this Nomad Board during the last 3 months while I was waiting for this trip to come to pass. Some of you have given me very useful and explicit information and directions, others have given me support, encouragement and advice. Some have challenged me and that’s when I took poetic liberties, although I was already amuck by then and your cyber-friendships soothed my marital withdrawal pains. Several have sent me U2U’s or written me emails; I hope to personally meet many of you in the future.

With this trip, one era of our life ends and another era begins. We drove our second vehicle and last belongings across a thousand miles of Baja’s beautiful and magnificent deserts and beaches and mountains, into a foreign culture, which is now our own. We drove straight through, to get home, so we didn’t tarry. But we did enjoy the trip in every respect and are both so happy to be able to say that we feel lucky and grateful that we are going to be living and working in BCS, in this wonderful land that all you Nomads love so much and why you read this website, and why you wish you were here and yearn to come back.

So, this is my report for this trip: We made it without incidence, we had a wonderful time, everything is okay with the road and our new-to-us Baja vehicle we named “JeepSi”. It was hot and humid on the Cortez side, cooler, breezy and drier in Todos Santos. Nothing else outstanding to report except we have arrived in Paradise to reinvent our lives together.

--Amir

Cypress - 7-30-2007 at 04:17 PM

amir, Thanks for the report and best of luck to you and your lady's new life in Todos Santos.:bounce:

Ken Bondy - 7-30-2007 at 04:21 PM

Great report Amir!!! Buena suerte en su vida nueva!! ++Ken++

bajajudy - 7-30-2007 at 04:26 PM

Amir
Viva Baja y
La Vida Mexicana
Glad you made it with such ease
If you ever get over to San Jose, I hope that you will look me up
Cheers

toneart - 7-30-2007 at 05:09 PM

Amir,

Thank you for the trip report. I am so glad that you and The Gnome are reunited. Both of you have posted many uplifting messages here and are always a joy to read. Sorry I wasn't home at The Orchard in Mulege to greet and host you. Buenas Suertes in sus vidas nuevas conjuntos en casa TS.
Saludos

edm1 - 7-30-2007 at 05:44 PM

Nice report, Amir.

I'm curious what 17 or so questions one would ask about a beard :?:

Bajabus - 7-30-2007 at 06:19 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by edm1
Nice report, Amir.

I'm curious what 17 or so questions one would ask about a beard :?:


Yeah me too so I can brush up on my answers.

Great report, come down Elias Calles way every once and a while.

Marie-Rose - 7-30-2007 at 09:19 PM

Great report... thanks. I am so envious:yes: Looking forward to meeting in Oct.

CaboRon - 7-31-2007 at 06:23 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Marie-Rose
Great report... thanks. I am so envious:yes: Looking forward to meeting in Oct.


I have to second Marie-Rose's comment... Thank you for the trip report .... and it is great to hear you and Gnome are together again.... Wishing you both a wonderful life in your new home !! -Ron

CaboRon - 7-31-2007 at 12:10 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by amir

We crossed the Otay border at about 9:30 a.m., took the “Nothing to Declare” lane, and we barely had to slow down – the Mexicans flagged us through, there was neither a red NOR a green light. No primary, no secondary, no nothing!

--Amir

Amir, Just curious about your crossing. Did you have the roof rack loaded or was everything contained inside the Jeep ? Were you towing a trailer ?
Appreciate the info, Ron

amir - 7-31-2007 at 06:43 PM

Yes, Ron, the roof rack was totally packed. On the several trips we've made up and down in the past, even when we were ordered out of the vehicle so the soldiers could perform an inspection, not once did they ever ask to open the roof rack. One time on the way north, the platoon leader asked me in a general way, what kind of things does one store up there? I told him clothes, and shoes, and stuff that did not fit inside the car, and that was enough for him. Makes me wonder what the whole point of the check is...

--Amir

Gadget - 7-31-2007 at 07:21 PM

Great report Amir. Perhaps we will llok you up in the fall on our trip to TS. Feel free to U2U me your location when you get a break from "playing house". I love that game ;);)

Bob and Susan - 7-31-2007 at 07:23 PM

has ANYONE... EVER... come to your house and said "wow what a nice ceiling?"

no...they ALWAYS say " wow where did ALL these toys come from??? you got kids???"

they LOOK down...ALWAYS...hide things UP!!!