BajaNomad - How long have you been visiting and/or living in Mexico?

How long have you been visiting and/or living in Mexico?

bancoduo - 7-3-2008 at 03:03 PM

tripledigitken - 7-3-2008 at 03:19 PM

Wait till about 6pm and the old timers will quit voting!

:lol:

Ken

Phil S - 7-4-2008 at 07:17 AM

Ken. I think your so right!!!!!! You gave me my "jump start" this morning.
Thank you. Phil S :lol:

Bajajorge - 7-4-2008 at 08:30 AM

Visiting, 20yrs. Part time resident (5mos per yr) 7yrs.

bajagrouper - 7-4-2008 at 09:09 AM

I must of caught the Baja Bug when my parents drove down to Ensenada when I was a 1 year old baby in 1948...I drove to Loreto in 1971 and now live on the mainland for 6 months a year in the state of Nayarit...suerte

rpleger - 7-4-2008 at 09:58 AM

12 years in Mulegé...

I came and liked what I saw and moved in....

Bajaboy - 7-4-2008 at 12:29 PM

About 40 years now...and before me my dad and grandfather.....

Zac

baitcast - 7-4-2008 at 12:42 PM

Gonzaga Bay 1964 with my family,been a while :lol:

Rob

Cypress - 7-4-2008 at 12:43 PM

3 years. :yes:

Might return, might not. :yes:

It's a very special place. :spingrin:

1964-5 college renagade- 1st visit on BSA

Bronco - 7-4-2008 at 03:01 PM

Had my first trailer at La Jolla Camp with the most respected Senor
Pavlov. 16' that sleep 12, depending on who got lost at the original Hussongs. Langosta and Abs at La Bufadora with the original Senor Leon Toscano.
Now 10 years full time in paradise ?????????????? Sorry I just don't need anymore gringo friends. No offense. Can't say I feel sorry for the pending doom of the condo fleet contaminating the coast.

roundtuit - 7-4-2008 at 03:22 PM

Ensenada when there was only Hussongs, the Bahia an a ice house.. 20 yrs PV started 1 week first time ended 1 month for 10 yrs then mulege 4yrs

First Recorded Visit 1949

CaboRon - 7-4-2008 at 04:10 PM

My first recorded visit to Old Mexico !

I am Pancho :yes:

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CaboRon

bancoduo - 7-4-2008 at 04:20 PM

I only got to pet the Mexican ZEBRA :yawn:

sylens - 7-4-2008 at 04:49 PM

born in df (mexico city) in 1949, arrived in united states of america on july 4, 1956, stayed with grandparents summer 1961 in df, spent three weeks in magdalena, sonora, mex in student exchange program from temple city hs in summer 1965, vacationed in mazatlan, cancun, puerto vallarta, etc most summers from the early 80s, bought house in ensenada in 2000 and now live here permanently since 2004.

what a great trip it's been! :bounce:

jeans - 7-4-2008 at 05:28 PM

Half of my father's weddings took place in Ensenada...

All of my mother's did too... :lol:

One of that total was to each other. :saint:

I can only claim a honeymoon in 1971.

windgrrl - 7-4-2008 at 09:18 PM

First trip was from Alberta in 1988 in a 1975 VM camper van. Left Canada in -40 degree Celcius weather with a Chinook headwind. Drove straight south for 3 days until we found mild weather in Vegas. Realized we would not make it to the tip of Baja and back within our 2-week vacation time and turned around after a week's stay in San Felipe. Hooked ever since.

capn.sharky - 7-5-2008 at 08:57 AM

Been going since the early 50's. Mainly to the Caliente Race track. Only off track betting on the west coast back then. Dad took me....as I got older (14 years old) I started borrowing his car and dropping by the Club Macombo in TJ. That was where I got all my sex education.

Barry A. - 7-5-2008 at 09:30 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by capn.sharky
Been going since the early 50's. Mainly to the Caliente Race track. Only off track betting on the west coast back then. Dad took me....as I got older (14 years old) I started borrowing his car and dropping by the Club Macombo in TJ. That was where I got all my sex education.

Those were the REAL "good ol days", my friend. I am thinking that there are many on this board that id with your experience. :lol:

(but maybe not???-----if not, that is a shame) :bounce:

David K - 7-5-2008 at 09:43 AM

Been going to Baja since 1965... a trip by Jeep to Bahia San Luis Gonzaga (with parents, I was about 8)... over the grades south from Puertecitos and back.

We drove from Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas the next year (1966)... took 2 weeks, then used the new ferry to Mazatlan to have paved roads to come home on. Caught my first dorado that trip, off Cabo!

The next year (1967), we drove to Bahia de los Angeles and stayed at Casa Diaz (the only place to stay then)... we drove via Gonzaga, because even thought the grades required low range four wheel drive to climb, it was still better than the dust bowl silt of Laguna Chapala we encountered on our drive to Cabo the year before!

Photo overlooking Calamajue Canyon from the Dick Daggett gold mill ruins...

We camped often at Nuevo Mazatlan, south of San Felipe in the 60's... surf fishing was fantastic for corbina and croaker.
Before the trees were planted, Nuevo Mazatlan's founder (Luis Castellanos Moreno) built these cabañas on the beach and we would back a travel trailer into one...

It wasn't long before Baja had more interest to us than the great fishing! We took weekend trips on more and more roads to see what Baja had to share... Ensenada to San Felipe when it was all a dirt road after 10 miles from Ensenada... and here is a photo of my dad and I on the new road to the Observatory in Oct. 1972 (I am 15)...

The first trip without my parents was when I was 16 and went with a high school friend during Easter Vacation, 1974... Here I am at 16 at Agua de Mezquitito water hole, north of Gonzaga Bay:

I had a VW Manx buggy with a roof rack for camping gear. We did a big loop tour included El Rosario, Mision San Fernando, El Marmol & El Volcan, Cataviña, Calamajue Canyon, Gonzaga Bay, Nuevo Mazatlan... Did a repeat of that trip in 1975 and had two other vehicles along to join my tour... My buggy and an older one on the south road out of El Marmol...

For my graduation (June, 1976) my high school sweetie and I went to Loreto and L.A. Bay on the return in my Jeep... my parents came along in their car as well. Here we are watching fishermen clean their catch at L.A. Bay...

I would take friends down to Baja for camping and off road races... After the Baja 500 (Score Baja Internacional) in June, 1978, we went up to the observatory... I was 19 and Diablo Mountain was a lot older!

A great thrill for me was when I was invited to co-drive the Baja 1000, in 1979 (Ensenada to La Paz, Score's first time to La Paz). Here I am with car owner Skip Ylhainen pre-running before the race.

Alas, we broke early in the race... but it was a thrill!

I still traveled to Baja with my folks, but now I was doing the driving! Here was maybe the last trip my dad was with us on a beach fishing trip... near Laguna Manuela in 1983...

So, there you have the early years of my Baja travels... some of them anyway!

Barry A. - 7-5-2008 at 11:06 AM

GREAT PHOTOS, David. Thanks for sharing---------you carry a lot of valuable history of Baja in your mind, and in your "library", that is for sure.

Viva Baja.

Barry

Pescador - 7-5-2008 at 11:50 AM

My uncle was a corporate pilot and had taken his boss to Guaymas for a couple of years and he and my parents had the wild idea to drive down. They eventually made it and the following year, 1957, they decided it was safe to take my sister and I along. The first night in the trailer park where I was sleeping in the station wagon with the windows down a little, I could hear a Mexican musician singing the most enchanting and beautiful music. Right then and there I decided I was going to spend a lot more time there. That has certainly been the case and we bought a house last year.
We still can not understand why we are not as excited about going to our house in Colorado, which is a beautiful log house right on a lake in the mountains, that is not nearly as exciting as it is when we pull up to our Mexican house. In fact we are usually "emotional toast" when we first see the Sea of Cortez on the Santa Rosalia grade.

Bob H - 7-5-2008 at 12:04 PM

Moved to San Diego from Miami in 1984 and have been going down to Baja ever since. Three trips down to the end and back... and many many more excursions to other different areas. We love Gonzaga Bay, Bahaia de Los Angeles, Mulege, La Purisima and La Paz, not necessairly in that order. Still a lot more to see, that's for sure.
Can't beat David K's post though - wow.
Bob H

toneart - 7-5-2008 at 12:07 PM

While still in high school in West Los Angeles (University High....AKA Uni Hi) in the 1950s, I was going to TJ for the bull fights, the tequila and other sordid activities. :rolleyes:

In the early 1960s I started roaming the whole of mainland Mexico. Once I waterskied from Puerto Vallarta to Mismaloya. That was when Richard Burton and Liz Taylor were making The Night of The Iguana.

I luckily abandoned/escaped So. California for the greener pastures/politics/values of Northern Ca. in 1959. But I transgressed to San Diego for the early 1990s to be of help for my mother in her final years. There, I taught ESL at San Diego State University, USD, Aspect in La Jolla and UEI. My Mexican students expressed appreciation for my knowledge of their country. I couldn't have asked for more satisfying feedback from these hard working students. It enabled me to help make their economic lives better as they assimilated into our culture to work their way up to better jobs and higher pay. We also taught practical life skills as they pertain to life in The United States.

Upon retirement I beat a hasty retreat to my hermitage in the mountains in No. California. ( It is damned smoky right now but fortunately, my house was saved when I called in a lightning strike, two weeks ago in the tall timbers right across the canyon.)

It wasn't until 2004 that I traveled the length of Baja. That was when I contracted to have my casita built in Mulege. Until then, I had always known I would explore Baja, but somehow never got around to it. My attitude was: It is so accessible to California that I could go anytime. The big deterrent for me was that I would have to pass through the hell that is L.A. and Orange County traffic to get there. Now that I have the casita in Mulege, I bite the bullet, hold my nose and try to get through SoCal as fast as I can. :smug:

bajalera - 7-5-2008 at 05:49 PM

First drove to La Paz in 1963, stayed there for 5 years except for two 2-week trips back to U.S. Most memorable trip was to Cabo San Lucas in 1972 on the old dirt "highway," in a '68 Mustang fastback,with my three teenagers substituting for 4WD.

Barry A. - 7-5-2008 at 07:00 PM

Wow, you made that trip in a "Mustang"???? Now THAT is impressive!!!!

Way to go!!!!

Barry

David K - 7-5-2008 at 08:23 PM

1972 would have been a lot of the old original Baja dirt main road! My dad and some of is dentist buddies did the trip that year in his 4WD Suburban... Pavement south was about San Quintin, but he went down the gulf side past Gonzaga as much prefered route than through Laguna Chapala dust! The paved road north from La Paz reached Santa Rosalia in 1972, and they were working on the section to San Ignacio, he reported.... it reached Cabo in 1970 going south from La Paz.

San Quintin to Santa Rosalia the last section to get done, pretty much all in 1973... and for Lera to do that in a Mustang is incredible!!! :cool:

Mango - 7-5-2008 at 10:34 PM

I've spent most of my time in the mainland. I'm a relative newcomer to Baja.

The first time I went to Mexico was in 1996 or so, I took the bus/train from Oakland, CA to Oaxaca and back by myself. I spent about a month in Mexico on that first trip.

It was quite the experience. I was glad to have taken the train from Puebla to Oaxaca before the rail line was abandoned. IMO it is better than the Copper Canyon train ride.. but that might have had something to do with all the Carta Blancas I had along the way. :lol:

I've lost track of the times I've been back to Mexico since. I few years I've spent almost 1/3 - 1/2 of the year just traveling and living in various places. The last year and a half I have been holed up in Mexicali with mi novia from DF whom I met in 2004 on a lonesome jungle road en route to this waterfall in Chiapas..

Bajafun777 - 7-6-2008 at 09:11 AM

First started going into Mexico with my parents as my dad was a vegetable grower in Texas so in winter months when snowing in Amarillo off he went to Laredo to grow melons. We took trips into Nuevo Laredo off and on which was back in 1961, I was just a little kid that loved looking at all the colorful stuff and eating the fresh hot bread baked there!! Then on to Yuma Arizona growing crops there and trips into San Luis and like Mango I was in my very start of teen year working in the fields with friends and going into Mexico on weekends when I was suppose to be with friends for the weekend. Well, wait a minute I guess I was with friends of sorts and then on to Brawley California for growing more crops and into Mexicali and over to T.J. for those fun hard all night hard parties and back. Look back on those trips and it is a wonder we ever got home alive, as we were "young dumb and looking for fun" (clean this saying up to be able to post it here as most of you hard runners of the times know). Life slows us down to where we really get to know the culture and people which I have since I got married in 1975 to my current wife and we both enjoy the down South experience and never stopped going to Baja and Mainland we drive it, fly it, and have even cruised it in boats. My three sons have all enjoyed it and made me pay for the sleepless nights I gave my parents at times, as the saying goes the "payback is a B_ _ _ _" but they and we survived and all doing great. All three of my sons like Mexico and go on their own as well as joining my wife and me down South on vacation when their work schedules will allow. I will soon retire living down South as much as possible but now instead of my 5th wheel that I thought I would live in I am thinking of just renting a small apartment or beach house for 3 or 6 months at a time and float around Mexico enjoying as much as I can while I can. Take care amigos y amigas de Nomads. Later---bajafun777

jodiego - 7-6-2008 at 09:31 AM

Started out going to TJ in the 70's, then got real brave and ventured to Rosarito and Ensenada. Started camping at Alisito's, LaFonda in the 80's until it got so crowded on weekends you could hear the person in the tent next to you passing gas. Moved farther south to Cabras and San Quintin for waves and camping. Started going to Punta Rosarito in the 90's. They're so much to see and do that I'll probably never get to all the places I would like to visit. That's why I enjoy all the shared experiences from all you Nomads. Keep the stories coming. Viva Baja!!!