Photo trip report- How We Spent our Summer Vacation - June 17 - Aug. 17 '08

Dern and I spent two months in Baja this summer. I've been fussing with photos and trying to sort out a trip report in my brain for the past week since we've been back. It was a fun filled, work filled, busy trip that went by way too quickly.

I'll start from the beginning, we left SLO headed for the house in Punta Banda after making a quick stop at our favorite toy stores, Squid Co. and West Marine. No problems with our visas at the San Ysidro border, nothing to declare, our Llave card still worked at the toll booths, we were on our way.

We got to Maneadero to find no Diesel fuel. We returned to the rip off station before the La Buff turn off and secured a spot in line where we waited 30 min. for our turn at the pumps. They were down to their last 100 liters when we pulled up to fill up.

A quick stop at El Recreo for dinner, then to Dern's favorite El Indio for road sodas, then on to Sharkeys to check in with Dennis.

We unpacked and repacked the truck that night, and headed for San Felipe the next morning.

At the turn off from Hwy 3 at El Chinero, we stopped at the military check point. The guys were in good spirits and invited us to join them for a cool slice of sandia. It was a nice break.

We headed into town and checked into El Capitan where we were meeting friends to go on a long range fishing trip on the Andrea Lynn. This was my first trip of this kind and would do it again in a heart beat. In fact, another trip is already scheduled for next summer with the same group of guys.



I hadn't been in San Felipe for over 25 years. I was glad to see my old friend Club Bar Miramar was still there.

Our guide "Chorty" was the best ever. Yes, we're towing in our buddy Todd in this shot.


Chorty quickly warmed up to our friend Ava and had her stapped to the engine in no time. She rode there for the remainder of our trip, until I found her swimming in the bait tank towards the end of the trip.


Ava got the looks, but we got the fish.


On our way home from San Felipe we stopped at the military checkpoint to return the favor of the sandia by giving them some Yellowtail filets for their dinner.

We donated our fish to Agua Viva in Cantu/Maneadero. Thanks to our friends Todd and Pat for pitching in some of their catch as well. They could have used more, as they feed over 150 mouths a day. Next year we'll fish harder!

After three days of sleeping in, trying to make up for lost sleep on the Andrea Lynn,



...and driving back and forth to Arjonas for spare motor parts that we had on order, we packed up again, this time heading for Bahia.

I never, ever, ever will get tired of this view:


I just have to get used to the power lines.



Our first week was spent moving out the old and moving in with the new.




Dern is returning mid Sept. to demolish the old decks, and begin new construction.



That first week was all business, getting the vast majority of our chores over with so we could get on with our summer-selves.

My favorite part of the day is around 5am. It's so cool then (temp wise, mid 80s). The first seagull starts fussing around 5:30. The wind is blowing slightly from the water, the sun is still sleeping behind the mountain. I love it.



I would lie there in bed, up on the deck and hear our neighbors walking by on their morning 5:30 walk. I kept thinking to myself, "I'll get up and surprise them with my walking shoes on tomorrow morning." It never happened.

Mary Ann ended up back at her place after car problems in Catavina. She and her dog Dedo would walk by in the mornings, sometimes stopping in for a visit.

Some mornings we took the panga out.



We got our fare share of fishing on the Andrea Lynn so we weren't jonesing to get out every day. We'd catch dinner and let the rest go.

One of the lucky ones:


Sometimes we'd visit Don Juan cove for a quick breakfast of fresh oysters.






On our way in the cove one day we came across a bottlenosed dolphin, looking after his buddy. I'll post more photos of this pair on another thread.




After fishing off of Piojo one morning, we headed for Smith Island to check out the Sperm Whale that was on the beach. On our way we spotted a Finback Whale so we stopped to take a look.



We were treated to quite a show, a lunch date of sorts.









When the whale moved on, the inflatable motored over and long story short, I reconnected with an old college friend from the early 1980's marine biology days in Bahia. Baja is a small world.

We motored over to the Sperm Whale. We first saw it when the Andrea Lynn had come into the bay a few weeks earlier, although I didn't take photos of it at that time.

It was still pretty "fresh", the rocks were quite slippery with whale goo.









I was hoping to find some teeth, but the "Island People" had beat everyone to them.

There were quite a few Whale Sharks in the bay. Most of them were in the south end, but there were a couple of days where there were at least two or three of them in front of town.











We visited with the Whale Sharks almost every day we took the panga out.



Pablo's daughter Nieves and I get a closer look:


Dern has his turn:


We would usually end our afternoons on the water by landing in front of Casa Diaz, pulling the panga up on the beach.



Dern would run in for a cold six pack of TKT and a bag of ice while I hung out with our Pelican friends.





After an easy beach retrieve we would clean up the boat, clean the fish and maybe take a siesta if we had time before heading in to town.

"Office hours" at Casa Diaz are around 4pm, give or take. We'd quad into town with Ava to meet the other office staff to lie about fishing, and talk about what ever else that should happen to cross the patio. It's how we keep up on the Coconut Telegraph.







We took a break to head over to the Pacific side to cool down a bit as well as to hit up the ATM in Guerrero Negro and buy another Rotoplas while we're there.







We stayed overnight at the Malarimo. Our dinner in their restaurant cost more than our hotel room. It didn't matter, the food was good, there was wireless internet in the bar, and the shower felt wonderful.



Our new Rotoplas ended up not fitting into the back of the truck, so we had to loosen the back half of the camper shell in order to shove it in for the ride back to Bahia.



We stopped at La Casita in Jesus Maria for Tortas to go.
Yum-o!




We returned to Bahia in time for the summer fiesta, soft bol, horse races, rodeo, dances, greased pole and pig wrestling. We only made it to the races and the rodeo. See my other posts in the trip reports section for photos.



Dern got a bad ear infection. He refused to go to the doctor until we returned from G.N. We drove into the clinic to find the doctor m.i.a. With the help of the new police in town, ( I jumped in his truck and he and I went searching), we tracked the doctor and his assistant down at Guillermo's. Dern was given a huge shot. The assistant only had to say, "Dude" to know where that shot was headed. He got a weeks worth of pain meds and 2 weeks worth of antibiotics for $20.00. The doctor looked so young that we named him Dougie Houser.

(Center with the sunglasses on)

We had dinner many times at Pablo's house as well as with our neighbor Phyllis and Jim. Mia and Tony had us over for dinner one fun night with the Ocana family.

We also visited with the ugliest rooster in town, who happens to live at the community market. We were told he's a "Churkey", a cross between a chicken and turkey. He hasn't any feathers on his neck, breast or on his meaty drumsticks. Poor guy.


No one had to eat crow this trip, although we were prepared should the need arise:


There were days that we hung out on Paradise Island:




And wrestled for 2 days with the old mining train turn table as we cleaned out the cactus garden. That monster is heavy.




The weather for the most part was bearable. The nights were in the mid 80s. We only took the ice chest to bed with us one night. The hottest it got was 110 in the shade. Counting falling stars is a fun way to fall asleep. The lightning show over the islands at night was non stop on some nights. We had rain, thunder and lightning too. One night the lightning felt so close that the hair on our arms felt like it was standing on end. That night we decided to move our bed down, off of the deck.

The sunsets were wonderful. One night in particular the sky was three colors; bright blue, purple and pink. Jimmy Buffett was playing a live concert on our satellite radio. Dern mixed two c-cktails that we took with us down to the water, which was 94 degrees. We waded in, enjoying our drinks, the sky, the music when out towards Horsehead Island a whale breached. Not only once but three times!

We saw it all.

What more could one ask for to end a perfect evening?



Dern tried to get Mary Ann's other car working but couldn't. We ended up towing her Trooper back to her garage from town. We fashioned a tire bumper on the front of our truck to gently push her Trooper and Jeep back into her garage for safe keeping.



She and her crew kept us company in the back seat of our truck on our way back to Punta Banda on Aug. 8th.


We caravaned up with Phyllis and Jim. Kevin arrived the next day to pick up Mary Ann. Jim and Phyllis stayed with us for the weekend before they headed north.

Dern spent the rest of the week finishing the wood windows on the house, visiting with our neighbors, unpacking and re-packing in preparation for heading back stateside.

We cleaned fish for the Punta Banda Yacht Club's fishing derby. That was a fun day.





On our last day in Baja we helped judge the chili cookoff at Gordo's in La Buff. Then it was time to head back to the states.

As always, it was too fast, most of my tan washed off in the shower, and I'm homesick for Baja already.



P<*)))>{

[Edited on 25-8-2008 by Paulina]

Nice trip report(s)!

Thanks!

Great trip report

Loved it sometime I want to try swimming with the whale sharks looks like a lot of fun. You got some great photos . I think Marv is looking for some of the sharks for his calendar this year. Glad you guys had such a great time and thanks for sharing it with us,k

Paulina, What an adventure!!Thanks.

looks like you had a wonderful time, I'm counting the days till we can get back. Loved the whale shark pictures, we got to snorkle with them last year.

Don't you hate it when your tan washes off, I always tell Mr. Gypsy, I'm not having a shower, till I'm back in Baja!!

Upon closer inspection of this oven at The Wall, we found exactly what oladulce was talking about to be true.



Arrowhead points and scraps were littered on the oven rocks, obviously collected by someone with the ability to stare at the ground for hours...



P<*)))>{

Great report and photos, especially the crow on the fork.

Ken

Hola PyD Great trip photos! I recognise the ravens head on a fork! Nice to know it found a new home. Maybe you should name your digs " Racho de la Cabeza Raven"Looks like the place is really begining to shape up.Saw the guy in the doorway of the old "casa con llantes" Quen es. Also really liked the new "floaty toy" youv'e aquired! Oysters, muy delicioso! Call you soon... still have your Mexican Bird Of Paradice I need to drop by. Hasta out.........

LOVED the report.....i am sure our 10-2 week trip will sail by. You in SLO county CA??? that's where i'm from spending the nite manana Thurs in Pizmo Beach. Plan to head south of ze border Friday am to make it deep into Baja hopefully San Qunitin or El Rosario and then Mulege by Sat. or we may stroll a leetle slower. Thanx for sharing! fabulous-o!!!!!!!!!

Quote:

Originally posted by Paulina I never, ever, ever will get tired of this view:

Quote:

Originally posted by Paulina

Didn't realize that Fitzcarraldo had made his way to baja:

Great photography! I loved this trip report!

Here is a picture;
You fill a cooler with ice and it has a fan that blows the air through.
$40 if you think it will do any good.
.