Surfing at Sunset

Well just got back this week from two weeks in La Mision after a 40 years hiatus

We both thought the Pacific Ocean looked the same, traffic on the beach was nil as one would most likely expect for the first two weeks in October.

The biggest change I saw was the number of Mexican cars on the road and that just about all the cars were "clean". As I remember way back when, a dirty car meant you had been to the Baja.

The first time we went though the check points with the Military they gave us a bit of a hard look. After a week and a few days, the car was starting to look like it was from Baja, and the soldiers actually started to smile at us when we went through. It might be my imagination, but I know I smiles on the guys coming out of Ensenada and when we went up to Rosarito the second time. And for sure when we left, we got a smile and "adios"

Could be that we are old folks and had a couple of stupid dogs jumping around while I was eating a "breakfast burritos" of, yeah, Chorizo, potatoes and egg's. And I had a cup of Jalapeno's on the dash. As a side note, my wife made up some salsa with some of my Habanera’s and thought I might like it a bit hotter so she put in a whole Habanera .... Now if you like it really hot, give that little pepper a try. I like just a bit in for a different flavor... but one whole pepper is too much for me, had to pick it out of the salsa.

But, overall we found Baja much as we remember it, beautiful with more people than one would like to have around, but compared to Venice Beach, Huntington and many, many other beaches in the U.S. there was no one there.

My wife was taking walks all day with the dogs, and the few other folks that were down that had dogs were all great folks as were their dogs... everyone just seem to be enjoying themselves, it was just WONDERFUL to us.

We are coming back down next week, we are retired and this is the best-kept secret in the Western hemisphere to my way of thinking.

I still saw Mexican men fishing for the dinner, and now rather than walking all the way back to the small village of La Mision, they drive cars, trucks or vans (that were again clean).

The amount of farming in the bottomland of the Guadalupe River would appear to have decreased. I could still see some farming, but not on the same scale as before. They may have had to move further back up the riverbed due to increased demands for water. Also found out that the CNA (Comisión Nacional del Agua) does not even give permits out to anyone to put in a well. That is a significant statement regarding the precious resource.

I remember reading about the movements of Mission, due to the change of living style the Spanish implemented which resulted in the overdraft of water supplies, in a post by DennisK. Would appear it's gone a step further with the increased population demands on such a scare resource in this land.

Another big surprise was Ensenada, what a change they have made with the town.

Kind of miss the old town, but the new one was to us both fresh, and alive. We saw a lot of tourists where they should be, and a lot of nice homes in and around Ensenada.

We both thought the town was really quite clean, as was the Toll Road. I don’t think we saw trash on the toll road the whole time we were there… nothing against Pacomina, Sun Valley, and a few others in Los Angeles County, but Ensenada looks better than those cities, for what it's worth and those cities have Los Angles County, State of California and Federal Government funds available.

As for the folks, we helped a Mexican family out with car trouble on the toll road north bound from Ensenada. The man’s car had given up on him. His phone did not work and he was trying to get up to Rosita. He had a wife and three kids. My wife just asked if they did not mind all trying to fit into the car, which they did not, and off we went with 4 adults and 3 children and two dogs. We took them up to Rosarito and his family and friends. They then helped him get back down and get his car. All was well, and they were very thankful for the help. They wanted to give use something for the ride, but we were just glad to help out and make a new friend in Mexico. We left we an invite to come back for a real Mexican dinner.

About the only other thing that I was just knocked out by was the Ocean. There were always animals around, seals, porpoise, sharks, all kinds of birds, (not sure how you get those Osprey pictures) suckers always see me coming. Well I’m old and use a cane so I’m probably someone you would not want to take on a night mission. But, the ocean, it was in use all the time by many…
The guys and gals out surfing were out early in the morning and would not come back in till the sun was down!!

It was just great watching the all the people out catching rides all day long. Their friends would come down and bring food and water, the surfers would take a break and then back out they would go until dark.

We were down for two weeks and never turned on the TV, radio, DVD, or any of the other stuff we use daily in the states. The computer was an exception; it’s kind of really necessary for certain things, at least for me.

Other than that, we found the Baja a great place; T.J. was painless to go through, as was any other place we went.

Must say overall I was impressed with the Baja changes, with a few exceptions. I really don’t care for “high rises structures” but some folks like to live that way, so God bless and have a good time if that is what you want.

As for us, it’s a keeper and we are coming back.

Let’s seen what didn’t happen:

We were not robbed, not even close
We were not cheated, not even close
The closest we got to drug smuggling was watching “cigarette boats” making runs from La Salina to what appeared to be Rosarito and they appear running around 90 knots.
The next day the Mexican Navy was anchored about 1 mile off shore for the next two or three days, and then got underway and headed South.
Our car was not broken into any place we went.
We did not get any strange diseases
We were not hassled by the Military
We did not see any dead bodies.
We did not get to eat a lobster dinner (a whole story) and why we are coming back next week.
Any bad weather from the Storms to the South did not hit us.
They did take my Cuban Cigars from me when I crossed and they were in my shirt pocket.

We are both looking foreword to getting back down, it was just really great!!

I even brought back four Tecate XX amber.. liked that one, and the Pacifico.. not suposed to drink due to med's but not having one in Mexico with Taco's .... I was a feard something awful would happen to me, so I drank one, or two.

See the doctor tomorrow for a check up, the wife was yesterday.. so we are almost ready again, and so are the dogs... it was the first time for them to be FREE

To close, we want to both thank all the folks here at Baja Nomads for all the help provided over the past few weeks and months which made our trip down after all these years so pleasent

Wiley & Marylouise

Please don't hold me to any writing standard, I'm not a word smith, and it took me 4 times to pass English 50.

[Edited on 10-22-2009 by wessongroup]

[Edited on 10-22-2009 by wessongroup]

[Edited on 10-22-2009 by wessongroup]

[Edited on 10-24-2009 by wessongroup]

You might check the date settings on your camera- but the lens settings are perfect. Nice pic. Nice trip report too. The only thing you missed was how all the roads are paved and homes have electricity since your last visit I think the "clean car" syndrome is because so many men out of work are running around with red oil rags in their hands.

post away

If you use it, please check the gramer (sp)... I'm just awful as this board is showing... I know I told someone not to sweat the small stuff, now it's my turn..

Funny thing

Bring back a Cuban cigar (I know, I know. there not good for your, second hand smoke and many other issues are confirmed to be terrible health problems for individuals who smoke) but these things bring people out of the wood work like having a beer taper at your house.

Which brings to mind another story: I remember conversation with my father in law one day, as we sat drinking a cold one in the back yard. He had a really nice beer taper. It held a pony keg, and had room for those really nice big mugs, you know the ones that get all frosted up.

Well, I said to him, "Man, would I like to have one of these" and he said, you want this one? I said of course. He helped me load it into my VW bus. Yeah old hippy.

Well, it did not take long, I had more new found friends showing up to "try out" some ice cold Bud on tap.. And that keg would just keep being empty all the time. And the bucket I had placed on top of it for donations, just really never got filled up. I gave it to my brother in-law who came by a few months later and said.. "Man, would I like to have one of these" it goes on Judea, it goes on

Now back to those evil cigars, I don't have any left... I had one to just play with when down in La Mision, I don't inhale and I go far away from all mammals as possible when and if I just light it up for the smell of good tobacco burning.

The native people of this hemisphere had it going along pretty good: Potatoes, Corn, Chilies, Cilantro, Agave plant, shrimp, lobster, and many other great things including tobacco. They just used things in the correct amounts.

Well that's about as good as I can do with the exception of saying come on in


and see the photos of our trip down to La Mision

http://gallery.me.com/wswesson#gallery

Please don’t make to much fun of an old guy, getting his finger in the lens too much, and some pictures that don’t seem to make any sense..my setting of the date and time on this camera became a crusade that I lost, it was changing the date at 12 am. Going back though the photo's was really insightful about my abilities as a camera man.. Plus the stairs were killers for this old guy, was taking a long time to get somewhere.

I offer them for your enjoyment..

We were just down to relax, no fixing up, no makeup ….. and mission accoplished

I’m too old to care what people think about me any longer, plus there is nothing I can do about it anyway. Don’t think a bra would do much, and me putting makeup on.. well, I have a hard time shaving.

But for the women folk, they have certain rights in this area I'm told



[Edited on 10-23-2009 by wessongroup]

Got me thinking

Quote:

Originally posted by Woooosh You might check the date settings on your camera- but the lens settings are perfect. Nice pic. Nice trip report too. The only thing you missed was how all the roads are paved and homes have electricity since your last visit I think the "clean car" syndrome is because so many men out of work are running around with red oil rags in their hands.

You got me thinking.. When we were in La Mision, it was only paved where it had always been.. By the homes on the beach. If you go under the toll road, it's like it was 40 years ago. It's dirt and one drives very, very slow so as not to make a mess of other folks that live there. When we were down in Ensenada, got of the main road maybe two miles from down town, and soon as me made a right off the Transpenninsular Highway, we were driving on dirt roads with Mexican people's homes fronting each side of the streets we drove around. We were just looking at the neighbor hoods in Ensenada. Also when up in Rosarito, we got off the "main" streets and drove around on many dirt roads again.

I will not disagree that Baja has a lot more paved roads, but we still saw a lot of dirt roads where the folks lived. Which is no big deal to me. My wife's great grandmother "Momma Goya" lived in T.J. back in 1963. Her house had dirt floors, but they were not dirty, nor was her home. She was poor but her place was clean... with good food and happy folks around..

The only bad side I saw which really was sad, when we were down this last time was when my wife was buying cell phone in the Walmart in Rosarito. A couple, a young man and young women were caught trying to get out without paying.

The sad part was that they were stealing FOOD, not CD's, DVD's, Nike's, clothes and other such things that folks steal in the States.

Now that shows how bad it is really. I know that poverty exists in Mexico. I always have. My wife came from one of those families in Mexico who got by though living off the land and my parents were Okies who lost everything in the Great Depression. My Dad lived in a shack outside Phoenix AZ with a dirt floor in 1933 and was trying to take care of three sisters and his mother at 17. This after his Dad died on the way out of OK.

Life and hardship are not isolated to Mexico, Mexico has hardships, but to become overly guarded about the hardships faced in life may not be a balanced perception of real life anywhere.

It can be bad, but that is only half the story

And just one last thing, as for clean cars, when I saw for the first time the car wash in Rosarito on a Wednesday at 9:45 Oct 7, 2009, it was full up with cars that did not have USA plates, they were Mexican plates. The price for the basic wash was 60 pesos, deluxe was 80. And the cars were backed up into the side street waiting to get washed.





[Edited on 10-25-2009 by wessongroup]