GUERRERO NEGRO - 'BLACK WARRIOR'

Guerrero Negro ...named after a ship, the Black Warrior, that ran aground here years ago.

They were going to name the place..Blind-Drunk Captain, but that seemed rude.

Whales at Scammons Lagoon, Malarimmo's, abalone dinners, conch chowder, sea salt, blowing plastic bags, may I see your passport and visa?, do you have any fruits or vegetables?, pesos to spray insecticide under the car, army barracks, long straight stretches of highway, radar cops, nails strewn on the highway, wind, and flat desert...all these come to mind.

What do YOU think of when GN comes in view?

Here's a quick run through the area we made around November 2nd or 3rd, 2009.


Me...I always enjoy the FOG around GN (pardon all my abbreviations from now on). Go figure, I also like the winter weather along the Oregon Coast and Christmas at Goose Bay, Labrador.




Have you ever wondered why you see so MANY BIKERS along this stretch? You no sooner swerve to avoid the ones on the right..when..

Look out, there's another on the left!



And then there was the time Co-pilot was prankish.

I got out to stretch....and got left behind. HEY! COME BACK!!



Coming from the north, you will see this restaurant, store, and RV park. La Espinita...The Thorn...hmm, nice name for this area, eh?


It has, as the sign says...Hazzah!..an Internet cafe... with WIFI.



Co-pilot gets caught up on lutefisk recipes and how to convert lefse to tortillas.



After being followed for about 400 miles, this Green Angel reluctantly gives up on us and passes. You all DO know about the Green Angels, I assume? Okay then, I thought so.



Here's the monument dividing Baja Norte California from Baja Sur California. Hmm...maybe I'll get one for the North Dakota and South Dakota border? With an explanation on the south side of course....





Not a plug, but just what road-weary travelers can expect...a typical room at the Caracol Motel in GN. Malarrimo's is my favorite of a few decades.

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Now you are headed east towards Vizcaino, San Ignacio, Mulege, Loreto, La Paz, and Cabo. IT'S A LONG STRAIGHTAWAY...GO AHEAD!..PUNCH IT!!..and get a ticket up ahead.



See ya at the police station.

"Tha-tha-tha ..THAT'S ALL FOLKS!"






We're burning daylight, Pilgrim!...er, Co-pilot.

More great stuff Roger... Thanks!

The history of the place name 'La Espinita' is a tad colorful...

Originally located a few miles north of Guerrero Negro...

(from 1962 Lower California Guidebook):

"La Espina (La Espinita), a solitary group of shacks serving as a saloon for salt works employees."

Mike Humfreville had a good story about another brothel that served Guerrero Negro, a few miles east of town!

FROM FRED METCALF's site where all of Mike Humfreville's stories can be found:

http://math.ucr.edu/ftm/bajaPages/Correspondents/BajaWithMik...

hoar Town ( Posted February 12, 2003 )






Nothing very extraordinary happened during our week-long and accidental stay at Black Warrior in 1974. Our Land Cruiser, La Tortuga, was busted and in repair. Without a vehicle we had lots of time to kill, walking around town and sitting in small restaurants talking or reading over coffee. I had always kept a log and that filled my time. Mary Ann read romance novels. I was jealous.

One day, out of boredom, I decided it would be nice to have a bottle of red wine. I had no idea where to find one or even if there was a liquor store in the town. I left Mary Ann in our room, reading her book, and walked down the side streets to the main thoroughfare into and out of the town, a wide dirt road. In the center of town was a single, dust covered taxi. I asked the driver if he knew of a store that sold wine and liquor. He certainly did and immediately gestured for me to get into the cab. I told him I was fine to walk. He said it was too far to walk. He was animated and quick and insistent that I sit in his cab and be escorted to this store. Seeing no simple alternative, I climbed into the front passenger seat and we took off, east.

We passed through the salt company part of town and continued through the eastern part and we drove through the dump and straight out of town, under my constant questioning and his strong assurances that he knew exactly what I needed. We drove to the junction of the transpeninsular highway and, where the road forked for the northern and southern routes, we went straight, right up the middle.

We intersected the transpeninsular highway at 90 degrees and still we continued east into the desert. We drove several kilometers into an apparent nothingness. I would have been concerned, but my host was so carefree and casual. After a number of kilometers from the highway I could see a cluster of buildings in the distance. We entered the odd assemblage of fifteen or twenty one- and two-story structures spread across both sides of the road. There were men and women crossing the dusty street and coming from and going into the buildings. Many of the buildings had large signs advertising the availability of beer, music and dancing.

The driver stopped in front of one of these and jumped out and opened my door and with a bow and outstretched arm ushered me inside a dingy cantina. I'm thinking maybe they sell wines and liquors to go also. No such luck.

We entered a dark, large and windowless room with a bar and number of tables, a scattering of chairs. A number of men and two women stood at the bar, drinks scattered around. More men and women were sitting around the tables, some playing cards and dice. Rowdy recorded Mexican Mariachi music radiated from a dusty, battered record player in a corner of the room. Several couples were dancing. Many of the men were drunk. A sign on the wall told me that I could buy a dance for a peso, about a dime. I could judge from the scene that I could buy more than a dance for more than a peso. A scene out of the early American west, dark and dank, smoky, smelly, sleazy. I realized then that this actually was the early American west. It was just on another side of a border.

The place was a grimy dive and I was stuck with my friendly driver whose feelings I didn't want to hurt. But I had mixed emotions with the sorry sight of this roomful of dusty cowboys and oily overweight prostitutes. We went to the bar and I ordered two beers, one for my driver and one for me. I told him that my mediocre Spanish had perhaps conveyed the wrong message and that I really did just want a bottle of wine. I said that we should enjoy our beer and get back to town because people would be worried about me.

We watched the women, loudly mouthed and dressed, sidling with their men around the dance floor, their bodies close and suggestive and rocking with the music. I assumed that the second floors of the buildings were bedrooms. I was happy that this town existed for these people. But I had been ready to leave before we entered.

We finished our beers and I convinced a red-eyed semi-conscious fellow beside us that I really couldn't, at the moment, enjoy the services they had to offer, whatever they were and that I didn't know how to dance, thank you. We left, got back into the car and returned to Black Warrior, with my apologies to the driver.

I looked at our various maps of Baja occasionally over the many years since my experience with the friendly drunks and hoars and have not found this town identified. Until today. As I finished reviewing this before posting I opened my Baja Almanac and turned to N-29. There I spot it. It's just the right distance from Guerrero Negro, out in the forlorn desert. And it does have a name, after all. It's Las Bombas. The Pumps. How appropriate.



[Edited on 12-12-2009 by David K]

Almost the same for me, Jim. It's 3-4 days from Up North to San Diego. Then, after a long day driving from southern Cal to get as far as GN, it's nice to find Malarrimo's table, bar, and bed. I still think it's the best place and value in the area, not to mention the sheer nostalgic fun of 'remembering back in the day'.'

Can't put a number on the old friends I've run into there..and the new ones well met. It's all good.

Mike...you may have been stalked by none other than.....



...... the White Warrior.

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Guerrero Negro is not for everybody.

"Here's the monument dividing Baja Norte California from Baja Sur California. Hmm...maybe I'll get one for the North Dakota and South Dakota border? With an explanation on the south side of course.... "


If you are coming from Las Bombas..Here is the view

nevermind

Malarrimo

Cool Larry... good find!

I recognize 'La Espinita' as the resaurant we stopped at after coming down from San Francisco De La Sierra and three days on a mule in San Pablo Canyon. (CAVE PAINTINGS!)There was about ten of us and the restaurant was deserted. A small boom box was playing Mexican music, but as soon as we sat down the Mexican tape was yanked out and they replaced it with American music and we were blasted with........

We had JOY... We had FUN, We had SEASONS IN THE SUN

This was Nov. 2000 and I may have left behind a VIVA BAJA bumper sticker for that front window

UP DATE ....TODAY IN GUERRERO NEGRO

I am posted this from La Espinita internet cafe just north of the Eagle monument at GN.

Note: MUCHO FLIES HERE! I can't be sure that the toppings on my huevos rancheros did not have wings!

Anyhoo...the trip here from San Ysidro went like this:

Entered TJ with another motorhome/trailer companion behind me. We pulled into the far right lane and waited there for 10 minutes while my companions got thier fmts stamped. No problems there, other than an irate bus driver tooting his horn behind us. Tough luck, buddy...this is Mexico, learn to wait in lines.

The toll road was great running...charging only 55 pesos 3 times to Ensenada.

South of Ensenada in some pretty bad stretches..detours around the new pavement construction zones. But not too bad as the water trucks were out in force. Just a mild inconvenience at worst.

Leaving that behind us, We rocketed down the Baja Road at 55mph.

Overnighted at Rcho Sta. Inez near Catavina. Very peaceful again..with only one other camper. Cost was 80 pesos. I brought some firelogs and also collected ample firewood nearby for a nice evening campfire and c-cktails. (Odd thing..My fish always get BIGGER around campfires.)

Coyotes yodeled in the night...very Baja atmosphere.

Woke up early and tuned in FOX NEWS on my DirectTV satellite. I was rather proud of my tuning this in..from dead reckoning. Just cranked up the sat dish and fiddled a bit..and bingo! Fair and balanced news...plus CNN.

We had coffee at false dawn...and hit the road by real dawn.

Made it here by noon. Good breakfast...Bad flies.

Next stop is Marios at San Lucas Cove..then home for a toddy. Hasta pronto!

Mario was gone to Asuncion, so left a note for him to come to mi casa ASAP.

Now it was getting towards dusk, so decided to stay in town at Cuesta Real RV overnight and tackle opening the house tomorrow at first light. Cuesta Real has all hookups, nice cafe, near river, Internet, about 200 pesos or so... and is now managed by Pepe, an old friend whom I had not seen back in Mulege since 1987. WELCOME BACK, PEPE!

[Edited on 10-30-2010 by Pompano]

Traveling logs of a Rock n Roller

This Lady Gaga your watching?


Excellent logs of your road trip. I wish there was a lot more of this sort of thing here at BN"s Thanks for taking the time...

Just found some cool history photos of when the salt company started construction for the works... 'Salina Vizcaino' originally... 1955... and the town of 'Guerrero Negro' stated as a tent city... Translated pages...

Guerrero Negro History (Part 1 of 3)

Guerrero Negro History Part 2

Guerrero Negro History Part 3

The 'town' in 1956:





May of 1957 was the first shipment of salt... here from the old port:

shari...a wee bit like certain places in Canada back in the day, eh?

No women in the bars, I mean. I have NO IDEA about anything else...

[Edited on 11-1-2010 by Pompano]

i suppose that armpit is actually the PC term

here's how the keep the landscaping around it looking good:

Quote:

Originally posted by durrelllrobert Quote: Originally posted by DENNIS I always thought that thing looked like a raised drawbridge to nowhere. here's how the keep the landscaping around it looking good:

Hey, what a nice thread...glad I found it.


The Black Warrior

A great place to pull off for a night and a dinner...or simply to look at a whale or two...tour a sea-salt plant....

....or scrape/level-off a damn tope with your boat trailer!!.


DINNER?




The dining at Malarimmo's has always been comfortable & satisfactory to extrodinarily great for our party.

Point of fact being....., this dining room has been the scene of many a reunion with old-time Baja veterans. We have met SO many old friends over the last 40 years sitting at these tables...what a treat! And make new ones each time we stop.


Visiting GN/Mallarimo's is a tradition I hope to continue for a long time to come.

Times do change for some, however...and the mouth-watering abalone dinners are not so available anymore..(not to mention the ..shhh....turtle soup....and we will NOT mention that old treat, right?)...nor some of the other old treats.....

as in....those long-ago fallen doves are no longer falling.


Have you noticed that most of these 'easy-to-reach Baja' stops are kinda milk-toasty these days...or is it just my nostalgic mania showing?


Oh well, the place has history & ambiance. The motel rooms are neat, clean, cheap, and accept Visa, Norsk & Italians.















The latest news I got is that the management is looking to improve the landscaping...to something like this below:

Maybe....possibly...manana....






[Edited on 10-9-2011 by Pompano]

Guerrero isn't that big of a town. Not too many options. Two or three? Use your own judgment. Which one is best? Depends upon how tired and hungry you are.

We've been going to restaurant Las Cazuelas recently and really enjoying their food. They're on your right on the main drag as you drive into town.