MitchMan - 6-3-2010 at 09:23 AM
I left the San Ysidro/San Diego border at 1pm on June 1, 2010 and made it to La Paz by 1pm Thu, June 3rd. Virtually no pot holes on Highway 1, except
for a handful of small ones south of Loreto and a mere single hand full of small ones near Catavina. Unbeleivable! Ran into about 2 miles of dirt
road because of a complete section of new road being laid down somewhere south of Loreto and 10 to 30 miles of not-so-smooth paved road, but that was
it.
Never before drove this trip before mid August, was very delighted to see so much greenery in the first 250 miles of the trip, some of it nicer than
northern Californias wine country in August. Actually, past a couple of impressive looking vineyards on the trip.
bajabass - 6-3-2010 at 12:11 PM
My wife did the same drive in early April. The greenery, desert flowers, and flowering cacti were amazing.
BAJA.DESERT.RAT - 6-3-2010 at 01:27 PM
Hola, it is wonderous what a little rain can do. i drove south mid-march after the big rains in southern calif. and northern baja wiped out a few
bridges between tijuana and el rosario and was very surprised with the different green landscaping i encountered on my long drive to the east cape.
baja is so different at times and so wonderful.
BIEN SALUD, DA RAT
bajabass - 6-3-2010 at 02:02 PM
Makes it hard to keep your eyes on the road it is so pretty.
Alan - 6-3-2010 at 03:17 PM
BCS is still waiting for their summer rains but those flame trees? or whatever they are, are in full bloom is La Paz.
MitchMan - 6-8-2010 at 10:21 AM
Oh yeah, foregot to mention my experience driving thru CD Constitucion. I reached the town in the afternoon. I was paranoid about being stopped for
mordida based on all the posts recently in this forum about the big problem there. I even took copies of code section 106 with me, and the phone
number of someone local to report a bogus stop.
Remembering advice to "drive in the middle lanes", I started driving in the middle lane. But, to my surprise, there was no one else driving the
middle lanes. It was like a ghost town on the middle lanes. Eerie and wierd to see. Everyone was driving in the side lanes, so after passing the
first signal light, I got into the side lanes with everyone else. I drove the legal limit of 15KMH (very slow crawl) while everyone else was going
about 20 KMH. Remember, that I was driving a red Tacoma pulling a 15ft fiber glass boat with Calif plates. I fealt sure that I was going to get
stopped.
I came to a full stop at every flashing signal light like Nomads had recommended while everyone else only slowed to about 5 KMH. I vigilantly waited
for every and any pedestrian to exit any and all crosswalks at a corner fully before I proceeded to drive past the crosswalk. Didn't see any cops at
all until immediately past the last signal light. He was just finishing up with a stopped car and was looking at me as I was going by. He didn't
stop me. I was sweating it, but I got thru.
It was a very wierd experience to see even locals driving really slowly. It must be really bad there. I have been thru there before and it is
usually full of traffic at that time of day with all lanes full of vehicles. Not this time. this can't be good for local businesses along the
street. Mexicans do stuff against their own best interest it seems, alot.
[Edited on 6-8-2010 by MitchMan]
Bajahowodd - 6-8-2010 at 02:05 PM
I'm pretty sure that the main reason you saw little, if no traffic in the center lanes is because you cannot make turns from the center lanes. And
since the vast majority of traffic in town is locals, they are likely going to be making turns. I do understand your trepidation, inasmuch as we faced
the same lonely feeling last time we drove through.