La-Roca and surrounding area

Heading south from San Felipe at K32ish......the town of La-Roca (I believe). Having pass this place many times...stopping in only once. It's roughly the mid point here to Puertecitos. Good place for a break down!

Nearby beaches.....are Tahitian sand beach heads with turquoise blue waters. Many many campsites at k21ish to K50's. This area is really something for the beach front fun. You'll see a vast array of offered campsites. We just keep pulling into these places till we see a "wow" factor...and then stay. Oh...did I say surf fishing anywhere in here is great. Best is sunrise/sundown.

DavidK's shell beach is nearby...he will allow you to enter :-)

Sulfur mine area is really great....6 miles or so off the highway. Go there...find a yellow rock...add a match to it...and the rock catches fire! No kidding. K28 ish...there is a sign off the highway marking the turn off.

Valley of the Giants....right outside of South Felipe pass the last new developments. $5 gets you in. See the big boys of Baja. Cactus I am talkin' about.

Now...La-Roca.

You have a tire repair shop off the highway. You can get help 24/7 there

Police Department behind left of the hardware store.
New joint they got. I did notice police presence has increased big time from here to Puertecitos....beware!


Two restaurants. Limited open sign (week ends). Never ate at either. Perhaps our BN's here can add to this.

Market. Ice. Drink. Propane. Limited food. You can't die in this town from starvation.

Doctor ...at night. Dr. Abasolo has been a fixture in San Felipe for 20 years. He was formally the Chief of Staff at the St. James Infirmary. He comes here at night. So I was told. Will confirm this in March since I helped buy Dr. Abasolo's front door to his clinic. He is a nice guy. Rotary Club loves him.



Ammiel Market is what I want to really say a word about.
If you LOVE chile rellenos....what a secret this place is...was! For $3.50 one gets a chile relleno, rice , beans. They rock! I order three sets just for me. Oink I say. Oink!
Restroom...ask for it..it's in their living quarters and is perfectly okay to use. Eat outside...lots of incoming folks lost on the highway...you can be Mr and Mrs MapQuest for a while. I have included their menu on the link below. Oh...she will make you coffee too...it aint bad if I say so.
I got pictures of the owner bring in ice from San Felipe. Flops the chunks into non working freezers...wraps with blankets...and stays good for days. Only in Baja.....


http://picturehosting.com/gallery.php?u=McFez&g=La-Roca



[Edited on 10-30-2010 by mcfez]

LA ROCA and Eduardo... and Colonia Delicias eats!

La Roca was a tourist camp with lots leased for vacation homes/ trailers started by a man named 'Eduardo' in the early 1970's...

Eduardo would walk the mile or so north to Nuevo Mazatlan and join 'Luis' (owner of Nuevo Mazatlan) for some tequila drinking... which caused Luis' wife 'Felicitas' to leave him! This is the story told to me about 1974.

Here is Luis, me (14) and Felicitas in July, 1972:



Here's my map of the area in 1972:



Then in 1973:



As you can see, I drew the beach between Laguna Percebu and Bahia Santa Maria as an island, because there was no access road I could find driving around in our dune buggy or my Honda trail bike (how I mapped all the roads, as it had an odometer). This was why I always called it Shell Island... It was in 1978 when I finally was shown the way to get onto the island by some guys camping out there... I walked across the lagoon to meet.

================================================

The new town today that is at Km. 35 is Colonia (or Ejido) Delicias, and is a bit south of the La Roca road, next to the El Vergel road... It has good food at 3 restaurants that are either open certain days or certain hours... and never all at once it would seem!

Here are some photos from June, 2006...

CHELO'S:









MARINA'S:





Breakfast of Chorizo and eggs.

The newer place is ANICETO'S which is named after the founder of Bahia Santa Maria, Aniceto Madueña.

Oh, and 'SHELL ISLAND' is accessed at Km. 26... if the tide isn't too high. Nomads, everyone is welcome... 4WD and low air pressure needed!

Bahia Santa Maria/ Playa Hermosa area

Here is a Nuevo Mazatlan bird's eye view map I drew when I was 14...

The trees at Nuevo Mazatlan were planted by Luis Castellanos Moreno beginning about 1970... they grew like weeds and offer amazing shade and repell insects.








In 2006:








In 2004:



Beach in front:




In 1977:




In 1973:




In 1967 (before trees), Luis built tall cabanas on the beach:



The fishing was outstanding... every cast was a double hook up of CORBINA... this is at the bay that would be called Bahia Santa Maria some years later (nobody there in '67).



After the big chubasco of '67, this shrimp boat was washed way in the back bay/ salt flats just north of Bahia Santa Maria. It never got out... and slowly vanished over the next 20 years.

This highway plan has been modified. It will pass Elk Grove

David,

I'm curious as to what made you want to map everything at that age? Did it start as a school project or were you just obsessed to knowing where everything was?

Quote:

Originally posted by Jaybo David, I'm curious as to what made you want to map everything at that age? Did it start as a school project or were you just obsessed to knowing where everything was?

That is a great question!

I fell in love with Baja right away... it lead to a love of other related activities: rock collecting, hiking, four wheeling, desert exploring, history, photography, travel writing... and yes, CARTOGRAPHY (map making)...

Drawing a map of a place kept it alive for me... I could look upon a map and be back there, if only in my mind... I have always had maps of Baja on my walls... Mike McMahan's and others.

I was and still am totally impressed with the work done by Howard Gulick for the Lower California Guidebook... since I was 7 or 8, I would read from it as my dad drove our Jeep down Baja. That was a unusual thing for a little kid to enjoy doing, I guess?

Anyway, I kept perfecting my mapping skills... and almost each trip south would take notes and mileages and compass directions... The area south of San Felipe was my primary project, as it was (and is) our favorite area.

The construction of Hwy. 1 in 1973 was very interesting to me and I took tons of notes that summer when we drove to Loreto... I was 15, and I self-published those notes into my first Baja guidebook 'Baja and the Transpeninsular Highway'.

IT WAS FUN FOR ME! The book was on a TV show in San Diego and I was written about in the local paper... I sold every one I made... and finally stopped making them well into 1974, long after the highway was finished (I added update notes to it)... Sold at two bookstores in Escondido.

The oldest map I can find that I drew is from 1967, when I was 9 or 10... the area around Nuevo Mazatlan, naturally!