In January of this year (2011), my husband and I made our first ever RV trip down the Baja to La Paz. We just returned - leaving on May 24th and
crossing the border on May 30th. A road report follows. Pictures later:
Generally, the road surfaces were good all the way up. Near Guerrero Negro and Catavina the roads are still quite narrow, but work is progressing on
expanding them and building bridges over the vados. Road is still narrow at Cuesta del Infierno (Devil's Grade) south of Santa Rosalia. When driving
an RV, this is a little scary since there is not much clearance between us and the oncoming big-rig (our truck is a dually also).
Some construction continues in various spots but the detours are all well marked and surfaces good if taken slowly (about 25 mph) including south of
Ensenada and the places just mentioned above. Oh yeah - if you can, keep some bottle water on hand for the workers on the road side. They really
appreciate it.
In all honesty, the drivers, the roads, and the construction detours were as good as I would expect in the US.
As far as places to stay in an RV (ours is a 31 foot fifth wheel) - they are in abundance. Stayed at Playa Santispac (Bahia Concepcion) for $80 pesos
a night, Los Olivos (San Quintin) for $300 pesos a night, and Rancho Sordo Mudo (Guadalupe Valley) for donations (although there was no one there to
take our donation). The water from the well at Los Olivos has turned to salt - so be aware if you go there expecting to fill up your water tank and
then treat it. Our water treatment system doesn't deal with salt in the water so we bought bottled. Fidel's El Pabellon trucks in his water and it is
supposed to be salt-free.
Playa Santispac has someone manning the entrance and an open restaurant (Anna's which is very good with reasonable prices) which provides some
security. No electricity, water, sewer there, so we always dry camp. Los Olivos has a gate that is closed and locked at night and also people there
providing security. Down the road is Jardines which has good food at reasonable prices.
The RV park at Rancho Sordo Mudo was empty and even though there are pedestals for water and electricity, the services were turned off.
No problems with police and we stick out like a sore thumb traveling so are particularly careful of speed limits, lights, stop signs, etc. especially
in the towns. Even as careful as we are, my husband messed up a few times running a stop sign and a red light but no one pulled us over.
Crossed the border the morning of May 30th (Tecate) - a holiday - and it took about 2 1/2 hours. We were pulled into secondary and waited quite a long
time until someone finally "inspected" us. All he did was ask what we were bringing, checked the refer, and dumped the remaining dog food we had. He
missed, and I forgot we had, some produce still in the refer which came right on across with us.
In summary, the trip was as beautiful coming up as it was going down. We didn't have as much time to spend exploring places along the way as we would
have liked, but it gives us something to look forward to in November when we return.
CharleneDENNIS - 5-31-2011 at 02:24 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by Angelos
He missed, and I forgot we had, some produce still in the refer which came right on across with us.
