Baja Adventure Trip, July 2011 (Part 2 - Gonzaga Bay to Norte-Sur border)

Part 1. Shell Island Freak Weather (July 2-3)
Part 2. Gonzaga Bay to Norte-Sur border (July 4-5)
Part 3. Guerrero Negro to Asuncion (July 6-8)
Part 4. Southbound to La Paz (July 9-11)
Part 5a. La Paz, Los Cabos and Vicinity (July 12-19)
Part 5b. La Paz, Los Cabos and Vicinity (July 12-19) . . . continued
Part 6. Homeward Bound (July 20-22)


Part 2. Gonzaga Bay to Norte-Sur border (July 4-5)

• Seemingly endless pavement
• May we spend the night in your parking lot?
• Rock lodged between dually tires, Breakfast at Alfonsina’s
• Motorhome maintenance at the minimart lot
• Sattellite phone for rent, $1.80 per minute
• Dinner with the Militar
• Coco’s corner, middle of nowhere
• Lost – which trail to Morro Sto Domingo?

Seemingly endless pavement

It’s been 4 years since I drove the road from San Felipe to Gonzaga Bay, at which time, after Puertecitos, it was an “endless” dirt, washboard, neglected, 4x4 road. Today is quite different, at least at first thought and with my slow driving - it’s “endless” pavement. Until . . . it’s washboard once again after Huerfanito. Like before, the ocean view is refreshing on tired eyes, and for those who are on a real vacation like us, why not savor the scenes? So we drive real slow and let others pass. Besides, who would want loose screws and motorhome cabinetry and blinds falling on the floor? On a seemingly endless rough ride, Penny, our dog, has taken the liberty to jump up the sofabed, smart dog.

Photo: Penny on the couch



Anyway, “Las Encantadas“ (no pic) is still my favorite scene; it still looks the same as in the pictures I took years ago.

Photos:




May we spend the night in your parking lot?

“I don’t know where to stay tonight” I tell the wife as we drive up to the Gonzaga Bay Pemex. “It’s late and I don’t think we’ll have time to survey the camps around here so we could choose where to stay. ”Let’s just park here; I’ll cook dinner” she says. “Well, let’s go across the street and get some ice and water” and we drive across to the Rancho Grande MiniMart.

“Steak and potato salad sounds good for dinner” I tell the wife, considering we had sea shells and re-fried eggrolls for lunch, a slow process when you have to use toothpick to pry out the tiny shell fish out its shell.

While she prepares dinner, I take my empty 5-gallon can and walk back across to the Pemex station for a fill up. It’s gasoline for the generator, but I discover that they don’t have diesel for motorhome fuel. No problem, because my 50-gal tank still shows almost full; it’s the generator that guzzles gas, especially when air conditioning is on.

After dinner I go inside the mini mart and ask the young lad at the counter: “May I park my motorhome in your parking lot and spend the night there?” “Yeah, OK” he replies and I’m glad he understands my English. I thank him and leave to retire for the night, but not before taking our dog out for a brief time. The temps are in the humid 80s so we sleep with the generator and A/C running.

A rock lodged between the dually tires, Breakfast at Alfonsinas

“It’s past 7, let’s go find a camp where we can stay at the beach for a day or two”, I nagged the wife. In a short while we proceed toward the beach, first to Alfonsina’s direction. At the first sight of someone to ask, I immediately ask: “ Donde es Alfonsina” and I’m rewarded with the info - it’s at the very end of the row of houses toward the north.

As we drive very slowly in front of houses, a gringo staring at my motorhome as we approach flags us down pointing at the big rock between our rear tires. “Really, I mutter” as I get out and look. “Thanks for letting us know. ‘Thank God I didn’t lose 2 tires”, I thank him, “this is why I carry two spares” I point to the two spares tires mounted at the rear of the motorhome. “You can park there at the side and take it out” he directs. We introduce each other, my wife and his wife (unfortunately I’m having a senior moment right now and can’t remember their names, but I remember a “.44 Magnum” plaque on the house) .The gringo and his wife are from San Diego and are vacationing/timesharing for 2 weeks. The gringo hands me a hammer and tells me to beat the hell out of the rock. But the rock wouldn’t budge or break, it’s bigger than a baseball. So I reluctantly air down one of the tires (reluctantly, because it takes forever to inflate it with the equipment I have on board). Anyway, I bring out one of my long tire irons and pry the rock out. We thank the couple for their kindness and we drive to Alfonsina’s.

“Do you have a room so we can camp here for a day?” I ask the man in front. “Yes, it’s $70 a day, but we’re closed, we open at 9 but I can show you the room”. “The A/C is off, it won’t be on until 9AM.” So he shows us the room, which is not bad at all. The wife though keeps looking for a palapa, and there is none. Anyway, I tell the man, “OK we’ll take the room” then we take a walk along the beach and into the water. The beach is teeming with crabs (I think bluecrabs) and my the wife perks up. She loves to eat bluecrabs. The sun is starting to burn so we go back to the “lobby” and ask the man “Do you have haivas or langosta to serve for lunch?” “No, no hay”. We’re thinking “why don’t you just catch a few at the beach and cook them?” With this, the wife is disappointed and we decide not to stay for the day, but not tell the man we changed our mind till after we have breakfast at Alfonsina’s restaurant.

Photos:



After breakfast we go back to the Rancho Grande Minimart lot to plan for the next two days. Because of the shortened stay at Shell Island, we are one day ahead of schedule. We have time for Gonzaga. Parking at the minimart lot doesn’t count as camping, and I’ve never camped at Gonzaga Bay before. I look at the GPS and see Rancho Grande, Beluga, Sacrificio and Francisquito.

Motorhome maintenance at the minimart lot

Before we find a camp, now is the time to do motorhome maintenance:

1. The steering linkages (tie rods, pitman and steering arms) have loosened – remove cotter pins and tighten, replace cotterpin – 30 minutes
2. The exhaust pipe/muffler hanger broke – tie with tie wire (15 minutes)
3. We’re out of fresh water – the minimart sells a barrel (200 liters) of purified water for 75 pesos, we refill our 50 gallon tank – 30 minutes
4. Add distilled water to house batteries - 15 minutes
5. Inflate tire (aired-down tire on the way to Alfonsinas) – 1 hour
6. Check U-bolts, shackle bolts, leaf spring bolts – 5 minutes
7. Check fluids (engine oil, trans oil, radiator, power steering) – 10 minutes
8. Fill generator gas tank and spare can (again)
9. Trash run - I ask the lad at the counter where I may dump my big bag of trash and he leads me to a white trailer behind the store

We take a lazy drive along the road and pass Beluga, which looks more like a “busy” camp (which I don’t like). Then we see the trail to El Sacrificio, but not see the camp, and there’s just this mystery behind it that says: what’s at the end of the trail, who would want to go there. Adventurous as I am, I take the trail to Sacrificio, and find it’s rather long and takes time to get there.

Photo: El Sacrificio


Marcos and Eduardo welcome us to one of the sheds of our choice. My wife chooses one and immediately we start enjoying the cool breeze. It’s early afternoon and I surmise it will even be cooler tonight. Yes this is the place to stay, I decided. We rest with ice cold snacks, with occasional run to the water.

We take pictures. At the end of the row of palapas there are two humvees and a bunch of soldiers swimming and some just enjoying the fresh air. They are our only company today.

Photos:



[img]http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l549/asonico/Baja2011Part2/pic12332ElSacrificio eaweed.jpg[/img]




Sattellite phone for rent, $1.80 per minute

Suddenly my wife finds a reason to call the children back in the US. And there is no signal on my AT&T phone. We ask Marcos if they have a telephone onsite; Marcos speaks a little English and says: we have but it was broken last night. He offers to drive us to Rancho Grande minimart to make the telephone call. And at the same time, at the wife's wish, go to the “pescadores” to buy fresh fish to cook.

Marcos drives us back to Rancho Grande Minimart to use their satellite phone. We make three calls, for a total of 10 minutes or $180 - $200 pesos including tip. Afterwards, Marcos drives us to the “fisherman’s wharf” to buy some fresh fish.

Marcos tells us about the Eric capsizing 2 nights before, with 40 sports fishing tourists, 6 dead, and 4 still missing.

On our way back to El Sacrificio, Marcos surprises us and takes a “shortcut” that leads to a sandy trail. His truck gets bogged down . . . then stuck. He airs down his tires, still no go. My wife and I get out and push the truck as Marcos tries to drive out of the deep sand. Whew, that does it, we’re out. That calls for a dip at the beach when we get back. These hardships aside I hand Marcos a $20 dollar bill for driving us in his truck around Gonzaga Bay.

Fun night with the military, well . . . almost

My wife and I decide to host dinner tonight – invite Marcos, Eduardo, and the soldiers. The menu would be:

The fish that we bought from the pescaderos
Spareribs from the freezer
Southern potato salad
Homemade eggrolls
Microwave oven rice
Many bottles of ice cold Pacifico
Cans of Coke
Bottles of water

Photo: Cleaning the fish

Fish barbeque


It takes me an hour to barbecue the fish and spareribs while Nora cooks the rice in the microwave oven and deep-fries the eggrolls. Everyone’s happy to join the fun whe we announce “dinner is ready”. One thing you can’t have: The soldiers won’t drink Pacifico! They drink the Coke or bottled water. So Marcos declares he’s drinking as many Pacificos as he can tonight. Eduardo is nowhere to be found. The soldiers enjoy the dinner, they take many pictures (Nora and I didn’t take any pictures), and most of all enjoy the eggrolls. What’s interesting is that they don not touch the fish, they eat all (almost all, that is) the spareribs!!!

It was a fun night! Well, almost . . .

While it was breezy 3 hours earlier, as the evening set in the breeze turns into absolute stillness. Even with frequent dips in the water, even in absolute nudity, the heat is unbearable. We sleep in the night locked inside the motorhome, including the dog, with the generator and A/C at full blast until we run out of gas at 6AM!


Cocos Corner

Before we drive southward, we go back to the Rancho Grande Pemex for generator fuel and to the minimart for more ice. It’s almost noon as we reach Coco’s corner. Coco is still in Ensenada; Javier is in charge. We don’t stay there long.

Photo: CocosCorner


This is our fourth day on the road and our toilet cassette is getting full, as is our grey water tank. So, we find a reasonably suitable place, in the middle of nowhere after we leave Coco’s corner, to dump. We drive about 10 yards away from the road and stop and position the grey water drain spout over a dip in the ground. Then I let out the “grey” water, which is mainly from washing hands, rinsing after a swim, brushing teeth, and at the worst washing dishes soiled by fish dish. No solids are allowed into the grey tank. Then I take my shovel and dig a small hole deep enough to hold the about 3 gallons content of the toilet cassette. I cover the hole with dirt after all effluent subside.

Lost – which trail to Morro Sto Domingo?

The drive on Mex1 toward Guerrero Negro is boring, if boring could go with the word “stressful”. Stressful because, by now, I’ve concluded that the motorhome’s suspension is not suited for narrow, uneven Baja highways. I swear I tested it on US freeways, where 95% are even, and for the other 5% there is usually a sign “uneven surface”. It's the absolute converse in Baja. Nevertheless, I do the best I can with what I have, safely – and that’s to drive no faster than 40mph, at times lower than that when a big rig is approaching or one is passing us from behind. At this time, in my mind, I’m already contemplating a possible solution to solve the suspension problem before heading back north.

We arrive at the Pemex station at Villa Jesus Maria after 5PM. In the plans is night camping at Morro Sto Domingo. After refueling the motorhome (diesel) and the generator (gas), I ask the attendant what carretera to take to Morro Sto Domingo; he gives me the instructions in Spanish. I think I get it. So on to the carretera. On the GPS the road forks to a few trails. The road is rather long and wide and after a while, even with a GPS, I lose my orientation as I see ocean from the east, then ocean from the west, south and even north. I’m starting to see things!!! Then I get impatient, I’m just gonna follow the trail that seem to lead closest to the water. I find a smaller trail, get into it, unfortunately the sand is deeper than I thought and I get stuck. S**t I mutter, I don’t really want to air down the tires (it’ll take me hours to air up) and it’s getting late. I must reverse. But I’m stuck. Well, let me try 4x4, so I put it in 4LO. It doesn’t work, the rear tires are digging in. Engage the rear locker. Still no good. Engage the front locker. Still no good. I go out and take the shovel, dig ahead of the tires and try again. Still no good. I’m already sweating profusely and the wife is very worried. I grab a cold drink and as I’m cooling off it dons on me that the front locking hubs are not engaged! That’s it, I tell the wife. We now can get out of here. We’ll revisit this Morro Sto Domingo on our way back from La Paz.

So we go back to the highway and “camp” for the night between the Pemex and the Taco restaurant.

End of Part 2



[Edited on 11-1-2011 by edm1]

[Edited on 5-5-2016 by edm1]

[Edited on 5-5-2016 by edm1]

[Edited on 5-5-2016 by edm1]

[Edited on 5-5-2016 by edm1]

Memorial Day Weekend 2010... We will always remember!

For the new Nomads... edm-1's first 4WD motorhome was awesome on the road to Mision Santa Maria... and played auto club when Neal's differential blew on our way out:

oh thanks....rub it in David!!! well, it gives me something (else) to look forward to!!

Quote:

Originally posted by shari oh thanks....rub it in David!!! well, it gives me something (else) to look forward to!!

No problem!

Remember when you made this for me? Wow, fresh yellowtail that Juan just got... zip zam, instant sashimi!