June 25 - Aug. 14... How we spent our summer vacation. Part One.

This is the beginning of a three, or maybe four part trip report. If you stick with me through out the entire read you will hear of our summer spent in Baja; a one legged man in the road, a road trip adventure that would take us to places we love as well as a few that we've never been to before. There was a toothy fish SUP attack, fishing tales, a panga surfing dog and a surprise at the Fiesta del Mar fishing tournament, and that's not all...

Part 1

We began our trip at 6am on Saturday June 25th. Eight hours later we pulled into the declaration lane at the San Ysidro border crossing. We had a fridge, mattress and box spring set on our flat bed trailer. The inspector checked it all out and let us go. At almost 6pm we pulled up to the house in Punta Banda. We quickly unloaded the trailer and headed back into Maneadero for fuel and to hit up Recreo for dinner.

We traded out the flat bed for the military trailer, loaded up the quad and headed out the next morning for Bahia de Los Angeles. South of San Quintin a stop at Parcela 12 is mandatory for lunch. Two loaded to the brim plates of home style goodness, cheese, tortillas and coffee for $160 p. Seconds are always offered, but there’s no way either of us could take another bite.







We pulled into Bahia at 4pm., checked in with Chubasco and the guys at Casa Diaz, and bought a few things from Martha’s Xitlali market before heading out of town. Mary Ann Humfreville greeted us with a smile as we pulled into her driveway. She had agreed to keep our trailer and quad at her place for the night. Our big plan was to leave again in the morning to return to Punta Banda to get the panga. We wanted both the quad and the panga for the summer. The only way to get them both was to make two trips.

It was just the start of the 3035 miles we were to put on our truck this summer.

Monday morning we were on the road bright and early. We were talking about how smooth of a drive we have had so far, no fog, no cows, nada when 15 mi. before the turn off we were stopped by a one legged old man standing the middle of the road. He was waving his crutches over his head, signaling us to stop. He was needing a tow to the Parador, not just his Blazer but the panga he was towing as well.

In our truck we have almost enough extra parts to rebuild our rig. What we don’t have is a tow strap. A length of 3/8” nylon rope was produced from the boat and in a few minutes we were connected. It was a slow Ford-Chevy-Panga boat to China drive as we practically idled our way to the turn off.



We made a stop at Patchen’s cabin so Dern could use the outdoor facilities. It’s a good thing he checked the tin t.p. can before picking it up as a large black spider was calling it home.





One of these days I am going to take a shower here. It's on my list.


In El Rosario we stopped at “Wence Market” to check it out. It had a little meat market in there, a little bit of everything including a cool new sticker for the camper door.



In San Quintin we stopped at Mariscos El Capi.



For years we’ve been passing it by, honking and waving at the man wearing the white captains hat behind the counter. We figured it was time we stopped. I had a lg. cevechi, Dern had 7 mares. With two sodas and tip we walked out 100p lighter. We did a David K. move and took a photo of our meal...





There aren’t bathroom facilities at El Capi so after a quick stop at the Pemex we were on the road again.

The military check points have become some what entertaining for us. Our dog Carter seems to grab their attention every time. Because most of the local folk in Baja find his name difficult to pronounce, we decided that when asked we would call him by his nic name “Toogy”.



We would hear, “Toogy, Toogy!” and see cameras being pulled out of shirt pockets. Usually the inspection would be the obligatory opening of the drivers door and a quick peek into the camper because everyone wanted to get back to Toogy.

There was quite a bit of road work being done on Hwy 1 so we took mental notes for our return trip with the panga. We pulled back into our driveway in Punta Banda at 3pm. A quick round trip to Bahia and back without any problems.

We took the next day off to work on the panga. Dern installed at new bait tank water system that will add water as we motor.





We also decided to officially put a name on our panga. I had read somewhere on the BD board that boaters had been delayed on the water for hours by officials due to the fact that they didn’t have a name on their vessel. I found some cardboard, Dern dug through the garage and came up with an exacto-knife and a can of black spray paint. A few hours later and “Chiquita Bonita” was official. Ghetto but official.



Wednesday, June 29, 5:20 am we were on the road south for the third time. The panga was loaded with the usual, including the propane fridge that we would never get running again.



When we pulled into the Pemex south of San Quintin the attendant came out and right away asked for Toogy. She remembered him from two days before and this time took his photo.



From there it was short jaunt down the road to Parcela 12.

When we pulled into the military check point before El Rosario the dogs had been sleeping. When we came to a stop Carter popped his head out the window surprising the young man who had just walked up to the truck. “Jesus Christ!” he shouted as he jumped back. He too ended up taking a photo of “Toogy“.

At 2:30 we were parked in front of Chubasco’s house, unhooking the panga. He agreed to baby sit her while we headed off on another adventure, this time south.

For the next four days we busted out the chores at the trailers. We had a To Do list that would end up taking until the last week of our summer to accomplish. We needed to put up a tin roof on both sides of our patio. We ordered the lamina from Pepito, hoping it would be delivered in time for us to install when we got back from our road trip. Dern built the hand railing to the deck and cut down the cardon sticks to size.





The weather was nice for the end of June/first of July. There were a couple of nights that were humid with fog in the channel and thunder heads over the islands. We took breaks to swim and paddle, visit with friends who would come by and those we would see in town during supply runs.



July 4th was the start of our next adventure that would take us from Jesus Maria, Asuncion, San Ignacio to San Juanico, La Purisima, the Comondus, San Javier and places in between. We would put on a little over 1130 miles before returning to Bahia de Los Angeles.



Stay tuned for part two.

P>*)))>{



[Edited on 6-9-2011 by Paulina]

AWESOME!

Good times!

More, please.