Part dos - Summer vacation 2011

Part dos.

July 4th

After making a quick, ok not so quick, a little over an hour stop at Doc’s to check our email we were on the road headed for places south. Doc mentioned that our internet driveway surfing time, as we were accustomed to, was going to change in the near future. It will be possible for us to be hooked up at our place soon with our own system that runs off of the town internet. Affordable too. Imagine that. Gone are the days of being incommunicado, relying on the Ham radio at the police station to get any news out. Real electricity, two gas stations, air conditioning, fire hydrants (still don’t know it they really work) shopping carts, ice available almost everyday. I must be getting old. But that’s for another post.

At the Parador, Dern made a quick left hand turn before getting to the highway. We had already made our routine potty stop just a few minutes earlier so I had no idea what he was up to. His sharp eye caught a 4Wheel pop up camper on it’s lid over behind the wrecking yard. I guess it wasn’t actually on it’s lid as the top was lying a few feet away from the rest of the wreckage. We pulled to a stop to check it out. Poor thing. Someone had a bad day for sure.





We signaled for Mooney to pull the truck up and we were off.



Our first stop was Laguna Manuela. We didn’t see much out there that our truck could do. It would be a great place for the little Toyota, but Truckie is just too heavy. We had our first casualty - on our way back out to the main road we came up on an ice chest in the middle of the road. How odd that it happened to be like the one we had tied onto the back of the quad. It also had the same $200. Optima battery and brand new beach towel in it as ours did! How fortunate were we that we were the first ones to happen across that ice chest and it’s spilled contents on such a well traveled road! The handles had evidently broken off, sending the ice chest flying off the back as we obliviously tootled on our way. Fortunately the battery was fine, the ice chest was re-stashed in the trailer and we were off again. It was my job to keep a closer eye on where we’ve been “just in case”.

We made a quick stop in Guerrero Negro to pick up a battery for the quad and other various supplies at the hardware store. We hit up the grocery and were out of town by 4pm.

Oopsie number two occurred to us on our way to Vizcaino - we forgot the bbq grill. We had just donated two small bbqs and one habachi to the ground beside the garbage trailer in Bahia, but remember to bring one along for the trip? So we kept an eye out for segundas.



We pulled into Asuncion around 6:45pm and found a small segunda tent where we picked up a Parrea, actually a metal fridge shelf for 30p. We drove out to San Roque and camped on the bluff next to a tree, small cemetery and old block structure.



Maurio and Umberto from the co-opertiva drove over. They said that it was “muy tranquilo” in San Roque, it was free to camp and that no one is allowed to ask us for money to park where we were. That was pretty cool.





The dogs love that beach. Miles of prime ball chasing sand.



The next morning we walked down to check out the fish coming in. Huge white sea bass were being loaded into trucks, we also saw yellowtail and one very large Thresher shark.



As we were cleaning up camp we were “run into” by a fellow Nomad, Bajaboy Zac on his morning run. What a small world San Roque always turns out to be for us. His wife and two beautiful children were soon to follow in their truck for a family beach day. We visited for awhile and picked Zac’s brain about San Gregorio before saying our good byes and heading back into town.

Our Fridge Freeze stayed in Bahia for this road trip, acting as our freezer for the rest of the summer. Because we were without that luxury we had to keep stocked up on ice.

We stopped to ask a couple of police officers where we could find ice in town (after running the stop sign). No such luck. Shari, if you could fill us in on that one ‘cause we wore ourselves out looking.

After airing down the tires we took the dirt road south through Punta Prieta. We stopped at the San Hipolito lighthouse to let the dogs stretch their legs. A very friendly vigilante guy was right on us, making sure were weren’t there for abulon or lobster.



We love this house in Hipolito…



In La Bocana we found ice for sale, but only one soda. In Abreojos we stopped at a few small mercados including Zuniga’s market. Couldn’t find ice in Abreojos either. We spent the night at Campo Rene at Asador 3, the last palapa at the end.



We had planned on spending a couple of days there as we hoped to SUP-fish Estero de Coyote, but unfortunately didn’t plan the tides right. It was super low early in the morning and again in the evening. The afternoon was too windy. We couldn’t find anyone to take our money. The place looked pretty run down.







We filled up at the Pemex at San Ignacio. The market next door was very nice. Ice, meat, super friendly and clean.



We didn’t dally in town.





I had to snap photos out the window, on the fly, except for this one, a crane of sorts. Dern had to stop for this excellent example of Mexi-neering.



The road south of San Ignacio was paved for 23k then graded. Road work w/ heavy equipment was going on. (photos on a previous post)

Yes Woody, we did take the upper road, after all this was an adventure, right? We wanted to see what all the hype was about that road and actually enjoyed it when it was all said and done with.



At the El Cuarenta crossing Dern had to get out a few times to walk the road. He also played chicken with a large dirt devil, making it out with his hat and shades, plus a few grains of sand that implanted themselves in his hair and teeth.



We opened a ranch gate at El Bule, accidentally rolled Mooney up in the window in an attempt to keep her from jumping out at the horses, mules and donkeys we encountered along the way. We also had to pull a thorn out of her lip from a failed attempt to bite a Mesquite tree that came too close.







In Cadeje we stopped in the water crossing to give the dogs a break. I wish we had taken more time to check out that little town. Everyone we passed had big smiles and waves for us.



Seven hours after leaving San Ignacio we pulled into San Juanico. It was a rough ride. Lots of iffy sections, definitely put the 4wd to good use. We camped out on the bluff over looking second point, directly in front of the cantina.





For 150 pesos per person we got trash, internet and bathrooms which were very clean, the showers hot. It felt so good to shower after eating dirt for the past 7 hours. Dern unloaded the quad, loaded up the fishing poles and took off for a fishing hole he remembered from his last visit, about 11 years ago.



While Dern was out and about on the quad I surfed it up at the cantina on the internet. I made a post about our camping spot and studied up on Shari’s posts on the Comondus. Dern wasn’t gone very long as the hole had been washed out by a storm from a few years back. There would be no fishing for us here either.



The highlight of our stay in San Juanico was the opportunity to meet Ola dulce and Big Woo. They had seen my post on the Nomad board and looked us up. We stayed in S.J. for two days and two nights. It was hard to get motivated to get the boards off of the camper when there were already 30 people on the point jockeying for a three wave set that rarely came only waist high.



We were parking lot surfers.



Before loading up the quad on Friday, July 8, we rode over to Ola dulce and Big Woo’s house to say so long and to check out their construction. What a lovely home they have. I was also very envious of their garden. We left with cuttings from a Pencil cactus that I’m crossing my fingers will take in Bahia.

Leaving San Juanico we took the Red Couch turn off to San Gregorio. We stopped to take photos of the La Purisima river where it meets La Bocana/Estero San Gregorio at the end of the road.





There were quite a few Mexican homes/fishing shacks there. Once again we made this another Toyota, aka “Little truckie trip” as we didn’t want to drive our big truck down into the sand.

Change of plans, no over night at San G. Back out on the main road we found out that the topo map is way off when it came to the La Purisima turn off. I got a little lazy in my journal keeping at this point as the only entry I have reads, “Drove in and out of La P.” The buildings were old school, beautiful trees in red bloom. We saw many of the places that Shari had photographed in her post and as such I didn’t take very many photos myself.







Back on BCS 53 with potholes that resembled moon craters, we turned left at Pancho Villa and headed up the nicely paved road towards the Comondus. There was some major road work being done up the canyon.



I can’t tell you how enchanting that place is!











We found Adan Gastellum, the palm tree furniture man. After an extended visit with him, inside of his home, tasting and talking home made wine, we left with the chair that he had been using at his kitchen table, a large brown bag full of papayas and a bottle of wine. It was his last bottle that he had been saving for his personal use. He had walked up and down the street trying to find someone who had a bottle left to sell but came up empty handed.













He was making limon candies in his back yard. At some point in our conversation we got lost. We think he told us of the three day process it takes to make the candies, how he had squeezed the juice from the fruit, added sugar and honey and is slowly cooking the moisture away. When he tasted a piece I was hoping that it would be ready to go, but no luck. He said it needed a little more time. If anyone can fill us in on this a little more, please do.







We bought sodas from Anna Louisa at La Chaparrita on our way out of town. I wish we could have stayed there longer. This time of year was a little toasty for the dogs. We will definitely return.





Back on BCS 53 the road was horrible. We drove mostly on the dirt shoulder. In Zarogoza there was some serious road work being done, but after that the highway was great. We fueled up in Insurgentes and cut across to Loreto, stopping in Juncalito aka Hep-a lito. It was a toilet paper, human waste poop bowl. We needed to let the dogs out, but had a difficult time finding a spot clean enough. We had to drive practically to the edge of beach and let them out right into the water to avoid them getting into something nasty. There was no way we were going to stay in Juncalito so he headed into Loreto for dinner and to see if we could come up with somewhere to park it for the night.

We ate at Tacos San Francisco - excellent. Dern had three carne asada tacos, I had a papa relleno that was a monster, stuffed with carne, queso, butter and corn. Why it came with tortillas I don’t know.

By the time we finished eating it was late. We didn’t know where to sleep for the night so we made what was to be the best decision ever. We DROVE AT NIGHT up the mountain to San Javier.

Back in March, Spring break of 1979, I had the opportunity to be one of three girls to jump into the back of a military jeep and make the day long trek up to San Javier mission. I remember it being a rough, hot, very long drive, with pools of water along the way.





How nice the road is now! It is nicely paved all but the last 6 miles to town. It was about 10 pm when we drove onto the main drag. We saw a happy group of men sitting around a table in front of a house playing some sort of a card game, in full celebration for this Friday night. We asked them where we could camp and were told to stay anywhere we wanted. Pull right up to the mission if we liked. We thanked them and wished we were drinking too as we would have joined them.

It was a long day. We started out the morning in San Juanico, San Gregorio, La Purisima, San Jose del Comondu, Loreto then to this happy town. We took those men for their words and parked right in front of the mission, popped out our cots and called it a night.





Maybe I should say tried to call it a night. The mosquitoes buzzed in our ears. There was a dog that had something important to say down the road, and a very confused rooster that crowed all night long. All that added to the wonderful ambiance of San Javier.





We were up early and met a nice man who was sleeping in front of his motor home on the other side of the mission. He was full of excitement for his mission in every visit to Baja is to visit as many of the ranchos as he can, taking sporting equipment for the boys, kitchen items for the women, never eating in restaurants because he buys what he can from the ranchers and eats with them when invited. His name was Cody, he was a Mexican himself from San Deigo and had his two nephews along that he had picked up in San Quintin. He was intrigued with Toogy, our pop up camper and life itself as he documented everything on his camcorder.

While we were waiting for the mission to open I met Juan Arce. In conversation it was brought up that I was last in San Javier 32 years ago. He said he had lived here his whole life and we talked about how the town had changed. He invited me into his garden which was growing next to the mission. He let me collect all the mangos I wanted, gave me figs and onions too. He was a very nice man, inviting us to his house if we ever came back again.



The mission was amazing, just as I remembered it. I took so many photos that I will most likely make a separate post.







We stopped at a few places on our way down the mountain to take in the views.



I could see the old road in places.





We took a while to check out the cave paintings before heading back into Loreto.







We decided this day would be a short driving day. We stopped in Loreto for supplies. I waited in the truck so the dogs could have the windows down while Dern hit up the grocery store. We were parked in front of the Cactus liquor store. I took a chance to ask if they had Sol Ceros for sale. We had run out of NA a long time ago and were batting zero at finding ceros since we left Ensenada. “No, lo siento”, he said, “But I have Old Millwaukee!”



Are you kidding me? Dern’s favorite. So while Dern was at the market I hurriedly bought all the 12 packs the man had in stock and had a cold one waiting for him when he returned.

We pulled into Coyote, set out the cots and took naps under the palm cabana. We were woken up by a man walking into the cabana asking for 80p for the night.





So much for Mr. Guard Dog Toogy. Maybe because we were still half asleep we paid it, because when we took the dogs for a walk later that afternoon and looked around, it too was a dump. It was a trashy-pee smelling place. Lots of locals drove in and out, leaving all their camping trash where they partied for the day. I used a palm frond to sweep the t.p. away from our palapa, cleaning up our spot so Dern could set up the bbq. Conception sure is a pretty place, but the repercussions of mas amounts of people visiting without adequate facilities, or maintenance pulled on what is provided, make it a health hazard.

Sunday, July 10th - After taking the morning sunrise photo we left Coyote as soon as our coffee was ready.



By 6:30am we were passing through Mulege, then Santa Rosalia, We pulled into the Supermercado at San Ignacio again for ice and diesel. It was here that we noticed that the window on the camper door had slipped out of place. We had really put the pop up through the ringer this trip. We hit up the bank in Guerrero Negro, found Carmelita’s place closed in Jesus Maria.

At the military checkpoint at El Tomotal we were asked for the first time to take the dogs out of the truck. We politely declined. One soldier climbed into the drivers seat and was very intent on going through the arm rest divider. He pulled out a Tampon and very interested in checking it out. To move things along I finally told him he could keep it. What a score!

We stopped at Mauricio’s for lunch.



Does anyone else remember how the painting on the wall used to have lightning bolts hitting all the tourist modes of transportation? The cruise ship, American Airlines jetliner, the bus? The big rigs were the only vehicles spared. The bolts have been painted out. Maybe someone told them that it wasn’t good for business?



One question we have; what is the mystery plant that is propped up in the corner? Dern thinks it is a Cardon that went funky.



We pulled back into Bahia at 2pm. It was a whirl wind trip. We surprised the gang at Diaz’s. Chubasco and Ponsonia both weren’t expecting us for another week. If the fishing had worked out in our favor that might have happened. Looking back now I wish we had stretched our road trip out a little longer. We were in a hurry to get back and get going on our chores. What were we thinking?

To celebrate a safe trip we had our traditional San Roque dinner; cottage cheese with tomato, cucumber, cilantro and fresh cracked pepper, with ice cold San Javier mangos for dessert.

Our road trip was over and the rest of our summer was about to begin. Part dos has gone on long enough. In part three I’ll try to finish up with what I mentioned at the beginning of my story, plus more. The sun and wind vs. us trying to put up tin roofing, accidentally running into friends from Punta Banda, SUPing with whale sharks, Mooney vs. coyotes, sharing our love for Bahia with visitors from home.





Saludos!
P>*)))>{










[Edited on 8-9-2011 by Paulina]

Hi Paulina and Dern...

Nice picture and great story...thanks for sharing with us!


Michael

Paulina...so sad that you went right by our house and never stopped by

beer on our front porch is not to be passed up, really !!

ice is at the coop plant, which is red and white and huge at the entrance to town - 10 pesos for a 10 kg bag.

wonderful trip report and nice pics to follow along with ... thanks for taking the time to do it !

An A+ for this trip report pretty teacher!

Sounds like they added 4 miles of pavement towards San Javier since we were there 2 years ago... Sure is a beautiful place with the most outstanding, original Jesuit mission building on the peninsula! In your photo looking across the canyon at the old road, notice above it the even older trail... Perhaps it is El Camino Real?

Sad to hear that both Junacalito and El Coyote were 'toilets'...

San Jose Comondu looks like a must visit (again) place!

To just freely travel from one exotic Baja location to another is how I would like to spend the rest of my life!

Thank you P Y D for the trip reports you give us!

Enthralling!!!!

baja wowness!