Baja Adventure Trip July 2011 (Part5b - Los Cabos, East Cape, and Vicinity)

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 5b. La Paz, Los Cabos, and Vicinity - continued

• Day 4 (Fri) – Switch shocks, Test drive, Playa Tecolote/Tesoro
• Day 5(Sat) – Rest, Chedraui shopping, Potluck dinner
• Day 6 (Sun) – Los Planes tour (La Ventana, Playa Turquesa, Punta Arena)
• Day 7 (Monday) – Rest / shocks received-install-test drive
• Day 8 (Tue) – Todos Santos, Los Cabos, Los Barriles


Day 4 (Fri) – Test drive, Playa Tecolote/Tesoro

With my suspension work nightmare over, we finally get a good night sleep inside the motorhome, back at our “RV park” in the Walmart parking lot. And like a child on Christmas morning, I couldn’t wait to test drive the motorhome with the modified springs. 7am and I’m already under the truck preparing for the test drive.

First, I re-torque every nut and bolt that they touched – U-bolts, shock mounts, etc. Second, I remove the helper springs over the rear springs to level the vehicle. I adjust the air bags. So compared to before the suspension work, the front is now lower 2.5 inches and the rear 1 inch lower. Third, since I’m still waiting for the package of the replacement front shock absorbers from the US, I move the heavy-duty rear shocks to the front, and the front shocks to the rear just for test drive purposes.

The first part of the test drive is along Abasolo, onto our now-favorite Pemex station. It doesn’t take long to notice the difference. The suspension is now much stiffer, I can feel the joints of the concrete pavement; in fact, the front of the motorhhome now bobs up and down with the ups and downs of the pavement, indicating a suspension that is too stiff and would not dampen normal pavement dips. It’s like riding a horse, except we’re sitting on cushiony captains chairs!

The more appropriate test drive is up and down the winding Tecolote highway. I give the new suspension a passing grade for handling the uneven highway that we will be driving through our way back home to the US. The difference is not like night and day, but I sure could go 50 mph (80kph) on an uneven “curva peligro” without side-to-side after sway. I resign to the fact that this is not a sports car; it’s a lifted 10.5-foot tall motorhome for god’s sake. We can live with the stiff front suspension, what’s more important is the side-to-side stiffness that it provides.

We spend the rest of our day at one of the public beaches along the highway, with frequent dips in the water, and then we head back to our Walmart base camp for supper.


Day 5(Sat) – Rest, Chedraui shopping, Potluck

Today is a good time to rest, kick back and relax, clean house, check back with the kids in the US. And for a change, get some groceries elsewhere other than at Walmart. We go to shop at Chedaraui.

Later in the day, we invite ourselves to a Potluck at the Goodings’ (Steve and Zully) home and they accept. With the beef, chicken, yellowtail, and California rolls that we got from Chedraui and the sea shells that we gathered at Shell Island, Nora would show off her culinary skills at dinner.

And dinner is a success! We clean up every plate. Zully loves the sea shells, even if we all have had to use toothpicks to get the tiny goodies in them. Alberto sure loves the beef salad, too. Nora and I savors the enchiladas that Zully and the kids prepared. Too bad Steve is missing it because he has a visitor come unannounced. I’m not sure if it is Mexican-polite that we eat while they privately chat in the other room. Nevertheless, Alberto, Jorge, Zully. Nora and I enjoy the dinner (Nikki is out to the movies).

Before we leave for the night, Steve invites us to take a drive to the Los Planes area the next morning – while you’re waiting for the shock absorber package from the US, he says, you may as well see everything you can. Steve, despite of his back problem, is a stand-up guy. He had dared me to go down south to La Paz a year ago (when we met at the Mision Sta Maria rock-crawling event) and here I am with my wife and he is unbelievable.

I accept the offer and we would meet at 8:00 Am.


[Day 6 (Sun) – Los Planes tour: El Sargento, La Ventana, Playa Turquesa, Punta Arena

By now we are not so excited to visit more beaches, after all we’ve been to so many beaches along our itinerary. I tell Steve we’re “beached-out”. However, I could sense from Steve the special significance of the Los Planes area. Besides, having a picnic sounded so exciting.

At 8 am, Steve, Zully, Alberto, Nora, Penny our dog, and I hop onto Steve’s 4Runner and so begins our picnic trip. We first stop over at a couple of roadside eateries to pick up “lunch” for the picnic: carne asada from one, and pollo from the other.

Before heading to Los Planes, we drive by the El Sargento / La Ventana area and enjoy the sceneries, with the backdrop of a huge island (don’t remember the name, but it goes along the line of Jacques Costaeu). Along the way we stop at a small community where there’s this pool of spring water. Children are wading in the pool. We check out the spring and say hello to the many people there. The pool is supposed to be the source of the community’s drinking water. As we leave the area, we stop at one of the stores to buy some locally made candies.

Soon, we pass the old town of Los Planes, and after another hour we arrive at our destination (Playa Turquesa), rather late for lunch, so we are very hungry. Also, the breeze is rather strong so we encounter some difficulty in erecting our shade. But all is worth it, and we start to enjoy the carne asada, pollo, the fruits and drinks that we brought. The cicharones that comes with the carne asada is so delicious, I want them all!!!

Playa Turquesa, a very remote beach, is at a good distance from the highway. It also requires 4WD to get close to the water. There was only one other vehicle at the beach, and a few people were looking at some remains of a shipwreck. After lunch we don our swimming clothes and enjoy the beach. The water is so clear, the sand is so clean you could not see any cloud of dirt even when wading through the water. It’s perfect for snorkeling, which I don’t do, but today my interest in snorkeling and the necessary equipment is sparked. Alberto grabs his goggles and fins, along with his spear to try his luck at catching a fish.

Steve is so right to bring us here. Playa Turquesa is the “cleanest beach” I’ve ever seen, no doubt about it. And with the Jacques Costeau island in the background, it makes for a most wonderful perfect picnic. Thanks to Steve. Penny, our dog, even decides to swim in the waves and we thought she was more like a cat than a dog!

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Punta Arena is our next stop, before we head back home. On the way we pass by salt flats with mounds of salt. Steve stops by and grabs a few handful of salt souvenirs for us. At Punta Arena we climb the two (new and old, side by side) lighthouse towers and take a few pictures.

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Day 7 (Monday) – Morning rest / shocks received-install-test drive

For people our age, these trips take a toll on our old bodies, so we feel the need to rest again. But only in the morning because by noon I remember shock absorbers and check with Steve if the package had arrived. We’ve been waiting for the package for the last 8 days. Yes, they’re in!!! And there’s no customs duties to be paid. And so we drive over to pick them up. I check out the shock eyes for fit and find out that they need a little trimming. I borrow Steve’s grinder and fix the problem. Then we’re off to our base camp at Walmart to install the shocks. I move the shocks from the front to their original place – the rear, and install the new ones in the front.

I then take the motorhome for another test drive, up and down the winding Tecolote highway. The motorhome suspension performs as before, and as expected, with passing marks. We stop by Steve’s house to tell him the motorhome is now in shape for the drive back home.

Well, it looks like everything is now in order, “why don’t you stay another day and visit Los Cabos with us tomorrow” invited Steve. I accept the offer on the condition that as long as he is feeling well enough to drive and he lets me pay for gas and food, since he refused on previous occasions. It’s a deal. I couldn’t thank Steve and Zully enough for their hospitality.

Day 8 (Tue) – Los Cabos Tour: Todos Santos, East Cape, Los Barriles

Day 8 is truly just a tourist sight-seeing, picture-taking, lunch, and shopping trip. Again I’m indebted to Steve and Zully forever for this once in a lifetime favor.

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After lunch and all the shopping we drive around the East Cape. We drive into an estuary before we head back to La Paz.

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On our way back, Steve once again, surprises us with another stop, where we take a break in the middle of the afternoon to have beers - we go off road and visit caves inhabited by bats and bees – the Cuevitas.

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Back at Steve’s place, it’s time to bid good bye and thank him and Zully for their unmatched hospitality. I am truly indebted, forever, to them for this once in a lifetime adventure trip. Steve hands me a big bottle of Damiana and advises me it’s best to mix it with Tequila. Zully hands Nora necklaces she made from the seashells that we had for dinner the other night! We say good bye to the kids and we tearfully drive back to our base camp at Walmart where we will be leaving early in the morning for the long drive home to the US.


[Edited on 11-1-2011 by edm1]

Great Trip Report!

Awesome pics and storyline! Thank you for the share!