Getting in the “way-back” machine to finish a long-forgotten TR

So, I logged into photobucket this morning, and saw my Baja 2009 album. That got me thinking of a trip report that I started, and then when life got busy, just stopped abruptly and never went back to finish (Bay Area to Todos Santos and back, July 10-26, 2009). I would like to at least post the rest of pictures and maybe a little commentary of what I remember. And I offer my sincere apologies for my flakiness to those who followed the original trip report (here--http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=40484&page=1)

This was the final paragraph I wrote on that trip report:
“Mark drank almost an entire bottle of tequila, to make sure that he would be able to sleep. That worked out great...for him. Not so great for me, as his snoring nearly drowned out the air conditioner. I almost fell asleep anyway, after taking several Benadryl, until a honking car full of hollering people parked under our window. By morning, I had formulated a new plan.

....stay tuned....”
Some of you may have worried that my “new plan” may have involved burying his body in the desert, but no, I’m not that kind of person (although I MAY have considered it in the middle of the night). No—this was the new plan:

Many of you probably recognize this—the Serenidad. It was still hot, but the air conditioning is quiet and powerful, and it actually gets a little breeze off the river. By the time Mark woke up, I had the car packed and had checked out of the hotel. I even kindly waited until he was actually IN the car before driving away. And now, some pictures from Mulegé:









I’m going to stop here and post this to make sure I still remember how to insert pictures. I promise not to leave the rest for another two and a half years, though!

The Serenidad was exactly the change we needed. It was a perfect place to head out to the rest of the unbelievable gorgeous Bahia Concepcion, and spend the heat of the days bobbin’ in the water. Much better that sweltering and bickering! We even got to be there for the famous pig roast! Much fun!

Some pictures from the Bahia:

It’s been awhile (understatement of the century?), so I don’t recall how many days we stayed there—three , maybe? From there it was on to La Paz. Gorgeous scenery, but a scary road between Mulegé and Loreto:





We stopped in Loreto briefly. It seems like a really neat place, and I’d like to go back and spend more time there someday, but it was July, and by noon it was scorchingly hot. We saw the mission:









And ate some of the best tacos EVER, in the whole history of the world. Seriously. The best. OK, maybe in the top ten of the whole history of the world, anyway.

LisaR, Thanks.

Thanks for commenting, Cypress.

I'd better get to work on the rest before I put it off and get too busy again.

Thanks, Pompano! No, I'm not a professional. I have a really excellent point and shoot camera

More coming right now...

(I hope this doesn't post twice--I just tried to post, but it said that it had been less than 90 seconds. So, here's trying again!)



On to La Paz! We stayed at La Perla and really enjoyed it. The first night we had an interior room, but we had heard that you should always ask for ocean view—it’s the same price, but well, it’s ocean view. The next morning after check-in they had one available for us, and it was absolutely worth moving for! Here are a few pictures from the balcony:







Here’s the inside of the room:




We really loved La Paz, and would go back in a heartbeat, although maybe not in July. It, too, was hot. (That seems to be a recurring theme, doesn’t it? I love warm climates and beaches, but since I’m a teacher, summer is pretty much it for a decent length vacation.)

A picture of the mission:



A cool artwork in a museum:



The reptile zoo:











note the rat leg hanging out of his mouth



And of course, the beautiful, beautiful beaches! Here are a couple of pics of the beaches, but I know I took a ton more. I’m going to try to find them and get them uploaded to photobucket. I’ll just post these for now:















[Edited on 2-5-2012 by LisaR.]

A few more (found!) from La Paz. I don’t recall the name of the beach, but what an amazing day! Beautiful, beautiful. I would go back in a heartbeat. Too bad I don’t remember where it was... I’m pretty sure it was south of La Paz, but honestly I have a hard time getting my head wrapped around directionality in La Paz. It’s bad enough that I grew up on the West Coast, and in my mind, the ocean is always west. Then I go to the Sea of Cortez, and it’s to the east. And then La Paz on a bay. I give up!

Sorry for the lesser quality of these pictures. We have a really cheap underwater camera. It’s a Vivitar Vivicam 8400. The plusses are that it was about 100 bucks on Amazon, and it really is waterproof. The minuses are that the viewfinder is virtually useless underwater, and the picture quality is somewhat less than mediocre. Some of the Bahia Concepcion pics are from that camera, too. It's pretty easy to tell which ones. With that stellar recommendation, here are the pictures:


















As you can see, this wasn’t a great snorkeling spot. We really just went for the beach, and were pleasantly surprised that it had been worth bringing our snorkeling gear, after all!

Time to head off for dinner. I'll post the rest of the trip pics tonight or tomorrow. No, really. I promise.

Our original plan, when leaving home, had been to drive all the way down the peninsula and around the Los Cabos loop. Well, by this time we had realized that it would just be TOO MUCH to do that. We had stopped in Cabo San Lucas on a cruise the previous April, and didn’t have any desire to go back. I still wanted to see San José del Cabo (and still hope to, someday), but we decided that a better use of our time left would be to just kick back and enjoy La Paz. We did take an afternoon drive down to Todos Santos, however, so at least we could say we made it that far. We only took a couple of pictures, but we did enjoy the laid-back, artist-y vibe of the town, and would like to go back someday and spend more time there.





and a cute kid at an artist’s open house, playing with his new car from our “box-o-toys”




Before we sadly turn our wheels northward and head home , a few reflections on La Paz: What a great place! One of the best things about La Paz is the food scene. I realize that you would never know it by this trip report (and part one) and the lack of pictures or descriptions of food, but Mark and I really are foodies. We had several great meals here, that I can still recall after all this time. Let’s see, there was the killer mole from a hole in the wall at the city market, there was fantastic arrachera at a restaurant a few doors up from La Perla. But our best dining experience of the trip had to be Tres Virgenes. I wish I had taken pictures. I don’t remember what I had, but I do recall that we had a grilled baby octopus appetizer that was outstanding, and Mark had a porterhouse cut pork chop with a port reduction glaze that makes my mouth water to remember, even now.

And now, we head home. Here are some random pictures from the drive:






The largest shrine I’ve ever seen:
















This is one CRAZY road between Loreto and Mulegé!










And back past the incomparable Bahia Concepcion






















The bridge over Mulegé river




Driving past Santa Rosalia-- What IS this thing? Anyone?

Ooops, almost forgot to add that at Tres Virgenes, we met Jesse. He gave us a Baja Nomad bumper sticker that I immediately slapped on the back of my car, and still proudly sport. I may be a slacker, but I’m still proud to be a Nomad!

I just ran out and took this pic of the back of my car:

LisaR, More thanks!

More pictures from the road:










An interesting detail about this next one and the dangers of driving in Baja—if you look closely at the pile of rocks in the lower center, that’s actually a totaled rusted car to the right.






It was a long day of driving, but we finally pulled into San Ignacio. We drove around for a bit, wondering where we were going to stay, until we saw “Casa Lerée” painted on a building. Wow, we read about that place in Baja Legends. I wonder if they have a room? Not only did they have one available, but Juanita, the owner, told us that she thought maybe we were the only travelers on the entire peninsula. Even if you don’t stay at Casa Lerée, please stop by to see it and talk to Juanita, if you are in San Ignacio. It is quite a historic building, and Juanita runs a small museum of San Ignacio history in one of the front rooms. In fact, she showed us a fossil Eohippus hoof that one of the local boys had found in the hills near town that afternoon and brought to her. She is quite a fascinating woman, with extensive knowledge about the area. She is collecting and transcribing an oral history from the elders of the village before they are gone, and their memories are lost forever.

I wish we had taken more pictures of the house and garden, because it is really something to see, both from an aesthetic and historical perspective. I hope this gives you an idea of the beauty of the back garden, where the rooms are located:




I loved the old buildings in San Ignacio, and for some reason was compelled to take pictures mostly of doors:








The stunning Mission San Ignacio de Kadakaaman












A couple of shots of the center of town






And then, it’s back on the road again.

A couple of days of hard driving, and then we’re home...

We stopped in Guerrero Negro for lunch at Malarrimo.






and then pushed on north.

I just liked this picture.




If you read (or re-read) my original thread on this trip report, you might recall this from the drive south—

“We stopped in Cataviña for lunch. We pulled into the Desert Inn because we really, really needed to go to the bathroom, we were starving, and we hoped the restaurant would have air-conditioning (it didn’t). The menu was over-priced, and we afraid it would be over-priced and mediocre. It wasn’t. We both had the mixed fajitas and they were great! I don’t know what they marinated the meat in, but it was absolutely delicious.

The Pemex pump there is out of service (foreshadowing...).”

—and know what is coming up next. Yup, the ultimate rookie maneuver for driving in Baja...

Somewhere north of Jesus y Maria, I starting thinking that maybe the other thing we should have done was to fill up the gas tank, but I was pretty sure that there was at least one more before the long dry spell to El Rosario. Nope, that was it. I was so glad to see the guy selling gas out of a barrel, that I would have paid anything he asked. But do you know what? We still paid less per gallon than the price at home! We were so grateful to him, that we pretty much started giving him everything we could think of out of the car—a cold beer, water, soda, an Oakland A’s baseball cap, toys for his son (who was with him) from the “box-o-toys.” He laughed at us, but in a kind way.

And then we were on our way north again.

We pulled into El Rosario, and hoped to get a room at Baja Cactus, but they were full. We back-tracked to the Turista Motel and they had one for us. I’ve heard great things about Baja Cactus, and it sounds like they would be first choice, but if they are full, Turista is a great fall-back option. The grounds are somewhat lacking in charm, but the rooms were new and clean, there was good water pressure, and the bed was comfortable. And I think we paid around $20. You can’t ask for a much better bargain than that!





We were afraid that the party was pretty much over for this trip, but no! There were some fellow nomads staying in a neighboring room, so we all pulled chairs out to the parking lot, and started pouring drinks and talking about adventures in Baja. Still fun times!

It wasn’t a late night, as we all had to get going early the next morning—they were heading south, and we were heading... sigh... I don’t even want to say it again... north. Next morning, we stopped at Mama Espinoza’s for breakfast, and I’m sorry to report that we had the same experience as many others in recent years—it was very mediocre.

A long, long drive this day—a few pictures from the road:










But at least we got to see the famous Hotel California!




What do you mean, that isn’t it? How about this one, then?




That isn’t it, either? Don’t tell me it’s that fancy modern place we saw in Todos Santos?!?

We spent a lot of the day like this:




and this:






Traffic was horrific in Ensenada—I think it was rush hour, but we didn’t get lost like I usually do. Yay! And then there must have been an accident at the toll station, because we got stuck there for over an hour, so we were very relieved to finally see this:






We knew we weren’t going to make it home that night, so we decided to extend our Baja adventure for one more night by staying in Tecate, and crossing the border there. We had never really stopped in Tecate before, so we thought it would be fun. We had travelled that road several times from Rosarito as an alternative to crossing at TJ, so we thought it would be easy. We were wrong on both counts.

To start with the drive, as I said, this was a route we had taken several times in the past. We had just successfully driven over 3000 miles on mostly unfamiliar roads, and now, within a stone’s throw of the border, was where we opted to turn into feeble-minded dorks. We could not for the life of us figure out how to get into Tecate. We had to turn around and traverse the same stretch of highway several times. Sheesh, I do not know what was wrong with us!

We finally found our way into town. Whew. Now, to find somewhere to stay. We had a few places in mind, from the guide books, right around the zocalo. The problem was, there was absolutely nowhere to park to check them out. So we drove a little further down the main street to a motel that the guide books suggested might be a good place. Sometimes things change. Our first clue that we wouldn’t be staying there was when the guy at the front desk asked if we wanted it hourly or for the whole night. At this point, the last thing we wanted to do was get back in the car, but back in the car we went! We drove a little further down and finally found somewhere acceptable, although it was a little dismal and too far to walk to the town square. That’s OK. We finally got a much needed beer, and then took a taxi back to the square to find some tacos and stroll around. It wasn’t that Tecate was bad, we were just exhausted from the drive, and we both wished that we had just shot up to Rosarito, which is easy and familiar to us. On the plus side, al pastor tacos (our favorite!) were 2 x 10 pesos. What a deal. We got to bed early, and our border crossing the next morning was quick and easy.

Another long day of driving, and then, HOME!



Wow, that is one filthy car!

[Edited on 2-6-2012 by LisaR.]

Hmm, I thought I'd feel relieved that I was done, but I'm a little sad it's over--again! I guess that means it's time for another adventure. Good thing I already have one planned!

Thanks again for your comments, David. This is funny, but I think you were at Baja Cactus when we were at Turista--one of the nomads we ran into there was Phil, and he said he was meeting up with you. Mark and I really appreciated your excellent advice before the trip and we had hoped to meet you, but it was not to be. I pour an excellent parking lot rum and pineapple--just ask around! Maybe next time...

Anyway, I have no idea what went wrong getting to Tecate. I believe I mentioned that had become feeble-minded dorks? Don't forget, that was the same day as the clouds of red dust construction traffic through Maneadero. Plus, I didn't put this in the TR, but we spent quite some time driving through a rocky dry ravine looking for some mission (Santo Domingo, perhaps?). I know you will understand why we might waste our time on that! We did find that one, eventually.

We did not take 3 because that seemed to be where the awful traffic jam was coming from (or maybe we just missed the turn-off, I'm not sure now). Anyway, we turned off at Popotla (actually, we missed the turn-off before it, even though I should have known better, paid the toll at Rosarito, and back-tracked to Popotla. I mentioned the feeble-minded part, right?), and took 2000. Again, I have no idea what went wrong, because we had done that successfully several times before, when leaving from Rosarito. I just don't know...

Fab!