BajaNomad

Report on Gonzaga Road, Coco, Tecate Cops, from a lurker.

David K - 12-31-2012 at 01:03 PM

Got this email and it contained some information of interest...

Hi David,
My wife and I traveled the Gonzaga route to our casa in Bahia de Los Angeles. According to our odometer we had 41 miles of unpaved road to Mex #1 at Chapala. We did the route in a cabover camper with no problems. People at Rancho Grande told us work was to start again after the New year on the remainder.

We camped next to CoCo in San Felipe. It was my first meeting he is quite a character. He said he had double vision in one eye and was going to see the doctor. He told me while driving he had to close one eye when cars were coming otherwise he saw two cars.

I am not a member of Baja Nomad yet; but you might post in the forums that several people in our camp were strong armed by police in Tecate to the tune of 4000 peso each. There was a man and women cop doing the rip-offs. They have a pretty lucrative scam going.

Thats all the news for now. Will let you know if I hear anything else.
Larry

(I invited Larry to join Nomad)

desertcpl - 12-31-2012 at 01:32 PM

some thing needs to be done about the Tecate Cops,

DENNIS - 12-31-2012 at 01:35 PM

I'd like to hear the full story.

David K - 12-31-2012 at 01:35 PM

If my odometer is close to Larry's, 41 miles from Hwy. 1 at Chapala puts the end of pavement:
6 miles north of Rancho Grande/ Alfonsina's Pemex,
3.5 miles north of Papa Fernandez' road and
1.5 miles south of the Punta Bufeo road.

willardguy - 12-31-2012 at 05:11 PM

sounds like larry fully understands the process.
1st person reports only count.
(7) 8x10 glossy photos must be attached.
DNA samples from the site.
an aerial view with satellite overlay.
signed notarized affidavit's from all involved.
ran thru snopes.
your 1st born.
after all this you might achieve a nomad "show us some proof"!
why would anyone want to remain a lurker? :?:

bkbend - 12-31-2012 at 06:09 PM

The construction is (two weeks ago) on a bridge crossing the arroyo leading out to El Faro. The connection to the new pavement northbound at that point was a little confusing, need to pass under the new bridge and catch the pavement from the west side. I'll find out later this week if it's more intuitive going south. I also noticed some serious rockfall on the new pavement where it went through some cuts, keep your eyes open. Some was large enough to do damage. Also met a wide load avoiding Hwy 1, he was in the curves through the hills between Coco's and Chapala. Where there wasn't a lot of spare room.

David K - 1-1-2013 at 08:42 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by willardguy
sounds like larry fully understands the process.
1st person reports only count.
(7) 8x10 glossy photos must be attached.
DNA samples from the site.
an aerial view with satellite overlay.
signed notarized affidavit's from all involved.
ran thru snopes.
your 1st born.
after all this you might achieve a nomad "show us some proof"!
why would anyone want to remain a lurker? :?:


Agree! But since we do post many newspaper reports here and don't mind that 2nd person reporting... I figured this was better than nothing as it had details that often are missing, such as mileages of the progress south.

At the Puertecitos Y (paved fork on Hwy. 5), please reset your trip odometer, or note the mileage... then note the mileage where the pavement ends and perhaps again where new roadbed construction ends? Note the mileage at the Pemex at Gonzaga or Rancho Grande store across the 'street'.

One thing I noticed last July that was changed from our July, 2011 trip was that they got rid of the odd high kilometer markers south of Puertecitos (that seemed to be the distance from Mexicali) and they are all now the distance south of San Felipe (the airport road is Km. 0, six miles south of town).:light:

David K - 1-1-2013 at 08:47 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by bkbend
The construction is (two weeks ago) on a bridge crossing the arroyo leading out to El Faro. The connection to the new pavement northbound at that point was a little confusing, need to pass under the new bridge and catch the pavement from the west side. I'll find out later this week if it's more intuitive going south. I also noticed some serious rockfall on the new pavement where it went through some cuts, keep your eyes open. Some was large enough to do damage. Also met a wide load avoiding Hwy 1, he was in the curves through the hills between Coco's and Chapala. Where there wasn't a lot of spare room.


Hwy. 5 saves many miles and hours over Hwy. 1, specially if coming from/ going to Mexicali or the mainland... Look for trucks, trucks, trucks when this road is all paved or even before.

The sad thing is the San Felipe-Puertecitos section which was originally paved by a contractor who was jailed for ripping off the government by using too little asphalt (too thin) and not regrading the steep vados for highway speed that were not so much an issue in 1982 when the roadbed was built and dirt for several years before pavement.

Sidamone - 1-1-2013 at 01:43 PM

I once had what I thought was double vision, too. Turned out to be a car with two headlights coming toward me, first time in Baja I've encountered that.

[Edited on 1-3-2013 by Sidamone]

Neal Johns - 1-1-2013 at 02:36 PM

Sidamone,
Good one!

bajaday - 1-1-2013 at 04:31 PM

We were at Gonzaga on Saturday. We clocked 3 miles from the end of pavement to the Pemex Station. Saw Coco at Rancho Grande, he was returning to his camp, looking great as ever. He told us the same story about his eyes, needs cataract surgery.

David K - 1-1-2013 at 05:03 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by bajaday
We were at Gonzaga on Saturday. We clocked 3 miles from the end of pavement to the Pemex Station. Saw Coco at Rancho Grande, he was returning to his camp, looking great as ever. He told us the same story about his eyes, needs cataract surgery.


Wow indeed... since the Pemex to Chapala is 35 miles, that shortens the total to 38... just a half mile north of Papa Fernandez' road and the new bridge by it?

Perhaps somebody's odometer is off a bit?

Thank you Bajaday!

liknbaja127 - 1-1-2013 at 05:33 PM

We were there this weekend also and yes the road ends right before curves
before, the military check, they have the foundations poured for the new bridge.
Dave K. your mileage looks right! Not much dirt left to Gonzaga:(
Will try to post some pics. from trip.

David K - 1-1-2013 at 09:08 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by liknbaja127
We were there this weekend also and yes the road ends right before curves
before, the military check, they have the foundations poured for the new bridge.
Dave K. your mileage looks right! Not much dirt left to Gonzaga:(
Will try to post some pics. from trip.


Great and thank you!
Here is photo posting guide, let me know if you need further assistance!

================================================

Here are the two methods:

There are two methods... One is direct onto Nomad from your PC files, using the 'Browse' button under the normal posting box... In that case you can only post one photo per post AND it MUST be UNDER 50 kb. in file size. Since this is smaller than most all photos you have on you PC, you need to make a duplicate file with the photo size REDUCED to under 50 kb.

*The BETTER way to show your photos is to hot link to them stored on another website... such as Photobucket.com. It is free (to a certain limit) and has an automatic resizing service... In this case, Nomad requests photos to not exceed 800 pixels in width.

On Photobucket, to upload from your PC,

1) click the red button 'Upload now'.

2) In the next window you see, at the top of the big box, in small blue letters, click: Customize your upload options

3) In the pop up see these choices (and more to resize to):
100x75
160x120
320x240
640x480
800x600
1024x768 ...
>>Pick 640x480 for most photos... this is the selection refered to as 'Large'.
>>Pick 800x600 for maps or max. detail images max. size to fit on 15" screens.

[note: this doesn't affect your photos on your PC, just sizes them for perfect message board viewing on any PC]

4) Select photos (press Select Photos button) from your PC to resize and store on Photobucket. You can have multiple files on Photobucket to organize them.

Now, to put on Nomad!

1) Place your mouse arrow over the photo (in your Photobucket album) you want and get a small pop up with some codes for linking them to various media.

See the one called 'IMG code'? Click your mouse on it to copy it... It will confirm 'copied'.

2) On the Nomad posting box, paste that code.

You can have text above or below the image link... have several images perhaps a dozen max... and then do a reply post to add more... so as to not have too many on a single frame.

The photo url begins with http:// and ends with .jpg (usually) and the IMG code puts your photos url between the tags [img] and [/img]

If your photo is already on a web site, you can click this icon located above where you type onto Nomad (not quick reply):
and just put in the image url, and the tags are automatically added on to show your photo here.