Bouncing down Baja

Day 2

I woke up early at Alfonsina's after a night of not the best sleep due to a small bed and 2 grande people sharing it I got some photo's of the sunrise and took a walk along the beach to check out the various casa's and then had Coffee and a delicious breakfast of mexican style huevos and papas. I went back to the room and woke up mi esposa so we could get an early start on the road to Coco's and on to BOLA. We were able to watch the 2 planes take off and they did a low level flyby to the delight of us and all of the dirt bikers gearing up for their trip.

We had fueled up in Puertecito's so we were just fine for fuel for our trip onward to Coco's and Hwy 1. We ended up meeting a couple groups of dirtbikers at Coco's our friends from the previous night at the hotel as well as another family who spend every Presidents weekend down here riding their bikes.

Coco was in town with one of his Amigo's getting supplies I assume so I was a tad bummed I did not have the privilege of meeting him. We had some pre-tarde beers and bought some stickers and refused all of our change since this place was obviously special. I hope the new road does not bypass him by very far.

Once we reached Hwy 1 we made good time to the turn off to BOLA. The drive was pretty uneventful until we came over the rise and BOLA came into view. We pulled off the road by the radio tower and took several pictures of the beauty that lay in front of us. We went on down into town and drove from one end to the other. We stopped at Guillermo's for a delicious lunch of both fish taco's and shrimp taco's. SO delicious and the best we have had so far.

We then proceeded to look for a room with a reasonable price, internet and a queen bed! All of the places seemed to be missing one of them and all seemed remote and empty. Los Viento's was very pretty but there was no one there and the rooms that were within our budget were smoking rooms.

Villa Bahia was another stop and it may be pet friendly but the pets that were there looked to be starving and in poor health. The odor of urine as you walk into the office courtyard was depressing as well. We rang the bell several times and there seemed to be no one around. The vibe we got with the pets and the odor was just a total turn off.

We left and went to look at Daggett's and Raquel and Larry's. The latter had no internet but looked OK otherwise. Daggetts was also OK on our list but we wanted to look at the rest of the places in town. The places in town (besides Guillermo's) were either full or not the right size beds.

We took a drive up the hill above town to Hotel Princess since we saw the crudely painted signs along the road coming in. we were unprepared for what we found. We found a wonderful place with very clean rooms comfortable QUEEN beds (their website says double which is incorrect) internet access and a very welcoming host with a couple dogs and cat that were obviously well cared for and did not look emaciated and starving.

I can't recommend this hotel enough. While it is not on the beach and the road up the hill is rather challenging, it has a million dollar view! The vibe was good so here we are. Oh, $480 peso's /night with internet and plush towels!

Dinner was at Reyna's that was pretty good and met Manny and his lawyer friend Carlos and had a great conversation about all sorts of topics and kept Reyna up well past her 10pm closing time! Manny also treated us to a bottle of wine he had with him and that was so nice of him since the place does not normally serve alcohol.

Back to the Princess for a wonderful nights sleep in a very comfortable queen bed was the conclusion to our day!

yes, I know, I need to upload pictures ... soon I promise!

Day 3 coming up in the next day or 2!

..Jaybo

Day 3

This was a sleep in morning, with long hot showers and a late breakfast at alejandrina's as was already suggested. We took off south of town and after a couple dead ends found the road towards Rincon. We found the playa at Vista del Mar I think it is called and the small beach there was beautiful Not sure what the ruins are on the side of the hill there, I assume something to do with mining years ago.

After relaxing for a while and wandering around the area we headed south towards Rincon. It made us think about why people would want to be so far away from town on an already remote area and rough road. Seems to me you would want to be able to visit with more people and be closer to town. Different strokes I suppose. At Rincon the security guard was friendly but firm in not allowing us to go in to see the houses there.

It was also incredibly windy out there and when we opened our door for a pit stop our AAA map decided to head east with the wind. Lots of fun trying to catch up to it which after a couple hundred yards it wrapped itself around a bush ... The wind continued to blow hard all day so we headed back to our room and had a nice siesta for a couple hours.

We woke up after a couple hours and the wind was still blowing quite hard over the mountain behind us. We decided to go to Guillermo's for dinner after really enjoying our lunch there the day before. Wechose right as the chef came out and explained their specials and suggested choices in regards to Judy's dietary restrictions. It was not only incredibly delicious but the presentation was equally muy bonito.

We stopped at the Costa Del Sol for an after dinner drink and see if their internet was up since both our hotel and Guillermos was being troublesome, and we needed to check for some important business email we were anticipating. The joys of owning your own business, you can't ever seem to get totally away. Internet was fantastic here so we ordered margarita's and they brought us chips and the best salsa we have ever eaten. We asked for it to go it was so good We enjoyed our excellent margarita's, caught up on our email and wandered back to our hotel on the hill for another great nights sleep even if it did sound like the wind was going to blow us away.

Day 4 - BOLA to G.N. via San Borla

I got up and let momma sleep in and went down for an excellent breakfast at Costa Del Sol their Muchaca as well as their hotcakes were excellent along with the fresh fruit included with each. 75 and 55 pesos each, respectively. I went back to the Princess to get ready for our day and get loaded up to go. It rained a bit overnight and small showers were still coming down. We got all packed up and headed out of town but not before we took a drive around the old round house? or hotel? that is right on the waterfront. What's the story behind that place?

We drove out to the turnoff to San Borla and we sure didn't know what toi expect. The road was in generally good shape but there were some interesting spots! The beauty out here was just amazing especially to Judy and too myself as well. Not having been here before and being in such a remote place on remote roads in a foreign country with no phone service makes you really understand what it must have been like decades ago when the only roads here were similar in condition. We did stop and take pictures on the way.

Once we got to the mission Genaro (?) came out to great us and took us on a tour of his farm and give us the real history of the mission not just what is printed in the books. What a super nice guy he was and he knew hi place well. The Lady that gives tours was not there (turned out we passed her going the other way on the road to Bahia) so we were not able to go inside the mission. It was still beautiful to see and the history and remoteness gave us great appreciation for Genero and the family who have tended the place for generations. What a place and lifestyle to grow up in.

After a nice tip for the wonderful tour and history lesson and an exchange of emails we took the road out to Rosarito. For being a supposedly better road it had obviously seen a lot of rain and was quite rough and rugged in some areas. Whoever it was in another thread who said they could drive the whole thing in an hour either had better road or a built long travel buggy! Nothing terrible just some pretty rough and rutted sections and some fairly deep sand in the washes.

There was a military checkpoint just before Rosarito on the dirt road and the soldiers were very friendly and we chatted for a while with what we assumed to be the person in charge. It was very unexpected for us to see them there but it also made sense to us as well.

Once out to Hwy 1 we stopped for a soda and bag of chips and proceeded down the hwy. Another military stop that was short and we were waved on. I don't know how people with big trailers or the truck drivers do it. my hands were numb from gripping the wheel so hard at how narrow some of the section to GN was! The $2 spray the car stop and next thing we know we are in GN at the Cowboy and greeted by Shari with a big hug for each of us! Carne Taco's and Pacifico's for dinner with all of the folks going on the whale watching trip tomorrow was a good time. Well, at least we hope to make the trip. It may be stormy but we will see what happens in the morning. Great internet here and I am uploading todays photo's to my photobucket account.

We're going to bounce off to bed since we are meeting in the parking lot at 6:30am for our morning pow-wow and if the weather is good make it out to kiss some whales

..Jaybo

It was indeed a pleasure to be in the company of whales with you and your wife...who wins the prize for the most questions asked!!! She will forever be remembered as the whale pig...she really hogged that calf!!! just kidding...the calf LOVED her!



and here is Jaybo communing with the momma as her calf looked on



we look forward to hanging out with you more on your next trip kids...cheers

what a fun video...it was like being there all over again!!! I loved your photos too but I notice that you may have missed this unique moment...remember...when she turned over and showed us all her booty!!! Here it is in glowing technicolor folks...parental digression recommended ...frontal whale nudity.

Day 6

On to Mulege via Hwy 1 - After a great breakfast of fish and shrimp taco's from Tony at Taco's El Muelle



in GN we hit the road for Mulege. Pretty uneventful drive other than hands going to sleep from gripping the wheel so hard! I don't know how the truckers and bus drivers do it. We made it to San Ignacio and stopped to check out the mission and walk around their very pretty town.











From there we moved on down the road to Santa Rosalia where there was lots of construction and mining activity. We went to a well reviewed restaurant in the Moon Baja book (from 2007) El Muelle Rest. & Bar - Don't waste your time. Mediocre food at high prices and the service wasn't that great either. We continued stopping at San Bruno for a quick walk on the beach to stretch our legs



After that we made our way to Mulege and checked in at Cliffs Place. Cliff and Suzy were of course very welcoming and our room was perfect! Very comfortable bed and nice kitchen area. Internet here was the best of the trip so far as well! We went to El Candile for dinner and had excellent fish and shrimp taco's washed down with ice cold cervesa's. We headed back to Cliff's place and snuggled up for another cool night from the wind that was determined to follow us down the coast.

Day 7

Mulege - After taking the clothes off the line that Cliff and Suzy had let us wash the night before, We spent the day exploring around the area with our first stop out to the lighthouse to take a few pictures. It was quite windy again today as it had been our whole trip other than our whale trip day.















From there we drove on into town and to the other side of the river after a lunch of Carnita's taco's at Taquiria Danny's as suggested by Pompano - Wow, excellent! We meandered the streets and found a dirt road that turned to rock road that looked kind of fun, we crawled out over this little rock hump and were rewarded with another beautiful view.



mi bonita esposa






Living dangerously


We then made our way to the mission on the hill.







I was sure I had taken pictures from the front but this ended up as the only picture of the mission I had on the camera.



Looking down at the salt/freshwater dam



Maybe these pictures of myself made the camera delete the others? Doesn't make sense though..





From there we went back to Cliffs place and we proceeded to try a stir fry with vegetables bought off a truck earlier that morning. These included beets I wish I had taken pictures of the results since it looked like someone had been disemboweled! After supper it was off to bed for another cool night.