BajaNomad - Worst Baja Camping Experience Yet........

Worst Baja Camping Experience Yet........

Ateo - 9-1-2013 at 05:25 PM

We arrived at Las Canadas Friday. We were playing poker at a friends campsite when around 12AM (midnight) a truck backed into our camp site across the dirt lot. At first I thought they were backing in to turn around or something.

My wife and mother in law started to gaze over there concerned. I said, "Chill out, there's noooooo way someone would pull into our campsite and set up camp".

They started to unpack their truck, which was parked 2 feet from our tent. No exaggeration.

We went over to talk with them. They said they couldn't find an empty camp site. We told them the most friendliest manner that we just walked the dogs and saw tons of empty spots everywhere.

They said that they would just set up their tents on the hill behind our campsite. We could not believe this was happening. Who just rolls into a campground at midnight and parks 2 feet away from your tent? How does someone do that? Who does that?

Rude jerks do that.

Tensions started to rise. My wife started yelling at them. This went on for an hour. Security came by. They did NOTHING. They said the rules didn't prohibit this from happening.

Violence seemed inevitable.

I was tired of arguing. I gave up and said, "F it, if you want this spot so badly you can have it." We backed the truck out and drug our tent over to my friends site.

I went to sleep furious that night, even after some Cazadores.

Sorry for whining.

[Edited on 9-2-2013 by Ateo]

BajaBlanca - 9-1-2013 at 05:30 PM

Very rude and so unnecessary!

SFandH - 9-1-2013 at 05:37 PM

I've had the same thing happen at Santispac. Three carloads of people showed up in the middle of the night and set-up camp right on top of us. I eventually went back to sleep in our cab over camper and woke up to hear a guy snoring in a tent a foot away from my truck. I guess they wanted our palapa, and they got it. There were others available. We were gone 30 minutes after we woke up. Very unsophisticated people. Bottom of the barrel.

Bajaboy - 9-1-2013 at 05:39 PM

seems to happen to me more in Baja than in California :?:

Ateo - 9-1-2013 at 05:43 PM

Thanks for listening. :lol:

SFandH, that's a bummer, but like you said, better to just let it go and save your sanity.

SFandH - 9-1-2013 at 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bajaboy
seems to happen to me more in Baja than in California :?:

Yes, it's the downside of Mexican culture. I think, I hope, the inconsideration of others that is prevalent in Mexico is becoming less prevalent.

A good aspect of American and Canadian influence.

rts551 - 9-1-2013 at 05:51 PM

Bummer. Bet your friend didn't like your encroachment on them either.

bajabuddha - 9-1-2013 at 05:52 PM

Used to was an old saying in Baja.... "Bad roads, good people".... they sure improved the highway over the last 10 years or so. Also as my anti-hero Ron White would say, "you can't fix stupid".

The glory of camping or trailering is, if you don't like your neighbor, MOVE. That's why I never bought in to a gringolandia.

SFandH - 9-1-2013 at 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bajabuddha
Used to was an old saying in Baja.... "Bad roads, good people".... they sure improved the highway over the last 10 years or so. Also as my anti-hero Ron White would say, "you can't fix stupid".

The glory of camping or trailering is, if you don't like your neighbor, MOVE. That's why I never bought in to a gringolandia.

All of that is true. A problem for me is that I've had my fill of bad roads. There's a reason they call them bad.

MMc - 9-1-2013 at 05:57 PM

Wife and I were coming home from 10 day trip. (labor day weekend) So we drove in to meet up with friends, grand parents to toddlers. We were a group parked in a circle (10 tents and Mohos). About 12:00 a party rolls in right next to us and the dunes. Their trailers is 5 feet from the only opening in the circle. Unload the quads, 4 of them and start to ride. I kid you not, they were using the dunes and our circle as a race track. They didn't understand way we got upset. It was not pretty but they did stop riding that night. Wife and I left the next morning, the rest of the weekend for our friends is a great story. Now call Labor day weekend in hell. Sometimes it just happens. Sorry it was your turn.

Ateo - 9-1-2013 at 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by rts551
Bummer. Bet your friend didn't like your encroachment on them either.

Funny thing is they wanted us to camp on their spot but I felt it was a little too tight. When I backed out to try and move to the new site, I backed into a tree branch, broke a window on my camper shell and dented the truck. I should've just stayed on my extended family's site from the beginning.

rts551 - 9-1-2013 at 06:02 PM

ugggghhhhhh

DENNIS - 9-1-2013 at 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bajaboy
seems to happen to me more in Baja than in California :?:

Some them [ them is Mexicans] live like they drive. Total mememe a-holes. Racists as well.

DENNIS - 9-1-2013 at 06:11 PM

The great cultural equalizer:

http://www.udap.com/

Ateo - 9-1-2013 at 06:12 PM

They had California plates.

woody with a view - 9-1-2013 at 06:13 PM

yeah, it is all coming together now. they drive like the rules of the road don't apply to them, so why should they care about camping on top of you? maybe they think it enhances their chances of getting ___________, fill in the blank!

DENNIS - 9-1-2013 at 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ateo
Funny thing is they wanted us to camp on their spot but I felt it was a little too tight. When I backed out to try and move to the new site, I backed into a tree branch, broke a window on my camper shell and dented the truck. I should've just stayed on my extended family's site from the beginning.

Sorry this happened to you, Jon. Wish you'd had my phone number. You folks would have been welcome here. Plenty of room....and cold beer.

Keep it in mind for next time.

woody with a view - 9-1-2013 at 06:16 PM

at least Neptune granted you a pardon and let you thru the border nightmare early! i'm thinking the more you think about it the better you'll feel. if the surf was pumping and you had a great weekend you'd still be in line.

it's the price we pay for a good time..... :cool:

tripledigitken - 9-1-2013 at 06:17 PM

Pretty routine stuff for Easter camping.

DENNIS - 9-1-2013 at 06:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ateo
They had California plates.

Most locals here do, but I see your point. Pochos and Chilangos aren't what this place is about.

BTW....Pochos are the worst racists. Men without a country, as my Mex friends call them.

.

[Edited on 9-2-2013 by DENNIS]

Ateo - 9-1-2013 at 06:32 PM

That is very kind of you. Thanks Dennis.

Quote:

Originally posted by DENNIS

Quote:

Sorry this happened to you, Jon. Wish you'd had my phone number. You folks would have been welcome here. Plenty of room....and cold beer.

Keep it in mind for next time.

Barry A. - 9-1-2013 at 06:35 PM

What a Bummer!!!! We had that happen several times over the many years. We never camped in organized campgrounds, so were always on the open beach, usually far from anybody, and usually just men on our trips. If somebody came and started to move in close to us we had several ways of discouraging that. If the wife and kids were with them, once we just stripped and ran around naked-----that worked after some loud words they moved down the beach. Some times we just whooped and hollered and acted crazy and threw firecrackers in their general vacinity. A couple of times we just decided to chill out, made friends with them, and everything worked out fine from then on. (That was the best solution, I think)

I would not know what to do in an organized campground if the owners would not address it. Maybe just act crazy and depraved, making loud unusual vocal noises would work----I have done that in USFS campgrounds in the States with some success, but my wife did not approve (until they actually moved).

It is probably a cultural thing if Mexicanos are involved.

Barry

Ateo - 9-1-2013 at 06:38 PM

And the damaged truck, shell and window. Bad weekend for sure.

Ateo - 9-1-2013 at 06:40 PM

You are right about it being the price we pay for a good time Woody, my friend.

I'll post my trip report mañana if I get time and I PROMISE TO NOT SOUND SO DEPRESSED THEN. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Quote:

Originally posted by woody with a view
at least Neptune granted you a pardon and let you thru the border nightmare early! i'm thinking the more you think about it the better you'll feel. if the surf was pumping and you had a great weekend you'd still be in line.

it's the price we pay for a good time..... :cool:

DENNIS - 9-1-2013 at 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Barry A.

It is probably a cultural thing if Mexicanos are involved.

Barry

No excuse for rudeness. Not culture....not nuthin. They knew what they were doing.....all from a position of bullying power.

Now....back to this air purifying method: http://www.udap.com/

Barry A. - 9-1-2013 at 08:01 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DENNIS

Quote:

Originally posted by Barry A.

It is probably a cultural thing if Mexicanos are involved.

Barry

No excuse for rudeness. Not culture....not nuthin. They knew what they were doing.....all from a position of bullying power.

Now....back to this air purifying method: http://www.udap.com/

"bully's" would be a problem, I suppose. I just never looked at it that way, and probably would not recognize "bullying". But even bully's don't know what to do with apparently crazy people, so they just gave up and moved on. It was never a problem, really, and I never got mad-----but certainly caused them to move. Whatever works.

I love your Grizz spray, Dennis----------THAT would work!!!

Barry

Rude People

J.P. - 9-1-2013 at 08:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by soulpatch
I had a similiar experience.... camping with my kids in a very empty place and some dilberts showed up about midnight, unpacked and started partying hard.
I asked them to chill because we were really established and even asked them to move.
I got the predictable answer and I chilled because I did not want to make an ugly scene uglier in front of my kids.

Right about daybreak I got up and noticed they were passed out half out of their tents and there were a LOT of empty bottles laying around.

I thought that would be a great time for my kids to have a screaming contest.... nothing like 4 kids aged 5-8 with those amazingly high pitched voices seeing who could scream loudest and longest from 5 feet away.... good lord it was funny!
The look on their faces was priceless and the pain in their eyes was even better.
They boogied in about 1/2 hour when they saw that I was just going to sit back, enjoy my coffee and sweeten the contest pot with prizes.

Soul Patch that's too funny. Unfortunately Bad Behavior knows no Class or Ethnic Boundaries . Karma is usually not too far behind some of those types. Then there's the ones that don't even realize they are Stupid . Like they say " You Can't Fix Stupid"

windgrrl - 9-1-2013 at 08:43 PM

Can understand all too well...we had to shift a family who was annoying a whole site last season. We were able to get them to move their extraneous stuff off our spot so we could pull our rig in after a 7 day haul. We served as a buffer for our neighbours who were fed up with the noise and abuse. I tried to get to know theses folks, but...they were tough hombres to get to know. Eventually felt sorry for them as they were one unhappy bunch.

May your next trip make up for the aggravation,
W

mulegemichael - 9-1-2013 at 08:47 PM

We used to gunkhole all over the san juan islands up in washington in our boat....one fall day we pulled into a marine park and dropped the hook, took our dinghy to shore and set up camp in a campground of around 25 sites or so all around this little secluded island...not another camper in site....around 5ish in the afternoon, as we were cooking our evening meal, a group of 4 kayakers came ashore and given all the other empty campsites on the island, decided to set up RIGHT NEXT to us!...well, seems mr. mike, with his two adult beverages in him,let the kayakers know how he felt about "personal space"....they moved...in a hurry...there are folks out there that just don't get it!!!

woody with a view - 9-1-2013 at 08:48 PM

Quote:

DENNIS - 9-1-2013 at 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mulegemichael
mr. mike, with his two adult beverages in him,let the kayakers know how he felt about "personal space"....

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr......

Good for you, Mike. :lol:

wessongroup - 9-1-2013 at 10:29 PM

Cool thread .... just about everyone has one or two or ...... :lol:

.. fell in a cactus patch once ... that hurt

Skipjack Joe - 9-1-2013 at 11:19 PM

The worst camping experience I've in 35 years of coming to baja was at Daggett's in BOLA

http://www.campdaggetts.info/

A group pulled up next to our campsite and starting to tune their motorcycles. That went on for hours because one didn't run right. They would gun the accelerator at different rates, adjust something, then gun it again. Suddenly the place had the ambiance of a nascar track. Then they started racing them up and down the rows between campsites. Even when they left the campground you could hear the racket of those machines from the town to La Gringa.

Trying to sleep angry is just not healthy.

Have to agree with Barry about boondock camping but running around naked to discourage campers seems extreme and not something I could do.

vandy - 9-2-2013 at 05:16 AM

I've noticed that noise, dust, smoke, litter, pee, feces, fire hazards, fireworks, untrained pets, obnoxious children, dangerous driving, blocked views, lack of personal space, and lack of privacy...well, they don't seem to bother some people a bit.

When you've finally had enough and actually go over (like ten feet) to explain your perspective, they all stop and stare at you with vacant-but-wary prairie-dog gazes.
Just like a prairie dog, they are waiting to see if you pose an actual threat. Talk is just talk, and won't register.

Good luck with that.
I move at the first sign.

paranewbi - 9-2-2013 at 05:54 AM

I use the car as a buffer on one side of the camp area. On the far side of the car I dig a little in some areas and then pile up the loose sand to look like these are small burial sites...then I shove the camp shovel in one of the piles and put the TP on the handle...tends to keep the potential neighbors at bay for a quiet night sleep. If there is extraneous noise that is disturbing my peace I might walk over to one of the piles and pour some beer out of my bladder for all to observe in that obnoxious group.
On the other side of my 'camp zone' goes the fir pit with lots of wood piled and chairs set out around it...this set up gives me a good amount of privacy.

pappy - 9-2-2013 at 08:07 AM

mexitron and I were posted up at a somewhat remote surf spot, with nobody else around. truck pulls in right next us. at least he had the courtesy of asking if they could camp right next us. we pointed out that there was plenty of room on the point; that we go there to get away from people not camp right next to them-especially when there was plenty of wide open space. guy was a little peeed by our response. can't remember if they stayed or not. seems like they went up the coast a bit more...

DENNIS - 9-2-2013 at 08:16 AM

A noisy generator is as good as a fence. If you see a car coming five miles away, pull off the muffler and turn it on.

Barry A. - 9-2-2013 at 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Skipjack Joe

Have to agree with Barry about boondock camping but running around naked to discourage campers seems extreme and not something I could do.

LOL---------well, it was 10pm and we had several cervesas and were feeling no pain when these folks pulled up. It seemed appropriate at the time. In hind-site------------not so cool, but it worked like a charm. Ugly-Americans dealing with ugly-Mexicanos in this case.

Barry

Ateo - 9-2-2013 at 09:46 AM

Lots of great anti-personal space tactics here. I'm taking notes. Diggin holes and placing TP on a shovel is my favorite.

absinvestor - 9-2-2013 at 10:23 AM

I guess I've been lucky. A couple of the major holidays at the beach gets crazy. Thousands of Mexican campers arrive on a beach that normally has one or two overnighters (even on the weekends.) They camp inches from the palapa and many party all night. What has worked for me is when they start putting up the tents, portable showers etc I introduce myself. I tell them to have fun. I let them know that my dog is friendly but she is an "American" dog and can't handle chicken bones etc. I communicate some basic desires ie please don't pound nails into my palapa to hold your tarps in place. On the other hand I offer them a compressor to inflate their mattresses and kids toys, a large hammer to secure their tent stakes and a few large garbage bags. Their all night parties generally only last a couple of days and while disturbing they are not the end of the world. I think the major difference is the campers have been large extended families (sometimes as many as 50 to the group)looking to have a fun vacation vs a few teenagers looking to show off. Like Americans some are more respectful than others but in general even the really large groups can be good temporary neighbors and a great source of delicious food since they are more than willing to share!! While I would prefer that they give me more space I keep telling myself it is not my beach!!

SFandH - 9-2-2013 at 11:13 AM

A tactic that works for me if the old dawg isn't sleeping is to let him bark his head off when people pull in too close. There have been several times where the folks moved on.

Hmmmm. Think I'll make a Perro Bravo sign with an image of snarling dog with blood dripping off his teeth and get rid of the Welcome sign.

[Edited on 9-2-2013 by SFandH]

monoloco - 9-2-2013 at 03:46 PM

My theory on this is, that people who grow up sleeping 15 people in a two room shack, have no concept of encroaching on someone's privacy.

apogee - 10-16-2013 at 06:51 PM

There are buttcracks in every culture. It is just extra maddening when you are treated so poorly by a group of people that are in your native countries face. They are separate issues but the slow burn is in there somewhere.....

rdrrm8e - 10-17-2013 at 09:35 AM

Why not just grab a roll of tp...walk over to their tent opening or campfire..squat and pinch a loaf right there.

Problem solved.

Skipjack Joe - 10-17-2013 at 09:50 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by rdrrm8e
Why not just grab a roll of tp...walk over to their tent opening or campfire..squat and pinch a loaf right there.

Problem solved.

... because you'll end up with a loaf at your doorstep the following morning?