Porky Pig - 2-26-2005 at 06:54 PM
Been visiting Baja quite a while. Here is photo proff of since 1959. I am in the center. What ever happened to the "zebras"?
Great Picture P. Pig
Mike Humfreville - 2-26-2005 at 07:25 PM
I used to go down in the late '40's with my mom. In the '50's (I guess) we camped on the open beaches south of Rosarito. We stayed at Estero Beach
Resort shortly after they were built, I go back there today and the resort is just as it was.
In the '60's I started exploring south, bought a Toyota FJ-40 and got as far as Malarrimo, La Paz and other destinations. In the early '70's I
discovered Bahia de Los Angeles and that's been pretty much our main hangout ever since. We look forward to retiring and having time to seek out side
road as yet untraveled.
Oink!
First trip (Tijuana) was in 1957....
Ken Bondy - 2-26-2005 at 07:29 PM
married in Ensenada in 1962. Numerous camping trips by RV to Ensenada area when kids started arriving in 1965. First trip to BCS (Rancho Buena
Vista) in 1965. First flying trip 1974 (Palmilla). Over 100 flying trips (private aircraft) all over the peninsula (kept locker at Punta San
Francisquito) between 1974 and 1989. Three major driving trips in Hummer H1 since 2001.
Forgot to say I loved the picture also P.Pig.
[Edited on 2-27-2005 by Ken Bondy]
[Edited on 2-27-2005 by Ken Bondy]
tortillas
Porky Pig - 2-26-2005 at 07:46 PM
I remember when mom & dad took us down to Baja and we used to see thewomen making tortillas by pulling up their skirts and pounding out tortillas on
their thighs. That was the way to make tortillas back then!
Porky
Baja Bernie - 2-26-2005 at 07:56 PM
Are you sure that you havn't got this confused with making thigh tile for roofs. Done the same way but not nearly as tasty????
P. Pig
Mike Humfreville - 2-26-2005 at 08:03 PM
Suggest that you submit photos to support this thigh tortillas process. Some improvised methods deserve closer investigation.
Whoa! I was looking too!
yankeeirishman - 2-26-2005 at 09:23 PM
So.....you were the kid that budded in line for the photoshot!
surfer jim - 2-26-2005 at 10:31 PM
since 1969....and I have never had my photo with the ZEBRA.....
tim40 - 2-26-2005 at 11:14 PM
Since 62
djh - 2-26-2005 at 11:56 PM
1974.... Geeze, I feel like such a kid ! !
and btw... I appreciate being able to call someone else my "elder" :moon:
since the early 60's
BajaVida - 2-27-2005 at 09:18 AM
one vivid memory I have is going to a Chinese restaurant in Mexicali when I was about 10
I wish I had a picture of my face when I first heard Chinese people speaking Spanish
I did not know it was possible
We also used to camp at El Faro Beach near Estero Beach
I remember riding in the back of a pickup, sitting on the wheel well and going up to San Carlos Hot Springs, crossing the stream bed maybe 10 times,
was my butt sore
and of course the firecrackers, cherry bombs and bottle rockets
[Edited on 2-28-2005 by BajaVida]
bajalou - 2-27-2005 at 09:36 AM
First, of course Tijuana, 1952. A much enforced requirement of service men in San Diego in those days.
pappy - 2-27-2005 at 10:15 AM
first trip was with folks in '68-camped out at estero bay.i'll never forget my first impressions from that trip-the cardboard (and whatever else)
houses in TJ-the dirt streets everywhere, smiling faces and the friendliest, most sincere people i ever met.remember walking down one sidestreet (dirt
of course)in ensenada in am, looking for a place to eat.ended up eating at some familly's house.as i recall it was like a canvas tent covered area,
with tables and chairs, along with a goat and some chickens roaming around.they person waiting on us kept going through a slit at the back of this
"tent".i was finally able to see that it was there house and we were eating in their front yard! they were so friendly , and the best breakfast i
think i ever had!that was it for me.got that "Baja fever" right then and there.heck, i wanted to move there right away!even though i was still just a
kid, i felt very comfortable there....
1969
Hook - 2-27-2005 at 10:28 AM
Beach camping at Cantamar area.
Drove the unpaved route from Ensenada to San Felipe in 1975 in a Datsun station wagon.
Wow, you guys are old.
DanO - 2-27-2005 at 11:18 AM
Christmas 1969, with my dad and evil stepmother in a cabover camper. We spent the first freezing night at La Bufadora, eating spicy rolled tacos
cooked on a pot bellied stove at the old place across the road from what is now Gordo's. So many singular experiences. A red fox loping down a levee
road. A desert oasis surrounded by empty beer cans and wrecked cars. A yellowtail boil on a panga out of Mulege. Steaming bowls of cioppino under
the stars at Playa Coyote. Hammocks. Butter clams like little topes just under the surface of the sand at Playa Requeson. Creamy avocados the size
of canteloupes. Hot bolillos and those pink cookies that coat the roof of your mouth with lard and sugar. Excuse me, but I gotta go get something to
eat now.
tim40 - 2-27-2005 at 11:26 AM
Do you know what the greatest thing is though? Each time I visit, I still feel like a kid seeing it for the first time...It is my passion..
guess i'm justa pup
woody with a view - 2-27-2005 at 01:05 PM
75? a friends parents had a place at gaviotas. spent the weekend. the next time was 79, ditching 8th grade to ride with my buddies to surf at popotla
when you could park near the monument and not have your windows broke and stuff stolen.
best times were the summers between 83 and 85 when we'd meet up at the jobsite at 3:30 and head south for the L.E.G.O. (late evening glass-off). be at
rosarito or calafia an hour later and surf alone for 2 hours and be home by dark, sunburned and ready for bed...
Sharksbaja - 2-27-2005 at 01:31 PM
MCMLIX
Since 1951 TJ and Ensenada
capn.sharky - 2-27-2005 at 02:51 PM
not long enough
eetdrt88 - 2-27-2005 at 02:54 PM
hit the crazy streets of TJ at 17 for the first time,got hammered and had a blast(barely avoided going to jail)...went on a few surf trips and got to
ride waves with dolphins just south of rosarito....then went with a church group to work on an orphanage(i forget where)-later on after at least a
10 year absence from baja,a buddy and I in a drunken, heat(middle of july) induced stupor rolled into gonzaga bay.....this being my first glimpse of
the sea of cortez,it was love at first sight and have been back to visit her many times,oh btw this all started about 1988 or maybe 89
The first time
baitcast - 2-27-2005 at 02:57 PM
1964...Gonzaga bay....VW Bus wife and two kids,and it was a hoot,good thing I took a shovel.
BAITCAST
ist time
tehag - 2-27-2005 at 03:15 PM
August, 1945. Tijuana birthday party for me and my cousin. Smitten at once and haven't gotten over a bit of it.
lizard lips - 2-27-2005 at 03:31 PM
My Parents bought a home just North of Estero Beach in 63'. We sometimes would go into Ensenada and buy dinner at the first Col. Sanders on Reforma
and I remember saying that it was not chicken but seagull we were eating. The owner of the Col. Sanders was a real nice guy with 5 daughters. I was
only 12 years old but I fell in love with one of them. She was beautiful. It not until I moved to Ensenada in 1988 when I was still single when I met
my wife who I found out was one of the Daughters of the owner of Col. Sanders. She is now my wife but it was her older Sister that I had a crush on
several years before. The world really is a small place.
Skeet/Loreto - 2-27-2005 at 05:34 PM
1951- Sailor out of Boot Camp- San Diego
1968- October in a Cessna 170B to check out an see if "The Sea Of Cortes Book by Ray Cannon was True. It Was!!
Fell in Love with Baja and its People.
Skeet/Loreto
First love
bajagrouper - 2-27-2005 at 05:48 PM
Ensanada 1948, I fell in love with Baja,still am.............
gringorio - 2-27-2005 at 07:37 PM
OK, clearly I am a Baja newbie compared to everyone else! But in 1989 (not too long ago really) my brother and I sailed our Hobie 18 on an over
nighter south of San Felipe in preparation for our longer trip. Boy, did we feel like we were in the middle of nowhere! I remember being marooned
way off the beach at low tide, trying to drag the Hobie to the high tide mark and make camp. The air was warm, the Sea smelled so good, the desert
sun was setting and everything was so new to my senses. Someone from a nearby fish camp came to our aid and helped us drag the catamaran up the
beach. Just out of the blue. Little did I know how this kind of selflessness was a standard in Baja. That scene set a lasting impression that keeps
me coming back for more. What a great place! 
El Jefe - 2-27-2005 at 08:09 PM
As I remember it was 1599 and I was sailing as second mate on my uncle Rico?s Manila Galleon. We stopped in at San Jose estuary to take on provisions,
and dude it was unreal! We rowed the launch down the beach and I jumped out and got double overhead Zippers all to myself! After that we stopped in
every year ?cause the Captain was a longboarder from way back. The locals could be a bit of a hassle, but we were cool and always let them have their
go-out before we hit it.
Guess that makes me the king of the ?I been commin? here the longest crew.?
pappy - 2-27-2005 at 08:17 PM
tim40- yep! i get that same feeling every time.as i near the border i keep looking at the hills, comparing them to what i saw on my first trip as a
kid in '68.when i pass ensenada i think about that family that served us breakfast, and as i near estero, i think about the insane rash i got from
playing on an old panga-that night i ended up with an incredible itch and rash-from what? later we figured out it was the rough, weathered and exposed
fiberglass on the bow that i was laying on, reaching down for crabs and squirming around all day on.a multitude of glass splinters embedded in my
bare chest-lesson learned!!
1969
BajaDanD - 2-27-2005 at 10:29 PM
went down with grand parents and Aunts and Uncles. My Grandfather was always going to Baja back then. He would always buy live Lobsters and he would
cook then in a pot. Well my Aunt freeked outwhen he put the live lobsters in boiling water. She had a fit she also was never asked to come down to
Baja again.
Forgot to mention...
Hook - 2-28-2005 at 10:25 AM
....that on that '69 trip, we got word around Cantamar that there was a community of lobster fishermen just north of us that would cook lobsters at
their houses and you would eat right there. I remember all of us climbing into a VW dunebuggy we had brought down (for hitting the dunes just south of
Cantamar) and driving to this community. We ate at a picnic table that was on the side porch of the crustiest old fisherman I had ever seen. The women
of the family did the serving and cooking. As I recall it was all the beans, rice, lobster and tortillas you could eat for 5.00. But you couldn't eat
THAT many as the bugs were much bigger back then. Beers were sold out of an old Kelvinator on the same porch.....I was allowed to have my first
Mexican beer (believe it was a Mexicali) at age 16.
That community was nothing but fishermen's homes as I recall. Man, has it changed now!
It's called Puerto Nuevo.
How long..hmmm, let's see..
Pompano - 2-28-2005 at 02:21 PM
I remember being very wet for a long, long, time and having no legs. Then one day I grew some flippers with fingers and crawled up onto the beach
which became known as Coyote a few millenium later....I can still smell the volcanoes..
I am old.
Pompano
Baja Bernie - 2-28-2005 at 03:25 PM
Ah! Yes, I remembered seeing you as you crawled out of the slime. I think you have this locked up with your story.
El Jefe had me going for a while but I really didn't want to admit my age at that time.
Lizard Lips wonderful story--so like things that can and do happen in this magical land we all love.
Just can't imagine anyone topping Pompano unless the guy who rested on the seventh day checks in with his bonifides.
Bob H - 2-28-2005 at 04:46 PM
First time down was during a San Diego vacation in 1980, to TJ. Then moved to San Diego myself in 1984 and have been going south of the border ever
since.
The zebras are still there - I was shocked to see your photo from 1959. My wife went down to TJ about two years ago with her mom and one nephew and
one niece. We have that same shot sitting in one of our photo albums. I'll see if I can find it and post it here. Amazing. The one thing I noticed
- they are NOT really zebras at all. They are white donkeys painted with black stripes (probably shoe polish)
Bob H
[Edited on 3-1-2005 by Bob H]
Mexitron - 2-28-2005 at 07:12 PM
1975--flew into Gonzaga with Dr. Link Grindle and family--I was hooked from the moment I landed.....still have never seen a clearer night sky than on
that trip--ultra luminescent doesn't even begin to describe it.
First time I drove myself was 1978--went to San Quintin--tried to surf but was chased out of the water by sharks, so we headed to the San Pedro
Martir--(interesting adventure with 2wd back then!)was blown away that this forest was in Baja...
David K - 2-28-2005 at 07:42 PM
Great topic!
Most of you know my story, since Baja has taken over my soul as a kid in 1965!
First trip that year... Gonzaga Bay, by 4WD Jeep Wagoneer south from San Felipe (no paved streets in San Felipe then... just the end of Mex # 5 at the
'La Puerta' Pemex station (long gone). That gave me 'Baja Fever'!
We drove the entire peninsula in 1966 in the Wagoneer (2 week trip). This photo is me after catching my first dorado off Cabo San Lucas, during that
trip. I was not quite 9 years old...
Motor or oars
BajaDanD - 2-28-2005 at 11:08 PM
David did that boat even have a motor or just oars
David K - 3-1-2005 at 12:22 AM
It had a motor... we were way out in the open ocean. In the background is coast, northwest of Cabo San Lucas.
I posted these photos earlier of us motoring around the cape... On board were my parents and I, with the panga operator/ fishing guide.
Bob H - 3-1-2005 at 09:13 AM
I found our TJ Zebra photo and took a digital shot of it (so it's not too clear). But, you can see that it was made in 1998 and has the same pose 39
years later. WOW
Bob H
[Edited on 3-1-2005 by Bob H]
since 1958
Sallysouth - 3-1-2005 at 09:35 AM
And then another Baja loving generation was started in 1968 when my daughter was born in Ensenada!
osoflojo - 3-1-2005 at 03:37 PM
Pompano.....You and your primordial oze recollection say volumes....Many of us/you who are connected by this magical place may have well been there
before Las Tres Virgenes.........in some form or other..............