Summer 2019-Post San Juanico Trip Part 4 (Loreto to San Diego)

(Continued from Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3)

Tuesday - Day 20

We started the day with breakfast at Orlando’s (Fco. I. Madero s/n, Centro, 23880 Loreto, B.C.S., Mexico - 26.011953, -111.342709). I tried the Trio Mexicano (Chiliquiles, steak, and eggs). It was delicious! One of my favorite breakfasts of the trip. We went and walked through the Loreto Mission. The girls enjoyed the museum there, and the locals enjoyed watching Brinley walking around through the courtyard. We got on the road and headed north. We stopped at El Requesón. This is one of the favorite stops for the kids. We seem to stop here each trip we take to Baja, and the kids love it. We let them snorkel and swim for a bit, and the dogs made some friends.





After a bit here, we continued up the road and stopped in Santa Rosalía. We wanted to check out Iglesia de Santa Bárbara, but there was actually a funeral going on when we arrived; the place was packed. We navigated up the narrow streets into town (only really narrow because we had our trailer and everything in tow). We found a parking spot to accommodate our setup, and walked around to find a place to eat. We stumbled upon El Muelle (Centro, 23920 Santa Rosalía, Baja California Sur, Mexico - 27.336525, -112.268499). The patio was inviting (and dog friendly), and the food was good. The girls got a pizza, and I got the arrechera, which was outstanding. Service was a bit slow, but nothing to complain much about.




We had heard reports that there was smoke coming from one of the peaks at Tres Virgines.. thought of possible eruption. I couldn’t find anything online about it, but the kids were worried. We drove past and made a game of looking for smoke. We saw nothing but the bright blue sky and a few clouds. Love the internet rumors!

We continued on to San Ignacio for the night, and again stayed at La Huerta.

Wednesday - Day 21

We went to breakfast at Rene’s (27.283605, -112.896841), just east of the plaza. After we ordered, our server appeared to run down the street to the store to buy everything we wanted. The Macahca was very good, everything else was so-so. The ice cream shop was closed, and the girls were sad. We continued on.

Just before Guerro Negro, we saw a sign on the southwest side of the road for “whales”, which pointed us down a graded dirt road. It seemed like a fun detour, so we headed down the road. After almost 4 miles, we came to a huge fenced area, and an unmanned security shack. It appeared to be a mining or salt processing operation. Regardless, there was no place to view whales down this road. Back to the highway we went.

I realized at about the 5 turnoff, that my trailer plug had come unplugged from the truck, and the whole plug was ground to nothing. I figured we’d have a lot of daylight left, as our plan was to stop at Baja Cactus, so I wasn’t too worried. We filled up at El Rosario Pemex and started talking to the attendant. She was adamant that Baja Cactus had no parking for my trailer, and did NOT allow dogs. Since we were running low on daylight (and I had NO trailer lights), I decided to not even go next door to verify, I just got back on the highway and hammered down, hoping to make it to San Quintin. Research later showed that I probably would have been OK with both of these concerns… Regardless, we got to San Quintin at just about dusk, and pulled into the Old Mill. A tour bus had just pulled in, and I was informed that there were NO more rooms available. We went next door to Don Eddie’s and got situated for the night. There was a local dog that stayed outside our room ALL night. It was kinda cool, but a little annoying since we had to take our dogs out and our “friend” just wanted to play with them. It was a built in security guard, I suppose.



Thursday - Day 22

We walked next door for breakfast at Eucalipto (Camino al Molino Viejo S/N, 22930 San Quintín, B.C., Mexico - 30.485035, -115.977328), since I’d heard great things. I had chiliquikis. Amazing and HUGE portion. Julianna got the French toast, and said it was awesome amazing. Leana and Jolene shared the fruit plate, which was huge. I informed the chef — struggling in my broken (but, after 3 weeks in Baja, IMPROVING) español — that after 3 weeks in Baja, this was the best meal that we had eaten. In perfect english, he replied, “Thanks, we try!”. We both got a chuckle of that exchange.






A quick stop at the Autozone allowed me to get a new trailer wiring connector. On to the next planned stop of Meling Ranch (30.971965, -115.743763). We arrived shortly after noon, and met David, the owner. He introduced us to Ari and we got our rooms. I believe that we were the only guests there, and had the entire place to ourselves. I asked David about any trails to take the razors out on, and he pointed us to which gates to go through that would lead us onto some old SCORE race courses.

One of Leana’s fondest childhood memories was when her family went to Punta Final, and her parents and uncles setup a “treasure hunt” that all the kids went on (the kids all thought it was REAL). Flash back to New Years 2018… The family took a trip to camp at Seven Sisters. A lot of Leana’s family went on that trip too. Leana and her cousins setup a similar treasure hunt for OUR kids and their cousins. I’ll post some picture of that at some point, great memories. Anyway, one of the “clues” on the treasure map mentioned that there were jewels and gold from the Meling family. From the day that our kids found that treasure, they’ve been talking about going to the Meling Ranch and bringing some of the family treasure back to them.

As we checked in, I informed David and Ari of the kid’s treasure hunt a couple years back, and told them that the girls wanted to “bring back” some of their treasure. David and Ari were now “in” on the story. Later in the day, I typed some stuff into Google Translate, and let Julianna tell Ari that she had their treasure to return, and that she wanted to make sure it got back to the rightful owner. Ari typed a response back to Julianna informing her of how happy she was about getting it back. It was an AMAZING experience for the kiddos, and I think for Ari too!! I think she hung a “jewel” on the wall in their dining hall.




We got everything situated and took the razor out on a trail ride. We found some really cool trails out to the south west of Melling Ranch. Once we returned back, the girls played in the sprinklers in the lawn, and we had a great steak dinner.








Friday - Day 23

We had breakfast at Melling Ranch, and headed out for the San Pedro Martir national park. We wanted to take the girls up to the observatory. We met a fantastic tour guide there, and we got to go up into the telescope and check things out. Julianna was in HEAVEN (she wants to be a linguist AND an archaeologist AND an astronomer. I think Julianna actually taught the guide something!






We headed back down the mountain, got everything packed back up, told the Melling family goodbye, and headed towards home. We stopped north of Ensenada for a last pass at some street tacos…. El Trailero (Carretera Transpeninsular Ensenada, Carr. a Tijuana no. 353, El Sauzal, 22760 Ensenada, B.C., Mexico - 31.891662, -116.693723)



It was still a few hours before dark, so we decided to just make our way home. We made it through the Otay crossing in about 20 minutes, no issues. We were home by 930 PM.

SUCH an AMAZING trip… we were excited to be home, but as soon as we were home, we were already sad and missing Baja.