jim&carol
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Registered: 3-13-2007
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How Busy during Easter Holiday
After having to reschedule our first trip to the Baja, we noticed that we will likely end up crossing the Border (San Ysidro) on April 6. Easter
Suinday is April 8 and the Baja travel books make a point that the Easter holiday is quite busy with Mexican tourists. We are camping with a small
trailer and planning to spend a week or more working our way down to Loreto with a side trip to Bahia de los Angeles.
I would appreciate any help in avoiding long border crossing waits and crowded campgrounds if that is really an issue during the holidays. We can
certainly delay our border crossing date by a few days if that makes sense and are free to juggle our schedule beyond that. Since this is a first
trip, even simple advice would be appreciated.
Jim
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Osprey
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Jim, unless you love crowds put off your trip until the 9th. From mid day on the 5th, through Sunday late night, the 8th, Mexican families will be
gathered together everwhere there is sand and space for their much deserved Easter vacation.
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Osprey
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Happy (Mexican) Campers
Ten O six A.M. A cassette was slipped into the player powered by a humongous amplifier. The unearthly noise blasted from the mega woofers with
enough force to nearly rupture the tympanic membrane; dislodge the delicate malleus and stirrup which struggled to stay in place, recognize and reduce
the overwhelming signals, send them on to the brain.
Thus began Semana Santa. There are uncountable places on the planet where Easter week is a time for religious solemnity, prayer and quietude. Not
here. This little village plays host each year to more than 500 Easter celebrants who turn our quiet beaches into noisy campgrounds. Come close to
the shore and your senses will be jarred, excited, tested. Acrid smoke from driftwood campfires lifts the pungent bite of chorizo frying with eggs
and chilis, flavors and pervades the crowded place. Tents, campers, trucks, cars and people are tightly packed, chockablock. A time for showing off
the brilliant colors of clothes, tents, beach towels – nothing subdued here. Scores of small children frolick in the surf, oblivious to the riotous
pulsing of the huge vocinos, speakers, the daylong chatter of the man near the stage. He must love the sound of his own crisp and witty
pronouncements -- his rapid fire delivery can only be drowned out by the music.
The village prepares for the event as though the guests had rented the place. Graders improve the dirt roads to and around the camping areas,
port-a-potties are deployed. Shades and a large stage are erected. Police, ambulance and first aid people patrol the area day and night. The local
garbage crews keep the whole staging area clean and free of glass or metal that could cut the children’s feet.
All the small stores in town are well-stocked with beer, ice, water, paper products, eggs and hotdogs. At our house we stocked up long ago, put
extra milk and bread in our freezer, eggs in the fridge. At our house we pray. Not so much to consecrate the memory of the Resurrection but to ask
for good camping weather for the hard working vacationers. Looks like this year our prayers have been answered.
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sylens
Senior Nomad
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Mood: ando bajando
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lovely, osprey
similar happenings here at the beach in ensenada where there are porta potties ready and the earnest campers will be arriving soon.
thanks for the word pictures.
lili
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capitolkat
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some friends of ours recently built and occupied a house on the water at Comitan ( La Paz Bay N side) . Last year was their first year for the Easter
celebration in Mexico. The huge blow up bottles of Carona dwarfed the palm trees next to their house and the boom boxes played from dawn to dawn. What
a celebration they said-- from behind their bloodshot eyes. Not a week for a peaceful beach vacation.
Life is too short to drink bad wine
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bajajudy
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Once again you are right on, seahawk
I, too, pray for good weather for the wonderful people of my adopted country so they can celebrate what looks to me like a week of a giant family
reunion on the beach. Que rico, que padre!
That said, I have told my friends who arrive next tues to be prepared for crowded beaches and to be extremely careful driving.
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rhintransit
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Location: Loreto
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all above is true. am south of Loreto, in El Juncalito. our signs are already out to direct people to the right road to Free Beach. no access from
here, but our dirt road is like a freeway with people searching for a way to get there. Free Beach was packed last year. jet skies everywhere. party
atmosphere. fun in a way, but not something you want to camp in. and listening to someone play polka music, the same one and only CD they own, from
1am til dawn isn't something I like to do more than once a year...
Loreto streets and stores will be packed. since both main drags into/out of town are torn up for renovation, it will be a dusty, dirty traffic jam
for awhile. camping, as well as hotels, will be full. my landlord/ neighbor is having a 'small' family gathering here...only (she says only!) 70
people.
delay your departure if you can. but be prepared for the possibility of filthy beaches. clean up is not a Mexican tradition. I hate to even walk
down there until the fall...when the regular beach gringos are back, and clean the place up.
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Capt. George
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Osprey, still a word craftsman....I know who you are now!
number 2
\"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men\" Plato
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BajaBruno
Super Nomad
Posts: 1035
Registered: 9-6-2006
Location: Back in CA
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Mood: Happy
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We were on that beach a few years ago, FishHawk. No more Easters on southern beaches for us since then.
One must consider, however, that most Mexican kids seem to get the week before and the week after Easter off, except for the college types, who get
one or the other week. You're not really safe from dirt bikes screaming through your campsite or 110 db music pointed at your bed for that whole two
week period.
Having said all that, I do have a profound realization that I am the visitor and it's their country.
Christopher Bruno, Elk Grove, CA.
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KurtG
Super Nomad
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Mood: Press On Regardless!!
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Tent to tent on every square inch of sand....boomboxes....camping even on the boat ramps...can't even launch a boat and get away from it
all...Sdoesn't mean sand for what you step in....when they leave they leave all their trash behind...Oh, and don't drive on the
highways during this most solemn of religious holidays.
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Packoderm
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Man, that all sounds like quite a bit of revelry. Are there fistfights and stuff like that as well?
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BajaTrooper
Junior Nomad
Posts: 57
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Location: somewhere cold and wet
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| Quote: | Originally posted by KurtG
Tent to tent on every square inch of sand....boomboxes....camping even on the boat ramps...can't even launch a boat and get away from it
all...Sdoesn't mean sand for what you step in....when they leave they leave all their trash behind...Oh, and don't drive on the
highways during this most solemn of religious holidays.
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Would camping inland, like in the canyons, provide some quite? We are committed to camping over the next 2 weeks.
We are planning on remaining in Baja Norte, if there are places that any of you thing would be good options inland please chime in!
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Bruce R Leech
Elite Nomad
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Location: Ensenada formerly Mulege
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Mood: A lot cooler than Mulege
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Nicely written Osprey keep it up you are going to be famous some day
Bruce R Leech
Ensenada
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David K
Honored Nomad
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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| Quote: | Originally posted by BajaTrooper
| Quote: | Originally posted by KurtG
Tent to tent on every square inch of sand....boomboxes....camping even on the boat ramps...can't even launch a boat and get away from it
all...Sdoesn't mean sand for what you step in....when they leave they leave all their trash behind...Oh, and don't drive on the
highways during this most solemn of religious holidays.
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Would camping inland, like in the canyons, provide some quite? We are committed to camping over the next 2 weeks.
We are planning on remaining in Baja Norte, if there are places that any of you thing would be good options inland please chime in! |
A really wonderful idea!
The beaches are where the locals go over Easter week(s)... Noise means happiness to them! It is expected to hear the ranchero/ polka-like music all
night (and all day) long!
Here's what I did (Canyons) for the Easter weekend in 2004: http://vivabaja.com/404
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driley
Newbie
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Registered: 3-4-2007
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Hola!
We are down in Loreto now, having made a point to reach some of the beaches along Bahia Concepcion ~before~ Semana Santa - but we are now heading
north. Probably no internet access for us for a while, but we were planning on doing some inland exploration as well - around San Ignacio and
Guererro Negro, and maybe going to some of the more remote beaches, such as the lighthouse near JesusMaria and ~maybe~ Bahia de los Angeles... will
that area get as slammed with happy families as everywhere else? We just want to make sure, 1) we can find a place to camp, and 2) we'll be able to
sleep occasionally when we do - ha.
In Baja Norte, the area around Catavina is very beautiful desert, and has some great backroads to explore, and we may return there for a while as
well. We ran into some other folks who were making a run to Cabo San Lucas to escape the revelry... the irony.
So far, there was a concert last night (actually for the past 3 nights) here in Loreto - the music sounded great, and the crowd sounded like primarily
teenage girls screaming ala old Beatles concerts! But it ended by 11pm and all was quiet. Loreto has quite the policia force out to help with
traffic and whatnot. We've mostly been staying here to avoid the winds, but as they are dying down today, we've decided to head back north.
We will definitely be back, and hopefully for a much longer time to be able to relax and enjoy even more!
Maggie (other half of Devin of driley)
http://devinandmaggie.blogspot.com
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jim&carol
Newbie
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Registered: 3-13-2007
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I was the original poster and was hoping to minimize the impact by coming down on Monday (April 9) after Easter, assuming that Santa Semana holiday
was mostly the week before. Does this really last two weeks?
Jim
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bajajudy
Elite Nomad
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Semana Santa is over after Easter sunday; however, the kids are out of school that next week. Most of their parents will have to go back to work so I
would think that leaving the 9th would be ok. Just my opinion.
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