The night before, Ron suggested a breakfast idea... he could order up breakfast burritos at a place along Hwy. 1 in San Quintin and we could grab and
go with them! The only problem was finding the place... It took a while and the first place we stopped at seemed to match the directions, but it was a
half mile too soon. Driving ahead, I went past as neither Pat or I saw Ron's vehicle parked in front! Luckily the other three Toyotas spotted his
vehicle... and we turned around. They were good burritos, too!
Traffic was typical of the San Quintin to Colonet corridor... and why Hwy. 5 will be such a joy to go south and north on. A small detour near Santo
Tomás for the road widening and a longer one on Hwy. 3 south of Tecate as they are working on the remaining older style highway, replacing it with
the newer (bike lane wide shoulder) highway Mexico is building.
I top off the gas tank with good ethanol-free gasoline at Tecate. The Pemex prices are lower along the border, matching with California USA prices. It
was 12.90/ liter and for our pesos, that was $2.75/ gallon... 22 cents cheaper than the rest of Baja, south of the border zone. I got 17.7 MPG on the
leg from El Rosario (and 18.3 MPG on the previous leg north from Villa Jesus Maria). Not bad with the heavy load and some miles in 4WD! In California,
no or small load, on California gasoline, I get 14-15 MPG around town and 16-17 highway!
The border wait is 40 minutes (1:30pm-2:10pm). The inspector only asked what we were bringing back... Pat bought a bottle of tequila in Tecate. That
was it!
In my next post, I will summarize each of the places we went to...
Here are my mileage notes and comment on each day's locations. We had obtained Pesos at the Chula Vista Costco a week before the trip at 17.805 per
dollar:
DAY 1:
San Diego North County 7:30am to El Centro 10:15am: 152.5 mi., 9.8 gal. = 15.6 mpg.
El Centro to Calexico 11:00am 11.8 mi.
Arrive El Dorado Pemex, San Felipe North 2:10pm: 128.3 mi. from El Centro gas stop 7.52 gal. = 17.1 mpg. 5 gallon can filled, total 664 pesos.
Go to malecon in San Felipe, enjoy tacos, find fresh corvina for sale on the north end by the 'dry dock' area. Head south for Shell Island... several
pot holes around Punta Estrella. Get onto Shell Island, deflate tires, drive to camp site. Chef Jesse makes us Chile Verde and it is delicious!
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DAY 2:
Leave Shell Island at 8:00am. Stop at photo op of Enchanted Islands (Km. 99). Military checkpoint at Gonzaga Bay. Stop for gasoline at Gonzaga Pemex:
117.7 mi., 8.5 gal. = 13.8 mpg (possible inaccurate pump). Go to Rancho Grande store across the highway. Leave at 11:30am
End of pavement is 20+ kms. south as it has been since early 2014. Drive to Coco's Corner (22+ miles from Gonzaga). After visit with Coco, we head
east towards Calamajué. Road rougher than in 2012. Stop at gold ore mill ruins and at mission ruins before heading up the canyon. Water in canyon very
light. Reach Highway 1 at El Crucero (ranch operating here in 2012 is now abandoned).
Take highway to San Borja road and turn south for Mission San Borja, 22 miles dirt road, mostly good with only a few rocky miles. Arrive late
afternoon. Nice palapa camping with showers and flush toilets, only 50 pesos per person (US$2.81). We tour the hot spring and orchard (gave a 50 peso
tip for the Sra. and daughter). Chef cooks us amazing Corvina Gumbo.
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DAY 3:
We tour the mission (tip paid to family) take photos and are on our way to L.A. Bay. I get a rock puncture flat about 19 miles from the mission (3
miles from the highway), put on the spare. We take the 6+ mile side road to see Montevideo cliff paintings by ancients here. The side road is much
rougher and overgrown since my last time on it in 2006.
Arrive Bahia de los Angeles, stop at gas station (164.3 miles from Gonzaga fill up, 11.3 gal. = 14.5 mpg. Go to Camp Archelon to set up camp. Palapas
on the beach and they each have large canvas cots for sleeping. Cost was adverised at US$8 per person, but using pesos the owner (Bety) asked for 100
(US$5.62). Chef Jesse made us fried chicken and pancakes with jalpeño maple syrup... wow, was that good! We all were asking for more chicken the next
24 hours!
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DAY 4:
I get my tire patched at Sammi Diaz' tire shop (across from the Xitlali market near the end of pavement for 170 pesos (US$9.55) and it has not leaked
since. Sammi Diaz III did the change and Pepe Smith was there, as well.
We all go to the museum, but at 9am it is still closed (sign says open at 11 am). We look at all the mine displays outside plus go see the train
engine in the town plaza near the museum.
A left turn at the tire shop onto dirt for the long day's drive... ending at San Ignacio. The graded road south is in great shape. We stop at Las
Flores to tour the jailhouse and railroad bed. We stop again at the junction to Bahia las Animas, where a new sign is on a surfboard there. Then we
arrive at Poncho's San Rafael Camp and have a great visit with a most humble man. He recalls when my kids and I had dinner with him back in 2003!
A detour around a washout is encountered, otherwise, the entire road south from Bahia de los Angeles is excellent. We arrive at the end, turn left for
the short hop to the newer road, pass Rancho el Progreso and head west on an even faster, sand base dirt road... until we reach the bottom of the
famous grade, Cuesta de la Ley, and it is paved with concrete!
We stop at the El Camino Real crossing then park at the base of Mesa el Carmen to hike up at take in the giant cave painting there. One of Jesse's off
road lights breaks off on the road in.
Next, we tour the ghost gold mine town of Pozo Aleman, active in 1910. From there, I seek out a short cut to get on the El Arco to Mission Santa
Gertrudis road... and end up on an older, but parallel dirt road for a few miles! Along the way towards Santa Gertrudis, Nick and Christine (4Runner)
have an alternator light come on and we deem it necessary to skip the Santa Gertrudis tour and head directly for Vizcaino, a large town with a well
stocked Pro One auto parts store (east side of highway, just south of the north gas station). We cross into the state of Baja California Sur and also
lose an hour going into Mountain Time Zone.
At the north Vizcaino Pemex, 7:24pm, we all top off. Like at L.A. Bay, I get 42.9 liters (11.3 gallons) for 600 pesos, 170.6 miles from L.A. Bay =
15.1 mpg. The Pro One store has the alternator Nick needs, as well as a bank, next door so they can get pesos. We move back to the Pemex station and
park behind to do the alternator swap... It takes Nick less time to do the work than it took to buy the thing!
We drive on to San Ignacio in the dark to get to the La Huerta Motel. Pat and I each get rooms and the younger people elect to camp in the parking lot
to be next to their trucks and fix another outstanding meal... pulled pork sandwiches! We are 45 miles from Vizcaino, the rooms were only 550 pesos
(US$31) and they paid 500 pesos to camp. Ice at the market at the motel entrance was 17.50/ bag (US$1).
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DAY 5:
Breakfast at Victor's in San Ignacio across the street from the mission church is great. We tour the mission and some buy a few handmade gifts from
the lady there who also offers to show us a back room where restoration of artifacts is underway.
We take photos at the river crossing. Ham needs a bolt for a rear stabilizer and they check with the Pro One auto parts at the Hwy. 1 junction into
San Ignacio. No luck there, but at the next Pro One store in Santa Rosalia, success. It is on the east side of the highway, north of the east side
Pemex. A fruit market is across the street.
Damage from the hurricane the week before is quickly dealt with and we have only a few detours around or drive slowly over damaged roads. We arrive in
Mulegé and head straight for the 1705 mission for a quick tour and photos of Mulegé from the high vantage point.
Next stop is the gas station on the south end of town. It has been 134.3 miles since the fill up at Vizcaino and the truck only takes on 6.2 gallons,
which means and incredible 21.7 mpg was achieved on this partial tank, all highway, not driving fast, great gas (no ethanol)! Cost was 330 pesos for
the gas.
We head south to Mark and Olivia's Playa Buenaventura Bar/ Restaurant/ Room Rentals Resort. Mark's son Nathan is also there helping out and doing
great things for business. We are all impressed and Olivia and staff feed all 8 of us with ease cooking fish, chicken and cheeseburgers. It all comes
out together (which in itself is rarely seen in Baja restaurants off grid).
While I hope the others will want to enjoy this area and maybe camp a mile away at El Requeson or La Perla, Jesse has had the quest to drive all the
way to the end of the 25 mile long Concepcion Bay peninsula. It is already late in the day, but we push on. It hindsight it is so great that we had a
good meal late that day at Playa Buenaventura!
We drove until midnight before finding a suitable place to put up our tents. We drove nearly 25 miles of the estimated 32 to the desired beach before
a deep gully (hurricane last week) dashed that goal. We turned back for 5.6 miles to get out of the brush and reach an open, flat area for camping. It
all worked out, even though a scorpion somehow got into my truck while we scratched through heavy brush that had encroached on the ancient road.
DAY 6:
Chef Jesse made us a great bacon scramble in the Dutch oven, so the day was a great start. We thought that since we didn't reach our goal of Day 5, we
could visit the petroglyphs or pictographs found up Arroyo los Pintados.
We spent some time in the water, took photos, a pufferfish was friendly, and we then packed up and left about 12:45pm. About 5 miles south from camp
(which was at or near Punta Amolares) was a closed gate that we passed through and re-closed. About 10 miles south was the three cardón cactus marking
the Arroyo los Pintados, which had no tracks (hurricane) to follow. Driving up the arroyo, a major fork is reached in 3/4 mile. We first go left
(which would have been correct for Los Pintados) but in less than a half mile, see no signs of passage, so I turn around and opt to try the right
fork.
The right fork soon becomes a visible road that climbs out of the arroyo to the right. There is a major technical gully and Nick needs to make a few
attempts as he is the lead vehicle now. The rest of us with A-TRAC or front and rear lockers have no problem, but we did toss some rocks in the gully
to help prevent bottoming out the back end of my longer than others, truck.
The road we used cut across from Arroyo los Pintados to Arroyo Tres Marías, which we drove up for at least two miles as the running water and scenery
were just irresistible. When we could drive no more, there were signs of a former ranch, owned by 'Pancho Arce' from 2001. We hiked to the source of
the stream water, which was a spring coming through what appeared to be solid rock!
On the return out of the canyon, Ham (using his Google Earth pre-downloaded images) found us another old road to use that bypassed that bad gully we
came in on. In no time at all, we were back to Highway One (near Km. 74) and turned north to have a nice beach camp at La Perla.
For dinner, Chef Jesse made us Thai Curry Corvina, finishing up the fish we bought in San Felipe that was kept frozen in Ham's ARB fridge in his
high-tech FJ Cruiser. All was good, we slept well! Note: while there were no bugs on the beach where we camped, a short walk away from the beach near
the brush would invite an attack of mosquitos... be warned!
DAY 7:
It is a paved road trip all the way from Bahia Concepcion to Punta Abreojos, then a fast off pavement run to Bahia Asuncion (except for the final few
paved miles on the Asuncion highway.
While Hurricane Newton did make a mess in Santa Rosalia, the town was quick to clean up the mess seen in the YouTube videos during the hurricane we
had seen. Hwy. 1 had a couple of washouts, but nothing that was a problem for anyone or any semi on the highway.
We got gas in Mulegé and San Ignacio on our way to Bahia Asuncion and got no sense that the gas pumps were rigged.
The 'paved' road into Punta Abreojos was in awful condition with miles and miles of deep pot holes to dodge. It made the Cataviña to L.A. Bay junction
stretch of Hwy. 1 seem great as it had only a few holes by comparison.
The La Bocana salt flat road was dry and fast and the graded road from La Bocana to Asuncion was in great shape. We took the fork through San Hipolito
and Punta Prieta.
This was Sept. 15, and Mexican Independence Day celebrations begin that evening... we were in for a treat, including fireworks at Bahia Asuncion.
Thank you, Shari for showing off your town, it was a special treat for all of us that night!
Just a fun day hanging with Shari at Bahia Asuncion, Playa Loma, and San Roque... Pat and I went looking for sharks teeth in the fossil beds, no luck
finding any, however. A great evening of eating fresh sashimi at La Bufadora Inn. I did go to the gas station to top off my tank. 525 pesos for 37.5
liters meant I got 16.3 mpg since San Ignacio.
Day 9:
We leave Bahia Asuncion, the pavement out to Vizcaino on Hwy. 1 is great. We have no immigration check at the Eagle Monument (state border, near
Guerrero Negro), just a stop at the office for the big stop sign... but nobody is there or comes out. We take a couple of photos of the 140 ft. tall
eagle and head north, setting our clock back one hour as we are back in Pacific Time Zone.
About 22 miles north of the border/ eagle is Villa Jesus María (only the sign now calls it Valle Jesus María) and we stop to fill the gas tanks. It is
10:40am (PDT) and my Tacoma needs 30 liters for 420 pesos for the 140.3 miles from Bahia Asuncion @ 17.8 mpg.
The only other details beyond what was in the trip report for this day is that the road to Las Pintas (and Punta San Carlos) at Km. 80 is a fast
graded for the 17.6 miles to the Las Pintas side road... then it is 7 miles to the site... and the miles are all very silty (dusty), unlike my last
time in here in 2010. We arrive at 5:30pm with enough light to explore some of the lower part of Las Pintas.
A great evening campfire, no wind, no bugs, and Jesse idea of Dutch oven pizza is a winner!
DAY 10:
We drive out to the highway and arrive in El Rosario, take a quick look at the first Dominican founded California mission there (1774) and go to the
Baja Cactus Pemex gas station to fill up.
252 miles driven since Villa Jesus Maria (includes Las Pintas 50 mile side trip), uses 51 liters for 713 pesos which works out to 18.7 mpg.
We take the 3 mile side trip to see La Lobera (Km. 47+), the sea lion crater. The road is in bad shape, very dusty, not maintained since the seafood
culture operation closed up two years ago.
See the trip report for more details of the day.
Day 11:
A long drive to the border at Tecate from San Quintin. A couple of unpaved detours as they are widening Hwy. 1 near Santo Tomás and Hwy. 3 south of
Tecate.
Top off with some good Mexican gas at Tecate found my Tacoma getting 18.4 mpg on the 247 mile drive from El Rosario (includes side trips to La Lobera
and Ron's oyster farm near San Quintin). Gas is a bit cheaper along the border, working out to $2.75/ gallon vs. $2.97 for the rest of Baja.
The border line wait was from 1:30 to 2:10 pm Monday afternoon.
Have a great adventure when you decide to have a Baja Extreme trip! Do contact me if I can be of any service to you: info@vivabaja.com
See more Baja trips and other travel and historic details on my web site: www.vivabaja.com and if you want to know about the discovery of and Spanish occupation of California (called Antigua or Baja California after
1769) using the mission program, get my new book at a book dealer or the publisher directly at www.oldmissions.com
THANK YOU!
When the others process their photos and more videos, I will be sharing them here with you.
Once again, here are Ham's two videos (set to music) filmed during our Baja Extreme Tour 2016:
Thank you!
Welcome to Nomad...
I am hopeful to see your adventures in Baja unfold and if you think I can help in any way, just ask... u2u, email... call.
David
You really took these guys on a very nice sightseeing tour. The biggest things missing were whales and the rocket launchers in Cabo. Maybe next
time?
I haven't done then gray whale thing in Baja, myself! If they came in the summer... well maybe then! Cold weather and cold sea water is a real
turn-off for us. The fireworks fascination ended with me long ago. Loved them when I was a kid, however!
Thanks for sharing photos, stories and videos! Awesomeness! Admittedly, I had to borrow a few of your locations to add to my Baja Bucket Destination
List (I'm building an e-map on Google).
I still haven't nailed down an EXACT location for Montevideo - is it on the southwest side of the canyon?
Thanks for sharing photos, stories and videos! Awesomeness! Admittedly, I had to borrow a few of your locations to add to my Baja Bucket Destination
List (I'm building an e-map on Google).
I still haven't nailed down an EXACT location for Montevideo - is it on the southwest side of the canyon?
Go south on San Borja Rd. 2 miles from L.A. Bay Hwy. (see yellow pins at top).
Go almost 6 miles to the east (left) on minor road (4WD) and alongside that cliff are the paintings...
You really took these guys on a very nice sightseeing tour. The biggest things missing were whales and the rocket launchers in Cabo. Maybe next
time?
I haven't done then gray whale thing in Baja, myself! If they came in the summer... well maybe then! Cold weather and cold sea water is a real
turn-off for us. The fireworks fascination ended with me long ago. Loved them when I was a kid, however!
I was referring to the grenade launchers used by the gangs in Cabo...
You really took these guys on a very nice sightseeing tour. The biggest things missing were whales and the rocket launchers in Cabo. Maybe next
time?
I haven't done then gray whale thing in Baja, myself! If they came in the summer... well maybe then! Cold weather and cold sea water is a real
turn-off for us. The fireworks fascination ended with me long ago. Loved them when I was a kid, however!
In march and April the air and water are plenty warm. GN, SI and mag bay are in the desert, eh.
DK, you need to come up with better excuses, we're not buying it.
Woke!
“...ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.†“My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America
will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.â€
Goat, we don't do our Baja vacationing until July. The 3 day weekends in late May and early September still isn't whale season. We still might try for
a March trip one of these years just for a whale experience and will do it with Shari.
"If it were lush and rich, one could understand the pull, but it is fierce and hostile and sullen.
The stone mountains pile up to the sky and there is little fresh water. But we know we must go back
if we live, and we don't know why." - Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez
"People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." - Theodore Roosevelt
"You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them or to them." - Malcolm Forbes
"Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others
cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else's hands, but not you." - Jim Rohn
"The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer." - Cunningham's Law
Thankyou to Baja Bound
Mexico InsuranceServices for your long-term support of the BajaNomad.com Forums site.
Emergency Baja Contacts Include:
Desert Hawks;
El Rosario-based ambulance transport; Emergency #: (616) 103-0262
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