Day Twenty Three, Saturday, April 7: San Quintin to San Diego

Today we decided to make a run for the border, left quite early, and headed north once again. Up to Ensenada we passed through familiar, yet unfamiliar territory. We both only vaguely remembered the scenery, farms, and towns from this section – I think we were both more focused on the white-knuckle driving before! Devin was an old pro at the Baja roads by now, though, and the roads north of San Quintin are definitely better and a bit wider than the ones south. So today went fairly quickly.

San Quintin, apparently, is one of the main flower growing areas in the world - but you won't see open fields of colorful flowers. Instead there are acres and acres of industrial size greenhouses, and they bus workers in from surrounding areas. Not as pretty as fields of flowers, but interesting - next time you get flowers sent to you, remember San Quintin!

One section we both remembered was the beautiful Valley of Santo Tomas. Ejido Uruapan is in this valley, with its camping and swimming resort owned by the ejido, which this time was full and lively, even though the weather was cool and cloudy. There is a winery and beautiful scenery leading both into and out of this valley, and we remembered appreciating it on the way south as well.

Ensenada was in full tilt for the holiday weekend, with horse-drawn carriages mingling with cars, trucks, buses and even ATVs on the main highway, and everyone out on the street shopping.

Once we got through Ensenada, we passed into new territory, following the toll roads to Tijuana rather than back through Tecate the way we came. The beach is full of development and resorts – half-built condos for Anglos – I wonder if the housing bust has had even greater effects down here? In Rosarito, there was a giant plastic Jesus on the hillside, with a light on his head. I thought, when Jesus said he was the way the truth and the light, I don’t think this is what he had in mind!! The beaches were packed with spring break campers from both Mexico and probably the US. More ATVs in the streets, and lots and lots of people.

Coming into Tijuana we saw THE WALL, and the lights, and the cleared area… still, there were loitering people nearby who looked like they wanted to brave it anyway. Tijuana is a huge city, and we just skirted it as we drove along the border, passing the infamous River District, where hundreds perished in floods several years back. The poverty didn't look as severe as it used to - maybe the road is just faster and we didn't get a good look, but in general, there did not seem to be as much desperation in Mexico as I remember from past visits. And there is definitely a growing middle class, as we saw from the families camping on the beaches for vacation during Semana Santa.

As we neared the border crossing and traffic became very dense, a couple of Tijuana policemen motioned us to the side and told us we didn’t use our blinker to change lanes. Bullshit. We are almost 50 feet long when we are towing the Jeep behind the 31' RV - no way is it even possible to change lanes in slow and heavy traffic like this without using our blinkers! This was a setup for “mordida” – they wanted a bribe!! I argued with the guy in Spanglish for a while – I was pissed!! Finally, we gave him our license and asked "what now?" He said he would give us a ticket and we said "OK." Then he said we’d have to go to the police station to pay it, and we said, “Okay!” Suddenly, he changed his tune, lost interest in us, and sent us on our way. No ticket, not even a warning. Apparently the idea of going to the police station scares most Gringos into paying the cop then and there. Hmmph. Tijuana is famous for dirty cops, and I guess with good reason. To my delight, the road, with traffic creeping along at about one mile an hour, circled around to an overpass with a great view of their little “operation”! When we got within view, I got out my camera that has 10x optical zoom and started snapping close-ups of those bastards. Guess what? They had pulled over ANOTHER RV!!! They were targeting RV’s, playing on RVers' fear of driving in Tijuana, on their fear of Mexican jails, perhaps their naivety, and definitely on their cash!! I was so mad, I yelled “MORDIDA!” out the window and Devin about had a heart attack – reminding me we were still in Mexico… oops. I kept taking photos until they BOTH noticed me. They looked pissed. I hope they are really worried!! It warms my heart to look at their faces – he he.

After such a wonderful trip, it’s too bad that our last taste of Mexico was the pit they call Tijuana. Traffic, corrupt cops, and trinkets, churros, and crap!!! Lining the road to the border were all sorts of vendors banging on our window and trying to get us to buy their cheap pieces of crap – I didn’t have a good attitude by that time because of the cops, and I wish I could say I enjoyed the zoo-like carnival, but I was just annoyed. I saw tee shirts that said unspeakable things – well, some were things I wanted to tell those bad cops – ha!

Let me pause here to say that I respect most policemen, and if I get pulled over in the states, it's probably because I was doing something wrong, and I always admit it and apologize. Everybody forgets and speeds once in a while, or forgets to use their blinker, or does something stupid, and I figure if I'm caught, I should admit it and pay the fine. I'm a pretty safe driver, so I haven't been pulled over in a long, long time, but just admitting fault and being polite often takes them by surprise and they just give a warning. The good cops, anyway. I had a housemate in Yosemite who was a law enforcement ranger and he told a story about pulling a guy over, asking if he knew why he was pulled over, and the guy said "because I was going 50 in a 40 zone." My housemate was so taken aback by his candor that he thanked him, and just gave him a warning. It's stupid to argue with cops - they know you know, and you know they know, and it just wastes everyone's time. If you were speeding or otherwise breaking a traffic law, suck it up and pay the fine! But this was a different story - these were NOT good cops, serving the public, keeping the highways safe. They were serving themselves, and keeping their pockets lined with bribe money! Grrrrr!

When we got to the border, we were pulled into secondary, sort of. I guess they usually go through RV’s, and a nice woman came in and took our oranges and avocado, while someone else went through our outside compartments. It only took a few minutes then we were set free – we were back safely in the US!! How will we get used to driving over 40 mph again?

Turns out it’s fairly easy. Devin said he’s already lost his edge, though, and is already using the entire lane. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. Tsk tsk. We pulled into Campland on the Bay and got the last campsite that would fit us – this place is way more of a zoo than ANY of the beaches in Baja during Semana Santa! But it’s another kid heaven, and it’s fun to watch the kids enjoying running around. The people across from us seem to live here – they have a golf cart with spinners on it. Ha. It takes all kinds, and we are really not the trailer park kind, but it’s good to have internet access and a place to stop while we get our bearings again, visit with family (yummy brunch with Darby this morning in Old Town, tasty dinner with Sam and Paul the next day), and figure out what to do next.

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Day Twenty Two, Friday (Good Friday), April 6, Cataviňa to San Quintin

We woke up and decided that neither of us really felt like a day-long side trip and would rather just head north. Both of us feel quite comfortable with this decision, and it is nice not to feel we have to pack everything into one short trip because we will be doing this for a while, and we treasure our days of just relaxing and reading as much as our days of adventure and discovery, and in fact, both are necessary for appreciation of the other. We will, however, be back to Baja, to explore some areas we liked in much greater depth, and to stay longer so the journey through the peninsula won’t involve so much driving day after day. Of course, we didn’t realize how tiring the driving would be down here, and just how slow we would travel, which makes days of 100 miles about as much as we want to do. That does allow us to get into our campsite early, and enjoy it a bit on travel days, though, so even one night stays at places are a bit more relaxing than the drive all day to get there before dark sort of experiences.

Today we again stopped for lunch in El Rosario at Mama Espinoza’s, a place with a very good vibe, and still got into El Pabellon about 1:30pm. Sadly, Mama's was still out of Lobster, so we didn't get to try the lobster burritos or soup - yet another thing to look forward to for our next trip down here!

We went through another checkpoint today, and this time they wanted to look in our basement storage compartments outside, so I got to get out of the RV to unlock them all. The soldiers all wanted to know about the Jeep, what year it was, how much it cost – they all want one! I asked for a photo and one of the soldiers took a photo of me with another soldier in front of the Jeep. These guys are surprisingly friendly and non-threatening considering many have large automatic weapons casually slung over their shoulders. I think being in the Mexican Army must be a good “job” for many of them, and they seem to like it and take it seriously. The bases and posts are all very well-kept and attractive, and even towns that have a military base seem to be more well-kept than most others. I also think the soldiers have a definite sense that they are part of doing something good for their country, with the “lucha entre las drogas” (war on drugs). We noticed that most of the inspection posts are in places where you can’t see them until you are almost there – over the tops of hills, around corners, etc. We think this is likely on purpose. Some interesting features are the tack strips on ropes – at each end, there is a box with a bunch of large tire-popping devices, attached to a string going to a small booth on the other side of the road – I guess a guy sits in there and if given the order, pulls the rope and the tack strip goes across the road and stops evildoers from getting away. They also have coffee cans full of diesel fuel that they light at night along the road, and all the roads and walkways are lined with whitewashed stones. I also like the hand-painted army guy signs leading up to the inspection posts – each one is different! Most have a flag in one hand, some have a rifle over their shoulder, some hold up a stop sign. We have never had any difficulty at the stops and actually they are kind of fun – an enjoyable diversion and a chance to talk to more locals!

Wow, what a difference in El Pabellon from our first stay here! This is Friday of the biggest holiday weekend in Mexico, and the park is still not full, but has quite a few people – again, lots of families and kids, kites flying, Mexican flags proudly waving over encampments, ATVs with kids in sleds towed behind, kids hanging on to fenders, kids driving barely able to touch the foot pegs and others hanging onto the back for dear life, flying all over the beach, horseback riders in amongst them, their Mexican horses not a bit fazed by all the ruckus. Other families with little kids making sandcastles and forts, digging holes to China, families cooking under huge shade/wind tarps, pickup baseball games happening, kids playing king of the hill and hide and seek in the sand dunes, ice cream truck coming by playing its tune, music playing (but not too loud), and generally a festival atmosphere. It is GOOD to see so many happy Mexican families doing the same things we did growing up – camping in beautiful spots and each enjoying them in our own ways. Devin says this reminds him of Pismo Beach, but with less people. He said there would be way more “sand toys” (ATVs, dune buggies, etc) up there.

Lots of people that looked like they had been settled in for a week were only out for the day, it turns out. Some people on the beach are now packing up tables, tarps, and all sorts of things and loading up their vehicles with improbable numbers of people and heading out. Next to us, a old small pick-up pulled up and over a dozen people piled out!! Little kids ran up the dunes and slid down or rolled down for hours, some went swimming, they got out a bucket of clams after being out at the water and I asked about them, but they had bought them, not dug them. Ha. Getting everyone back in was like putting together a Chinese puzzle and took quite a while, and I got a photo as they drove off, waving happily.

Semana Santa, for us at least, has not turned into the zoo that was predicted by other RVers high-tailing it out of Mexico as we were just coming in. The worst effect of the holiday for us has been increased traffic on the already difficult roads – coming down, the very little traffic really helped make them not as bad, but now, even though traffic is still SO much less than in the states just about anywhere, we have cars meeting and passing us on a fairly regular basis. Still, the passing system down here, though it seemed a bit sketchy when we first learned about it, works so well we will miss it when back in the states!

Dinner at Cielito Lindo again? Or tunafish sandwiches?

Cielito Lindo!! And the Especialidad of "Jaiba a al Cielito Lindo" – cracked crab – the ingredients for the seasonings the waiter told me are:
Butter,
Paprika,
Garlic salt, and
Pimiento.
I think pimiento is probably just chile powder, based on the flavor – it was quite tasty and topped with orange slices. I could definitely taste the paprika, but I thought there might be some secret ingredient like cinnamon or chocolate because it had a somewhat mole-like flavor. Wait, is pimiento black pepper? I guess I’ll have to experiment! During dinner, a random guitarist came in and played “Besame Mucho” for us. Over the extremely loud music that was already playing –ha! There were these three Texans at the bar. No, that’s not the intro to some bad joke – ha. There really were three Texans at the bar – one had a big white duster to match his big cowboy hat. That place is funny – it has an interesting clientele. From “RICARDO” of last time, to RV tourists, to Mexican families on vacation or enjoying a treat… We liked it.

There was a live band playing at another campsite when we returned to El Pabellon – it was in an amphitheater created by 3 or 4 RVs circled like wagons! Worked very nicely to keep the sound away from the campers on the beach – we can hear music, but it’s pleasant and we’ll be able to sleep no problem, old fogeys going to bed early that we are – ha.

Turns out, this was to be our last night in Mexico. Cracked crab and serenades made a nice send off!

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Day Twenty One, Thursday (Holy Thursday of Semana Santa), April 5: Rancho Santa Inez

A day of rest, descansando en Rancho Santa Inez, our campground in Cataviňa. Slept in, watched birds out the window – took photos of horned larks, gila woodpeckers, and tried to get the camera to focus on the gnatcatchers, wrote, read, puttered, thought about what to do next, and generally did nothing much! No one here – very empty since everyone else is at or going to the beach. A nice relaxing day.

Devin read me a passage from The Sea of Cortez about some “beetle-like flies” that came out of the mangroves at Bahia Concepcion and liked dark places, so they crawled into the bedding and nibbled on tender places, and left a “fiery burning itch.” Since my bites seemed to have gotten worse, and were keeping me awake at night, I wondered if perhaps it wasn’t San Ignacio mosquitoes or “vampire flies” after all, but bugs from the mangroves near our pretty little heaven (cielito lindo!) of Santispac. So we changed the sheets on the bed and I took out the comforter and cover and hung them out in the sun all day to air out. I also took a shower and did sleep much better that night.

Tomorrow should we drive the Jeep out to the Pacific or Gulf? East Coast or West Coast? Not an option we are used to having! A drive of any kind doesn’t sound too exciting, though. We would like to explore all these neat backroads and side trips, but we’ve already had some wonderful experiences here, and it is now April, and so we feel an urge to move on north, ensuring we reach Alaska by summer, and have time to explore numerous beautiful places in between.

Cataviňa sunsets are worth staying extra days for. And the bats came out at dusk, then the stars... Central Baja desert sunsets and stars are the best!

For more photos of Cataviňa, click here

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Day Twenty, Wednesday, April 4: Guerrero Negro to Cataviňa

Heading north again, we crossed the border into Baja California from Baja California Sur. We took a side trip from Villa Jesus Maria, which is the south end of the “gas gap” after filling up both the RV and the Jeep. Our friend Tonya had told us to go out to Morro Santo Domingo, and it was a short and very worthy side-trip. The beach was nice, and we explored up on the morro in the Jeep – lots of little secret coves with great tidepools, photo ops with the old lighthouse, and even a natural arch with Pelicans and Sea Lions all around! Quite beautiful. Found a neat shell in the desert, and hammerhead and other types of shark and ray heads in the “basurero” (dump) the road passed through on the way out. So that’s what that fishy smell was!

A lady from a little store where I bought us some drinking water told me about a baile (dance) that would be out on that beach over the weekend and asked us if we didn’t want to stay. She was really cute, one of those small feisty middle aged Mexican women I just love. I asked her if she was going to dance and she said oh yes and demonstrated with a few little moves :) She told us to drive safely in the extra traffic, and I assured her that we would, and we were on our way. It would have been nice, probably, to stay and enjoy the “ambiante” (atmosphere, I think) of the beach dance, invited as we were by a local, but we seem to have itchy feet these days.

Arrived at our old familiar campsite in Rancho Santa Inez, outside of Cataviňa, and immediately set up camp – rolled out the awning, put out the chairs, served cold beer and smoothies (not at the same time – ha) got out the binos and cameras and books and proceeded to relax after the days harrowing drive. Roads both north and south of Guerrero Negro are some of the worst we’ve encountered – even narrower lanes and no shoulders at all, wavy lines, rough pavement, and add to that this time the additional traffic of Semana Santa holiday goers..Nice to get “home” to Rancho Santa Inez, greeted by the “peso lady” and cattle wandering through the camp.

To see more photos of Morro Santo Domingo, click here

Smoothies
1 banana (or 1/2)
1 small container (or 1/2) of yogurt (any flavor)
Fresh or frozen fruit - whatever you've got
Protein powder (if desired)
Fruit juice or rice milk

Blend in the glass with the Bamix Hand Blender until smooth. Paper umbrella optional.
Enjoy!

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Day Nineteen, Tuesday, April 3: San Ignacio to Guerrero Negro

We must have North Fever, since we decided to just head out to Guerrero Negro instead of going on any side trips in San Ignacio.

Soon after leaving town, we came to another inspection station (puesto de control militar) and had a nice young soldier “board” the RV and do a thorough inspection of the refrigerator!! Ha. He didn’t look anywhere else, went straight to the fridge, commented on the tequila and beer, asked what was in the can (club soda – not so interesting) – finally, I asked him if he would like something to drink – perhaps a soda? Or perhaps a beer? He just happened to have a large roomy pocket on the side of his uniform pants that was a perfect fit for the Modelo bottle. I just laughed and laughed. He was more than welcome to the Modelo – we didn’t like it. We had bought 2 of each kind of beer at the market in Loreto to try, and liked the Pacifico and Sol quite well, and I know I like Negro Modelo, but the Modelo tasted like Budweiser and wasn’t very good.

Returning to the Vizcaino desert from the Desierto Central showed us what the Vizcaino is famous for – it is a fog desert. It definitely did not feel as scenic as on the way down with the dramatic clouds and visibility of mountains all around, including the mountains of the Vizcaino Peninsula, which are very dramatic. We were treated to closer beauty this time, as new wildflowers graced the sides of the highway, in purple and yellow as well as the pink and white flowers that had been there on the way down. We also saw a beautiful pair of Harris’ Hawks – beautiful black hawks with wide white bands at the bases of their tails – very striking.

At the turnoff for Vizcaino, I found new combinations of swear words when a scary truck crossed the line on the narrow road at the intersection! Then we came back to the lovely 17 km of good road! – Devin’s heart rate only raised a little by passing trucks on that section. The end of the 17 km was announced by the loud banging when we hit the potholes and rough road again after relaxing to the quiet of a well-paved road

Passed through and near little Ejidos: Emiliano Zapata, Benito Juarez, Vicente Guerrero, Jose Morelos – there must be dozens of each! Mexicans like their heroes. Of course, how many Lincolns and Washingtons do we have in the US, not to mention Jeffersons, and even McKinleys! But it does seem noticeable in a small region with so few people to have several small towns with the same names.

We pulled over for a moment in one of these towns and I spied a group of kids selling helados (ice cream) out of their little carts – they were pushing the carts up a dusty hill, and when they saw me lean out to take a photo, they raced each other to see who could get here first, all competing for my few pesos to buy their helados – coco, pina, yum! Turns out, I couldn’t scrape up enough small change to buy any – I didn’t want any ice cream anyway, but just wanted to see these cute little businesspeople make some money, so I offered them what I had for some photos, and they posed and laughed and grinned for the camera, then raced off to find more customers.

At Guerrero Negro, we pulled into the Malarrimo, where we had stayed on the way down. There were mother and pup street dogs that had been there (all wet in the rain) on the way down that just made themselves at home and laid down in our “yard” – we were the only ones camping there. I enjoyed petting and looking at how relaxed “our” dogs were, until a mean lady came and chased them off with rocks. I guess they probably get into the garbage or such, but I was beginning to have fantasies of adopting them and taking them back with us, they were so cute.

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Day Eighteen, Monday April 2: San Ignacio Otra Vez

Heading back north from Playa Santispac, it was a beautiful clear day, and we took more photos of the beautiful Gulf of California. We stopped at Santa Rosalía and just sat in the motorhome for a while parked at the malecon as we were, looking out to sea, watching pelicans, and admiring the day.

I noticed a cute little brown dog outside and talked to it, to which it responded enthusiastically. She looked like she either had pups and was nursing or was going to have pups. She was so excited to see us, and was very thin and seemed starving, so much so that even Devin said we should feed her. We don’t have much meat, so I fed her a can of tuna, which she wolfed down hungrily! She was very well-behaved, didn’t try to come in, but was so eager to get the tuna. After she finished, she looked up and asked for more, like a little Oliver Twist… ah the spell of the Baja dog. She almost was the kind of dog I would keep… but she probably had a home - she was very accustomed to people, and probably worked the Malecon regularly for tasty handouts. Poor thing probably needed de-worming and she would have been quite healthy, I’m sure. I fed her a little bit of evaporated milk in the tuna can, which she lapped up eagerly, and looked up as if to say, “is that all?” So I looked for more, but couldn’t come up with anything, and thought she could need fresh water, so I put water in the tuna can. She took a few sips and when she realized it wasn’t food she stopped and looked up at me, like, ”I didn’t order this!” Ha.

So we unhooked the Jeep as planned, and drove into Santa Rosalía, which was quite busy, found a parking place several blocks from the Panaderia Boleo (World Famous French Bakery!) and I walked down and got us more goodies. Fresh from the oven Pan Dulces in three flavors – one is Pitaya, which is the fruit of one of the cacti down here. There is pitaya and pitaya agria (sour pitaya) which is supposed to be quite delicious also. I also got some of their wonderful giant cookies in oatmeal, sesame and plain sugar cookie flavors. When we got back to the motorhome, our little friend was still there – she had been waiting underneath and came out to welcome us home as if she belonged there. So I searched a little more, and so did Devin. He thought she might eat some bread, and we had some old raisin bread that I tried with her – she gently took the torn piece of bread from my hand like a little lady, and tasted it but then set it down on the grass. I tried another which she ate. She didn’t like it so well, but was willing to eat it. I remembered then that we had too many eggs, so I cracked an egg and put it in her tuna can, and put the uneaten bread pieces in it, and she lapped that up. I gave her one more egg, but then we had to go – as soon as we got in the cars and Devin started the motorhome, she trotted back up the street, knowing her temporary benefactors were leaving, no hard feelings.

We stayed unhooked for a while because we knew that shortly after Santa Rosalía, the “Cuesta del Infierno” began – literally, the grade from hell! We did okay coming down it, but figured it wouldn’t hurt not to have the motorhome towing the Jeep UP the hellish grade since we didn’t have to. It was a lovely day, the Sirius Satellite stereo in the Jeep works great, and I cranked Jack Johnson while driving along the oceanfront highway, listened to the Barenaked Ladies sing “Easy” while watching Pelicans glide easily along the coastline – one of those days where everything seems in time with the music. The Cuesta del Infierno was no problem in the Jeep – and the scenery is spectacular – like the Badlands, Painted Desert, and Saguaro all rolled into one. In fact, almost the entire length of Baja’s Mex. 1 could be a road through a great National Park. It is so much like going back in time – the narrow two lane highway that winds up and down and over and around the terrain instead of slicing through it for greater speed – reminds me of long past family trips across the US on old Route 66. I loved that road as a kid!

After we reached the top I found a place that was safe for the RV to pull over and re-hook up to the Jeep so Devin and I could ride into San Ignacio together. I missed Devin while driving the Jeep, but I missed the Satellite Stereo while riding in the RV! Ha!

In San Ignacio, we decided to stay at Rice and Beans, since it was only for a night and we are both starting to feel the “home to the barn” fever a bit –though, ironically, we don’t have a barn…

At Rice and Beans we met Margie, who was having car trouble and doesn’t speak Spanish. She had been down to San Ignacio Lagoon to see the whales and had kissed a baby whale!! What a character. She is traveling alone from San Francisco – well, not alone since she has her two dogs, Joey, a big chocolate lab, and Sadie, an old, deaf Australian Shepherd mix. I acted as translator between a local mechanic and her – which was difficult because although I do speak simple Spanish, I don’t speak mechanic! But between us, we figured out the problem – she needed a new battery, and she had an unusual style of battery and there were none to be had in San Ignacio. The mecanico could sell her a local battery for 500 pesos, but he would have to cut her cables and wire them to clamps to make them work with the different battery, or someone could go get a battery of her style in a neighboring (relatively – about an hour drive away) community for 1500 pesos! She opted to go with choice A – it was about 1000 pesos better – ha. I hope she makes it home with her jury rigged electrical system – it’s sort of funny, though, and it will probably work just fine, because Mexicans are quite adept at making things work when they break! Maintenance, not so much, but once it breaks, they can fix it!

Dinner at Rice and Beans was good – I asked which seafood was most fresh and our waiter said shrimp, so I ordered shrimp “al mojo de ajo” (which is literally “wet with garlic” but means sautéed in garlic butter) and Devin ordered shrimp burritos. Tonight we’ll take showers and then refill our fresh water tanks and dump our wastewater.

Now to decide what to do tomorrow… drive to Guererro Negro, or stay and try to go out to San Ignacio Lagoon? It’s a LONG and very bumpy ride out to the lagoon – we went part way on that road when we came through here before, and it is very badly washboarded. It’s about 40 miles each way, too. But we found out from Margie that there are little cabanas and tents for rent there, and food available, so we might consider it as a multi-day trip, rather than all in one very tiring day. Resting up tonight will help us decide. It’s very hot here now, and we had such a fantastic experience with the whales at Ojo de Liebre that we didn’t feel the need for further whale adventures – almost like that one was so perfect, anything else would only disappoint, but that probably isn’t true. It’s wonderful being out on the water at any rate.

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Day Seventeen, Palm Sunday, April 1st: Mulegé/Santispac

The sea is like glass this morning – we wish we had rented a kayak last night! Ana’s, the restaurant/store on the beach, is in “summer hours” right now, open from 2pm to 10pm, so if you want to kayak in the morning before the wind, you need to rent one the night before. The spell of this place is that once you are here, you don’t want to leave, even for a little while. Vendors come by to sell you what you need, so there is no need to go into town. Obero came by this morning already with his musical horn – I told him we came back because we missed his morning music – ha. We bought some fresh hot tamales for breakfast – yum! We plan to go into Mulegé this morning to explore the town a bit, but it’s so hard to leave here!! We will camp here one more night, then continue north.

Mulegé is the first place we’ve been where we did not feel welcome. We drove out to the lighthouse, and got friendly waves from a bar near the beach, but that was it. Mostly we got no response to smiles and waves, and even got distinctly cold and dirty looks from some. Never mind the hurricane – what too many tourists can do to a town is not always pretty. The Mulegé Mission was pretty, but after the warm, open, welcoming feel of San Javier, with people inside saying prayers even welcoming tourists into their sanctuary, I think we are spoiled.

Back to Santispac where more happy familias are setting up camps – reminds me of when I was a kid and we camped in Yosemite Valley – kid heaven! Lots of other kids, water to play in, rocks to climb, adventures to be had. Kids are everywhere just having a blast! Kids having a blast being kids sounds great in any language.

God knows why, but my friend Jenny Dodge told me I should add recipes to our blog... but I did make a great bean dip today, so here's the recipe! You may notice similarities in the ingredients to the fish marinade... hey, when you've got ingredients that work, stick with them! Ha.

Bamix Bean Dip
1 can Trader Joe's Organic Pinto Beans (or whatever kind you have on hand!)
Grated cheese - I used some soft white cheese from Mexico, enough to get the dip to the right consistency
Cilantro
Onion
Lime Juice to taste and consistency
Serrano chile to taste
Spices: Cumin, Paprika, Chili Powder, Oregano, Pepper, Salt to taste

Mix it all together and blend with the Bamix * Hand Blender (hence the name, Bamix Bean Dip - ha)
Eat with totopos (chips)!

*The Bamix is a powerful Swiss hand blender that I first saw at a county fair years ago and wanted one ever since! Now I finally have one, and use it to make smoothies on a regular basis, and this bean dip was a new, and successful, experiment!

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