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.
Go back to Day One of Baja Trip
- an exhaust system that not only increases power, but gives our model of RV 7% better gas mileage!
which has digital gauges letting you know fuel economy - allows you to figure out optimum driving speed/rpm for best mpg
lets us know what our tire pressures are at all times (keeping tires properly inflated can make a big difference in fuel economy)
(for filling tires using our batteries and keeping them at optimum pressure)