Day Three: Sunday, March 18: Ensenada to San Quintin

South from Ensenada, Highway 1 goes inland and through some mountains and into agricultural areas. We saw all sorts of crops being grown, and the valley of San Quintin could be near Bakersfield in California’s great central valley. We saw lots of vegetables and strawberries, and flowers, but the most interesting crop we saw was nopales. Nopales are the pads of the Prickly Pear cactus, and it was odd to see it grown as a crop, with great piles of the pads as they were harvesting in some areas.

In San Quintin we stayed at El Pabellon RV Park, which is a beautiful beach with dunes – camping was right on the beach with a small bit of dunes between us and the ocean. We slept to the sound of crashing waves that night! But first we decided to go out to dinner – we went to another RV park, the Cielito Lindo, which has a restaurant. We sat outside, and had some fun encounters with other travelers there! First, a crusty old American came by and said he had a gift for me – he had a small item wrapped in foil and he had definitely been drinking… but he seemed harmless enough, and had somewhat wild gray hair and a twinkle in his eyes in a well-tanned face, so I took the bait and opened the “package.” He proceeded to tell me about it – he said he is the only one to make these earrings from sea snail opercula (the “door” of the shell when the snail lives there). They were actually pretty nice and I put them on right away! He explained that he had lived there at Cielito Lindo for years and just had some friends visiting from Arizona and he was “drunk as a skunk”! Ha. I said I sort of noticed but didn’t want to say anything, to which he laughed. Then he called his dog, “LBD” (for Little Brown Dog) and walked off into the sunset. I think his name was Richard, but I’ll always remember the way he introduced himself with great flair, saying his name was “RICARDO” with a loud and musical accent.

All this action drew the attention of some other diners, and we met Joe and Kim and their two children – turns out they are from Livingston, Montana, of all places! My nephew and his wife, Josh and Nikki, live in Livingston, and I’ve enjoyed visiting them there and we will definitely be going through there with the RV this summer or fall sometime!! They were also staying at El Pabellon and had just come out to Cielito Lindo for dinner – Kim said she’d been dreaming about their delicious cracked crab for months!! Joe works for the Park Service in Yellowstone, and Kim is a vet – in fact she had been through the campground earlier in the year and had de-wormed and treated for fleas both camp dogs – a mom and her pup. We bonded over Livingston, their community theater where Josh and Nikki are regulars and Joe and Kim’s son wants to participate as well, and working for the Park Service. They said they have RV hookups at their house in Livingston and we should definitely call them when we come through!! How fun!! They seemed like great people – fun and easy to talk to with great kids. That was our first taste of “Baja Social Life.”

After a restful night at El Pabellon, we took some more photos in the morning and headed farther south.

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