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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Go back to Day One of Baja Trip