Day Six: Wednesday, March 21: Flat Tire!

We got an early start the next morning for our longest drive yet to Guerrero Negro, and almost immediately after hooking up the Jeep and beginning to drive we got an alarm from our tire monitor – we had a flat tire!! We stopped and got out to inspect it, and you could hear air just streaming out of the tire!! I followed the tracks we’d made and found nothing that would have punctured the tire, so we pulled over to a spot where we would have easy access to the tire and unhooked and jacked up the RV with its built-in leveling jacks so Devin could crawl under and inspect the tire. It was no longer spewing air, and Devin figured out why – it was a deep but very narrow cut into the sidewall of the inside rear tire – probably happened when we pulled back onto the road over one of those rather sharp edges after pulling out. When we stopped before, all the pressure of the RV was on the tire and the cut was at the bottom, so it opened, but when the cut was at the top, it stayed closed, and when we had the leveling jacks down, the pressure was off the tires, so it stayed closed then, too. We may have had it for a few days before it leaked enough air to set off the alarm, but we sure wouldn’t want to get a flat tire in the RV while driving on the Baja Highways! There is really no place to pull over most of the time – we’ve come across broken down trucks that are just stopped in the lane with cones or triangles to warn traffic and the driver acting as flagger while waiting for some kind of help. We are very thankful for the tire monitor!! It could have literally saved our lives today – a wonderful Christmas gift from Devin’s dad.

Devin checking the air in the spare

Now the hard part is to find a way to fix it…. It’s not really repairable, since it’s a deep sidewall cut rather than a simple puncture. We do have a spare, but it came with the RV… checking it, Devin found that it is about 10 years old! It’s a new tire with the label still on, but has been sitting in the spare compartment of the RV since 1998. Some neighbors in the campground had a Sportsmobile with an onboard air compressor, so before they left, they came over and we filled the spare – no cracks in the sidewalls, so it’s probably good to go, but Devin is still nervous about driving the 18,000 pound RV on an old tire.

We drove into town in the Jeep in search of either a new tire, or more likely, someone to help us change the tire, since it’s a pretty major undertaking in an RV. We also needed to call our Mexican Insurance, because we had purchased the “Diamond Coverage” that included road service and repairs. The only phone in town was at the hotel, and they kindly let us use their front desk phone. Though we purchased our insurance from Vagabundos del Mar, an American travel club, the actual insurance came from Mexico, and when they answered the phone, it was not only in Spanish only, but it was a poor connection. Now my Spanish is conversant – enough to get by in most situations, but I am definitely not fluent! Telephone conversations are difficult under the best conditions, and with the poor connection, it was near impossible. Finally we got someone who spoke English and after much waiting and working on them figuring out where we were (Cataviňa was not on their map!), they said the nearest repair service was in Ensenada, 6 hours away! At least calling them gave us an excuse to go into the fancy La Pinta hotel – we of course took some photos!

We decided to look for more local help, and finding no one at the Llantera (tire shop) in the abandoned Pemex station, we talked to a guy who was selling gasoline out of the back of his pickup, with a sign that said “gasoline, aceites, mecanico.” The Mecanico part sounded promising. He said he could come out to Rancho Santa Ynez in about 20 minutes and help us – I asked what this would cost, and he shrugged and said it was up to us. I think this is not normally something he would do, but he was just being helpful. He showed up as promised with his wife and they checked out the situation – they didn’t have the right size lug wrench either, so they went back home to get another tool – twice! They were really nice and helpful, and I regret that I didn’t get photos – they seemed like down-to-earth good folks that had lived in the area their whole lives and appreciated its beauty and tranquility.

That night we met Ralph, who lives in the arroyo behind Rancho Santa Ines every winter – he had been out scouting the route for next year’s Baja 1000 and wants to have it come through Rancho Santa Ines next year! The people there were excited by the prospect because it would mean a lot of money for them. Ralph said the main guy behind the routing of the race was going to fly down that week to meet with him about it. He was very pleased with himself, and one of the great things is that it kept the race all on one side of the highway for much of the way – they don’t close any roads for the race and it must be really scary crossing the highway… or being on it when the race is on!

The best part about today was getting to watch another Cataviňa sunset:

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Go back to Day One of Baja Trip

Day Five: Tuesday, March 20: El Marmol

I had been reading about El Marmol in my Joseph Wood Krutch book – he had used the recently (in his time -- the late 50’s) abandoned Onyx mine as a base for some of his explorations of Baja and had some neat descriptions of the area. Our friend Greg Arnold is a rockhound, and we thought that he would particularly enjoy some onyx from this famous mine in Baja. Apparently there was quite a demand for Onyx as a luxury stone, used the way marble (and now granite) is used. In fact, the actress Theda Bara had an onyx bathtub carved of El Marmol Onyx. The advent of cheaper plastics and changing fashions eventually made the mine unprofitable – the stone had to be transported over the rough dirt roads to the coast and shipped to the US.

There are huge blocks of onyx strewn about the mine area, like the ruins of some ancient Stonehenge like structure. The rock is marbled with yellows and browns and touches of red – some is very white, and it is very hard. There is a schoolhouse remaining there that is made entirely of onyx blocks – it really just looks like plain stone, until you notice the marbling in each stone. Joseph Wood Krutch said he had been imagining something like the Taj Mahal, “only better” – ha. He was a little disappointed, but we thought it was neat. It is in partial ruin now, and I can’t imagine that ruin came about naturally – I think people may have taken some of the stones for souvenirs. We collected some samples of onyx from the ground, and could have gotten much more, but of course there is the problem of hauling them all back!

We stopped at a small Rancho/Loncheria Sonora at the Junction of the El Marmol turnoff and Mex 1 on the way back, because they had a sign out front advertising “Figuras de Marmol” which I thought may be carved there from the local onyx. It was in interesting stop – there was no one there, but a coyote-dog cross greeted us shyly, and an old man came around and yelled for someone to let us in. A genial man and his very cute daughter (or grand-daughter) came out and they had huge and beautiful onyx carvings… but they did not look like the special onyx at El Marmol, lacking the rose color banding that made this particular onyx special. They were the more typical white and green color – we bought a couple of small souvenirs anyway, just to spend some money there.

We stopped on the way “home” in some of the neat boulder strewn areas with great cactus “landscaping” and took some more photos – this area is very photogenic! The road we went down leads to the beach, where someone said you could buy lobster if you wanted – but it is many miles – we just went a short way to check it out and take photos of the Jeep in the desert.

We saw some evidence showing that particular road had been used in the Baja 1000 in a previous year – the insane 1000 mile road race that takes place every year in Baja! Sometimes it goes the length of the peninsula, and other times it loops back to Ensenada. Mama Espinoza’s in El Rosario is a traditional checkpoint, and they had posters all over of some of the more famous participants. There are several classes – dirtbikes, trucks, and even VW bugs! It’s open to anyone crazy enough to enter, from people who spend thousands on their fancy racing trucks to old beat up bugs, from teams of drivers, mechanics, and pit crews to single entrants. That night we decided to watch the DVD of Dust to Glory, Dana Brown’s excellent movie of the Baja 1000, once again to see if we could recognize any of the locales. We couldn’t, but it was fun watching it again! The Baja 1000 is everywhere down here – I guess it is THE big event every year – it seems to have influence in every town we’ve been to. The racers are rockstars, and lots of cars are a little fixed up like the racers, or at least have the stickers.

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Go back to Day One of Baja Trip

Day Four: Monday, March 19: San Quintin to Cataviňa

The highway followed the ocean for a while, and I started to see what is a new kind of cactus for me – later I figured out it is the sour pitaya. It is very common in most of Baja – I thought at first it was a type of unbranched cholla, but it isn’t, but rather a type of organ pipe cactus. The road soon turned inland and wound around and up and down more mountains – Baja is much more mountainous that I had expected! And the desert mountains are quite beautiful. The farther south we travel, the more “landscaped” the rocky terrain becomes with more and more interesting cacti.

At the top of a grade we came to a plateau and encountered our first military checkpoint. Mexicans take the war on “drogas” very seriously! They stop every vehicle, come in a make a perfunctory search – probably assessing whether we seemed nervous or not. I probably didn’t seem nervous – I wanted to take their picture and was chatting away, but they didn’t want it taken. One young man with a very sweet smile and a very big gun said he was a “monstro” with his gun. I said no… or at least he was a monstro with una sonrisa! (a smile). I think it may be illegal to take their photos, which is why I always ask, and so far none has said yes, but none have said it wasn’t permitted, either. One cute young soldier at a later checkpoint said he never liked having his picture taken ever since he was a young boy. Later, another soldier was very interested in California, and if there was work there, and at yet another checkpoint, one asked about the beautiful wall hanging we have in our bedroom – fabric art created by Janet, Devin’s sister, from a photo of Lake Powell – the soldier wanted to know where it was because it was so beautiful. We’ve been through quite a few checkpoints already now, but that was our first. All, so far, have been relatively pleasant experiences with very polite young men who ask permission to come in and search and chat with me in Spanish. I hope our border crossing back into the states goes as smoothly and pleasantly, but I’m a bit skeptical. Not that we have anything to hide, of course – I’ve just heard that they are very tough – hopefully we won’t be pulled into secondary to search, but then again, we have lots of time, so it will just make another blog post if so! Ha.

After the checkpoint, we pulled into El Rosario, the last town at which to get gas for another 200 miles! We were about to enter the infamous “Gas Gap” of Baja California. Forwarned is forearmed, however, and we pulled into the Pemex and gassed up both motorhome and Jeep, then pulled over near a store and did some grocery shopping. After our shopping, we went to the famous Mama Espinoza’s, where we had been instructed to say hi to “Roly” who I believe is the current “mama” at Espinoza’s. She seemed nice but busy, and asked after Rich and Tonya when I told her they sent greetings. We were not able to try the spicy lobster soup as Tonya suggested since they had no lobster, but maybe on the way back north we will. We had fish tacos which were quite good, and continued on our way south, leaving the little valley of El Rosario for more and more mountainous terrain as we entered Baja’s Desierto Central (central desert region).

Boojums, Cardon, and Elephant Trees – Oh My!
Cortez thought Baja was an island – and it is almost an island, geographically, but also in terms of biology. There are many plant species that are endemic to Baja – they are found nowhere else in the world. Islands often develop unique flora and fauna because of geographic isolation, and Baja seems to have similar effects from being a very long, thin peninsula.

I knew a little about Cardons and Boojums, but reading Joseph Wood Krutch, found out much more and also about several other plant species. The area around Catavina has several of these all concentrated together, so is very exciting for a botanist, even a lazy one such as myself. Devin bought me a Plants of Baja book before we left, and that has been a source of further information to help us appreciate the unique plants of the area. I took so many photos! “Drive by shootings” mostly, as there are not many places to pull out along the road, but we drove through absolute forests of cardon and boojum on the way here, and saw entire hills covered with elephant trees! All of these are Baja endemics. Cardon are like Giant Saguaro, only bigger, and their branching pattern isn’t the classic right angle “elbow” but rather upward sloping branches. Elephant trees in this area (there is another species also called elephant trees farther down) have white bark and very thick trunks that taper down to the tips of the branches, I guess sort of like an elephant’s trunk.
And Boojums… there isn’t much that one can compare to a Boojum!! They are quite odd and unique plants found nowhere else on this earth except the central desert region of Baja. The real name is Cirio, which means church candle, but the name Boojum comes from Lewis Carroll, and seems to have stuck as it fits the odd plants that have been described as gigantic upside down carrots… but they really only fit that in that they taper from the base to the top. They are green, “hairy” – covered in tiny branches and sometimes flowers, and sometimes they branch into two or more splits at the top. Sometimes those attenuated tops bend over and most photos or drawings of Boojums have the tops arching down, but plants that look like that are rather rare. They give the feeling of being tendrils reaching up from the earth to touch the sun, they seem to wave, even though they are still. Devin said they seem like something from the imagination of Tim Burton. Very odd plants indeed!
Rancho Santa Ynez
We stayed that night at Rancho Santa Ynez, which was truly like a trip back in time – much of Baja is like that. This small rancho could have been a film set for an old John Wayne movie. An old adobe brick building with a central courtyard, open-air kitchen off one side, a few rooms to rent on the other. Windmill, stone cistern, cattle wandering about, oh, and RV parking out front. The “RV Park” part was a large flat area with cactus and trees and cattle wandering through, but enough room and hard-packed sandy surface for parking lots of RVs here and there. It was overlooking a large arroyo with another Baja endemic species, the Mexican Blue Fan Palm. I went on a photo walk at sunset and snapped portraits of Elephant Trees, Boojum, Cholla, Old Man Cactus, Pitaya, and Cardon!

Muy Tranquilo.

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Go back to Day One of Baja Trip

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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Go back to Day One of Baja Trip

Day Two: Saturday, March 17: Estero Bay at Ensenada

Estero Bay is a huge and very fancy resort, catering to Norte Americanos, mostly, I think. It has certainly been the most expensive RV park in which we’ve stayed in Baja. I use the term “Norte Americanos” by the way, since “Americans” isn’t quite accurate – Mexico is part of North/Central America, so in a sense, they are Americans, too. And Canadians are quite plentiful in Baja! But we felt that after our first full day of driving Baja roads, and after so long in preparation for this journey, we needed to land our first day in Mexico somewhere “safe” and have a chance to regroup a bit. It certainly didn’t really feel like Mexico, there. Everyone spoke English, and pretty much everyone staying there, either at the RV park part or the hotel or in the many small houses that are part of it, was American from the US. Still, it was very lovely – with RV spots right on the estuary where we could watch the tides come and go, with shore birds and sea lions on the opposite side. It was quiet and nice! We stayed two nights while we planned our route and stops a little more, Devin started some audio Spanish lessons, and I began reading a book on Baja: Joseph Wood Krutch’s The Forgotten Penninsula.

The second night I decided to take advantage of the empty hot tub and swimming pool that is just for the RV park – came back from a walk along the waterfront and got into my swimsuit, convinced Devin to come with me to keep me company, and… the pool and hot tub were full of teenagers when we got there!! Undeterred, I said, I’m going into the hot tub anyway! Turns out they were a bunch of really nice high school students from a boarding school in Sedona, Arizona, and were a pretty international bunch – there were a couple of students from Germany, Canadians, Korean, and I can’t recall where else, except there was one super nice girl who was a Paiute from Walker Lake, Nevada! That is near Mono Lake, sort of, which is where I bought the land that helped us pay for this adventure!! Anyway, I had fun talking with them and watching them cavort in the water, and I was glad I had persisted and gone into the hot tub, because there had been a heavy marine layer there that day and it was quite chilly – pleasant, but chilly.

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Go back to Day One of Baja Trip

Day One: Friday, March 16: Border Crossing at Tecate to Ensenada

Border Crossing - No Waiting!

Having scouted Tecate the day before, and picked up some pesos and our FMTs (tourist visas), along with the route through town, crossing the border was quite easy. No waiting, just pulled through and right on through town. Tecate is definitely an old-style Mexican town – it is not a tourist town at all, so the feeling after crossing is immediately of being IN Mexico. The road took us around two sides of the lovely town square, with statues, trees, and fountains, and even a sidewalk café. There is a pretty steep hill (for an older RV pulling a Jeep, at least!) leaving town, and there are stop signs on the way up.

The roads in Baja are narrower, rougher, and have little to no shoulder. They do, however, have a lovely white line marking the right side of the lane, which is very helpful when trying to move as far to the right as possible to allow trucks, busses, and other RVs to pass in either direction. It is especially helpful since not only is there no shoulder, but there is usually a sharp drop off at the edge of the pavement on the other side of the white line of at least 6-12 inches – imagine the RV’s front tire going off a 12 inch edge at 40 miles/hour – not too pretty of a picture! The lanes are officially 9.5 feet wide (narrower than in the US), and the RV is 8.5 feet wide, not counting the mirrors, which stick out about a foot on both sides. So you might say driving in Baja is a white knuckle experience in an RV. Devin is doing all the driving – I am sure I would have taken us off a cliff on a “Curva Peligrosa” by now! He, on the other hand, is a very calm and level-headed driver. And very skilled – he’s like a draftsman in his ability to drive ON the white line without going over for mile after mile! But after the first day of driving, we BOTH had sweaty palms, and I am worried we’ll need to reupholster the arms of the passenger seat where my nails have dug in repeatedly!! Note to self: cut nails short before driving further!

The scenery leaving Tecate is quite nice – not that we could rip our eyes off the road to enjoy it much… but the sky was quite hazy, although it had been clear blue skies in Potrero north of the border. I think the Maquiladora zone in Tecate, plus the fact that some marine layer from the ocean had moved inland up the terrain to there, gave it hazy skies. A few miles south of town, passing over some mountains, and we were back into blue skies and open county. Occasional small villages all had “topes” to slow down traffic – like speed bumps, only steeper and bigger! At least most of these are well marked, and also have mini-topes leading up to the big ones, increasing in frequency as they get closer. We took those all very slowly, since you could hear every dish in our cabinets rattle on each one! Little ranchos dotted the countryside, and the road wound to and fro, over and around the hilly and mountainous terrain. All the dangerous curves are marked, not only with signs, but also with the sad little shrines to those that did not heed the warnings and died at those places. The roadside in Baja is dotted with these shrines up and down its length.

After a while, we came to Baja’s “Ruta de Vina” – or Wine Country Route. The Guadalupe Valley opened out in the mountains to vineyards and olive trees, and other orchards, but mostly grapes. The Ruta de Vina seemed more affluent than many areas, with large homes adjoining each vineyard. In some ways, it made me think that it must still be similar to the old days of the Haciendas, where the landowners were wealthy and employed the campesinos to work their fields. Today, at least, those campesinos have a chance to become landowners themselves, but as we have seen in many cultures throughout history, breaking out of poverty is much easier said than done. The third richest man in the world is now a Mexican, though – owner of TelCel and many other interests throughout Mexico – not only is he Mexican, he is a first generation Mexican whose family immigrated from Lebanon. Though the division between the haves and haves-nots down here is quite wide, the New World is still a land of opportunity for some!

We began to feel the air get cooler as we neared the coast, and with relief we merged onto the 4 lane Mex.1 as we entered Ensenada. It would be a short period of relief – Mex 1 is 2 lane highway the rest of the way down Baja, except for short stretches near cities such as Loreto and La Paz. Ensenada is a big city! And it has the biggest flag I’ve ever seen – Americans aren’t the only ones that do the huge flag thing – this Mexican flag in Ensenada, I think, may be bigger than any US flag I’ve been amazed by! There was quite a bit of construction in Ensenada, and we were detoured from the main highway, but eventually got back to it in time to make the turn off to the Estero Bay Resort.

Detailed trip updates - Baja, One Day at a Time

As promised, following is the day by day account of our Baja travels so far - photos may not come through well because of poor internet connection, so watch for them to be added later if so!

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Baja - "brief" summary of the first two weeks

We are currently in Loreto, in Baja California Sur, Mexico. We have been having the most amazing adventures so far!! We are officially in love with Baja.

Yesterday, we drove out the 35 km on a rough dirt road through the Sierra Gigante mountains to San Javier - such incredibly beautiful desert scenery! With views back to the Sea of Cortez as we climbed, and Rupestran rock art greeting us along the way - several stream crossings, a few small ranchos, palms filling the arroyos and cardon, cholla, wild figs, and palo blanco hanging off the steep cliffs. San Javier is a piece of "old Baja" and this small ejido must feel great pride in what they have done - it is so beautiful and clean and well kept - cobblestone streets lead the way to San Javier Mission, which is the second of all the missions in the Californias. It was founded in 1699, and later moved to its current location in 1720 to make room for all the orchards - it is very well-preserved and very old feeling - simple, moorish architecture that I found more appealing that the ornate decor of some. It was really a gorgeous place, warm friendly people, tidy little homes and businesses, in such a beautiful valley in incredible desert scenery!

On the drive back the Jeep started making a horrible screeching noise - it seems something may have been caught in the wheel well, or was scraping on the metal disk brakes - it was awful and echoed in the canyon as we descended the steep rocky road with hairpin turns - we stopped in the road and Devin crawled under to see if it was something he could knock loose, and couldn't find anything, so we kept going a ways to find a better place to work on it - a relatively flat area with good visibility both directions. We jacked it up, and before removing the wheel, Devin did some more diagnostics and was able to pry the metal shield that covers the inside of the wheel away from the disk brakes, where it had been rubbing - probably a big rock got thrown up from the other tire and dented it. No more noise!! And we didn't have to take off the wheel. Yay!! We drove down to Loreto in the dark, seeing the glowing eyeshine of various beasts (mostly cattle, burros, and rabbits) along the way, outlines of Cardon (like Giant Saguaro) cacti, and enjoying the desert night as the lights of Loreto approached.

That was our most recent adventure - among others are when we've been surrounded by whales asking for a scratch on the back - they really do come right up to the small boats and bring their babies - they make the effort to gently float up close enough to the boat so we can reach down and "pet" them - their skin is surprisingly soft! It was amazing to be in this small panga, just us and our capitan, Leopoldo, in the midst of beautiful Ojo de Liebre (Scammon's) Lagoon, surrounded, literally surrounded, by whales - we had FIVE mother whales and their babies all at ONCE surrounding the boat, taking turns in the "line" to get a scratch! Truly amazing! Leopoldo was very good about not chasing the whales, but let them choose to come to us - he would pilot the boat to a place near where we saw spouts, and we would wait at a distance, idling, and if they didn't come to us, he would move on. It was a very moving experience - Leopoldo kept saying "bueno, bueno, bueno!" and spreading his arms as if to say, "see what I have brought you?!" What an amazing day.

More recently, we camped for a few days on the beach of the Sea of Cortez at Playa Santispac, which was just incredible - one of those places, like Saline Valley, that is so relaxing that you feel as if you'd already been there weeks when it has only been 2 or 3 days.

We met some wonderful people there - Alethea and Bernardo camped next to us for a couple of nights - she is a teacher from Alberta, Canada, who had been teaching English in Mexico, where she met Bernardo, who is from Guadalajara, Mexico. They were a great couple! Bernardo was very international - his family is from Germany, and he went to high school in England, so he is fluent in three languages - but he is Mexican born and raised. He speaks English with a British/Mexican accent :-) We shared a wonderful fish dinner with them on the beach one night, from fresh pescado bought from the vendors who came by every morning, and with a marinade that I learned from my former roommate Tom from Wrightwood - lime juice, soy sauce, cilantro, serrano chiles, purple onion, and garlic. Yum!

There were all sorts of beautiful shells on that beach, and wonderful bird and sea life. We rented a kayak and paddled out to an offshore island - a true "desert island" - covered in Cardon and Cholla and other cacti, but with Pelicans nesting among the cacti! We saw baby pelicans in their nests - omg they are SO cute! It felt like we were on the Discovery channel in the middle of a nature show - we floated silently through crowds of pelicans as we wove through small islets - close enough to touch, but we stayed silent and only paddled when we needed to, and only one hopped over to the next rock when we got too close. It was a solemn and stately procession of pelicans! American Oystercatchers and Spotted Sandpipers and Eared Grebes down at the shore on the rocks, along with strange prehistoric looking bugs - like giant pill bugs - which all swarmed up to just cover the rocks when we approached!! Below us yellow and black striped "seargent major" fish (I called them bumblebee fish) and a big blue parrot fish, lots of sting rays, dolphin fish (mahi mahi), jacks, and many others swam through the blue-green water, seaweed, rocks and sand we could see many feet down. Overhead, Turkey Vultures, Pelicans, and Frigatebirds made interesting aerial dance partners, and were joined by an Osprey that landed on a Cardon and watched us from on high. No photos of this experience, since we were afraid to bring a camera in case we dunked the kayak - ha. But it is certainly one of the more vivid memories we've had on this trip!

Another night at Santispac, we dined in style on a sailboat that was anchored in the bay - Tony and Marquita, from San Carlos and Albuquerque, came and got us from the beach in their dinghy and treated us to lasagna - I brought a bottle of red wine from Trader Joe's we'd been carrying for just such an occasion, and we stayed out on their lovely 34 foot boat until after sunset, being entertained by sailing stories, listening to the weather on the ham radio, and enjoying fine company. They also picked up Caleb, from a neighboring sailboat, who really looks like an "old salt"! People are very friendly and open down here!

Earlier in our trip, we traveled through the desierto central and stayed at Rancho Santa Ynes outside of Catavina for a few days. We explored some back roads there - went out to El Marmol, an abandoned onyx mine, where huge blocks of onyx have been left laying about like stonehenge, and there is a ruin of the only schoolhouse built entirely out of onyx.

We found when we were leaving Catavina, that our RV had a flat tire! We had probably cut the inside of one of our rear inside tires when we pulled back onto the highway from a rocky pullout before arriving, but since it was a deep slice, and we had had the RV up on its leveling jacks while camping, it hadn't been noticeable. As soon as we were pulling out, though, our tire monitors (a Christmas present from Devin's dad - thank you!) gave an alarm, and when we got out to look, you could hear air just streaming from the tire! Catavina is in the middle of the infamous "gas gap" in Baja - some 200 miles with no gas stations, and very little in the way of services or towns. Catavina itself is not much of a town - there is a hotel, and a few buildings - some guys that sell gas from barrels in the backs of their pickups, and that's about it. Well, we found one of those guys and asked for help - he was great! He and his wife came out to the rancho, had to make 2-3 trips back to get the right size tools, and helped us change our tire - not an easy task in an RV!! We gave them beer, soda, and more money than I think he was comfortable accepting, but we were so very grateful for both his hard work and their kindness. So now we are driving on our 10 year old spare, which still had the label on it, but it has been sitting for 10 years. It seems to be holding up fine, so far!

Which is a good thing, because the highway down here is no picnic! I know it used to be all dirt road beyond El Rosario, but even so, the lanes are MUCH narrower than in the US, with NO shoulders (often a drop off on the edge of the pavement of 6-12 inches that would be very dangerous to hit at highway speeds, especially in a 9 ton RV), guard rails are rare, and where they do exist are often smashed down from people going over them. Little shrines and memorials dot the highway's margins the entire length of the penninsula, solemn reminders of the dicho posted on one roadside sign, "Vale mas tarde que nunca" (better late than never). The roads are winding and often rough or full of potholes, and steep grades (including one that actually is officially named "cuesta del infierno" - the grade from hell - ha!). The lanes are officially 9.5 feet wide (though sometimes seem narrower!), but our motorhome is 8.5 feet wide, not counting our mirrors, which probably stick out a foot on each side, so when trucks or other RVs are passing, we have to have our right tires ON the white line, inches from the edge - quite the white knuckle driving experience!! The trucks don't slow down - they are expert drivers. We, on the other hand, slow to almost a stop when they pass us!! It's not hard to do because, fortunately, there is very little traffic, and most of the other RV's are heading north. The cars that do come from behind, we send around us using the Baja convention of the left blinker to let them know it is clear. People pass readily where most of us would never consider passing!! But the system works, and keeps us from being a rolling roadblock, so we can go as slow as we need to. Our top speed is usually about 40 mph, a nice speed for sightseeing! We typically drive under 100 miles on driving days, otherwise, this wouldn't be nearly as relaxing a trip.

Today begins the Semana Santa holiday - people have been warning us about the craziness of Semana Santa - the beaches, apparently, are where everyone in Mexico wants to be during the holiday, and thousands of people are expected at the lovely near deserted ones along Bahia Concepcion where we camped - in fact, they are moving a carnival onto the beach at Santispac! Playa Coyote will have 3 live bands, and there will be partying all night long. The roads will be full of traffic, and we are warned to beware of drunk drivers. Yikes! We just decided to stay in Loreto one more night so we can get an early start in the morning - we figure everyone who's been partying all night will be hung over and sleeping it off in the mornings, so if we drive early, we should avoid some of the worst of it. We may head north, rather than continue all the way south at this point, and we have decided we are definitely coming back. Next time, though, we will come earlier and stay much longer - perhaps January through March, giving us time for much more exploration and relaxation, and to truly settle into the Baja way of life.

I am going to try to add photos to this post, and maybe go into more detail, but I think our internet will turn off in a short while, and I wanted to get something posted before that happens - likely we won't have internet access until we get back to the US after this.

Some of our more relaxing pursuits other than exploration have been reading - I read Joseph Wood Krutch's "The Forgotten Penninsula" and Devin is reading John Steinbeck's "Log from the Sea of Cortez." I figured out Cielito Lindo on guitar, we've enjoyed birding and I've added several "lifers" to my bird list, and of course practicing speaking Spanish - my Spanish always improves by leaps and bounds in Mexico, of course, but I am still at the internal translation stage - so that when someone speaks rapidly, I can't always keep up, and it's amazing how quickly then Spanish goes from being a perfectly comprehensible language to complete gibberish! Here in Loreto is the first place we've found where many locals speak English, because of all the gringos here. There is an airport with direct flights, cruise ships come here, and many Norte Americanos have bought property and either have retired here or come to fish or vacation. I stubbornly insist on speaking Spanish because that is how I will keep improving!

I hope to post more details on the whales, San Javier, the desert, dogs, birds, etc. I hope I will not forget the soul-enriching beauty of this place.

Thanks for reading our blog!

Ahhhh, Mexico!

Well, we are officially "enamorados" with Baja (in love)! I have a lot to catch up on here in our little blog - so much has happened, so many "little stones of adventure" have been overturned in such a short time, it feels we've been gone for months. This won't be a "once in a lifetime trip" down here, because we are definitely coming back. We would like to come and stay for a few months, like many Norte Americanos in their RVs do - from January through March. There is so much to do and to really relax and enjoy it, it would be wonderful to be here for a longer time. We have plenty of time, but as spring progresses, it is getting warmer, and we would also like to make it all the way to Alaska by summer, with many explorations in between, so our self-imposed schedule sends us back north fairly soon.

We are currently in Loreto, Baja California Sur, and enjoying some city life luxuries along with the quirks of residing in a Mexican town - the Giant Megaphone cars that drive by on a regular basis announcing who knows what to the neighborhood, for example, the water vendor with his Woody Woodpecker horn, the roosters crowing before dawn, and here in the Rivera del Mar RV Park, the sounds of wind in palm fronds, and Orioles and Sparrows singing while building their nests. Oh, and a laundry and internet access!! All for $14 a night - quite expensive by Baja standards, but well-worth it to catch up on things like the blog, emails, laundry, groceries, etc.

What I will try to do is update in installments - separate posts throughout today detailing the last week or so of experiences - look for posts on beautiful beaches, great food, flora and fauna, deserts, jeep roads, whales, towns and people! Some preview photos are at Devin's Picasa album, at http://picasaweb.google.com/riley.devin/MiscBajaPics

This has been a wonderful trip so far!

More to come soon!

If it's not one thing...

It's another!

Okay, we are STILL in the U.S. ... but TOMORROW is D-Day! Departure Day...

We had to delay a day because the "check engine" light came on in our new Jeep. Pretty much something you want to check out before driving the Baja and exploring some of the backroads of the Vizcaino Penninsula and other places we've been reading about.

It was an error, according to the Jeep Dealer in La Mesa, so no worries. We thought it could have been a stuck thermostat because we bought one of those OBDCII readers that hook up to the on board computer and tell you what the problem is. Nice to have! The code was something about the cooling system, and it came on when the car was cold, but went off when it was warmed up. Of course, it went off before we got it to the dealer, and hasn't been back on since!

This is a lovely campground (Potrero) - it's too bad that although this will be our third night, we haven't really had a chance to enjoy it much. Folks here are very friendly, and pretty much everyone is either going to or coming back from Baja. We had a good test of the new Banks exhaust system in the moho just getting to Potrero - some steep grades towing the Jeep! It did great. We are really glad we got it.

We had planned to go to Tecate yesterday in the Jeep and head over with the moho today, but when the check engine light came on, we went to La Mesa instead - the Jeep dealer couldn't see us then, but said come back in the morning, so we went back up to Camping World in San Marcos and bought a spare water pump... we've been a bit worried that ours is about to konk out, so we figured we'd buy it now and then if ours doesn't die, we'll have an upgrade (we got one that is variable speed, and more powerful yet more quiet - so higher water pressure for showers, and quiet for midnight bathroom breaks).

That was a long day, and today was another - we got up early (for us) and went back to La Mesa and the Jeep dealer, got a rental car from them, went to Sport Chalet to get some "cheap" snorkel gear (at the recommendation of friends Tonya and Rich Mandl, who gave us a great list of Baja people and places we look forward to getting acquainted with!). Of course, we had a guy helping us who was a dive instructor and was super helpful and funny - and he showed me the mask HE uses, after which all of the other masks were just not good enough!! So I got a really nice mask. And a cheap snorkel and fins. I'll probably want a better snorkel... but the fins should be fine. Devin found a nice set he liked with short flippers, which work better for him, and he bought some webbed gloves, since most of his power is in his arms. I look forward to trying them out in the water!! (I tried them out in the RV when we got home - ha).

After we got the Jeep back, we went to Tecate and got our FMTs (tourist cards) and some pesos, and scouted the road through town we'll take with the RV tomorrow. Tecate is Mexico. I mean, it's really Mexico. I was expecting a border town to be a little more, I don't know - Americanized... but it feels like a small town in central Mexico - you cross that border and you are immersed in a completely different culture!!! No one speaks English, all the signs are in Spanish, everything is different. From the colors of paint on the buildings, to the music pouring out of the buildings, to the street signs and stores... although there was a McDonald's! That was the ONLY sign of Americanization I saw. Oh, and drivers are much nicer there! Twice in a short period people stopped and let us into traffic. I didn't like the traffic circles - I've never liked those. Too many variables! But I made it through twice, though I freaked out a bit the second time because a truck went through with us and the lanes are NOT well-defined. I'm okay now, though. Yay beer!

Speaking of beer, we decided not to go to the brewery - too long of a day already. It smelled just like the Miller Brewery up off the 210, by Irwindale. Our friend Graci would have liked it!! We'll drink plenty of Tecates, I suspect. Maybe we'll take a brewery tour on the way home.

So tomorrow, we go through the border and head to Ensenada. We are staying at the high end Estero Beach Resort there, which will be a nice way to start - we will have plenty of time for boondocking on beaches farther south, but up in this region, a high end RV park is more appealing.

After Ensenada, we will head to San Quintin to camp on the beach, then El Rosario for lunch at Mama Espinoza's (where we will say hi to Roly from Rich and Tonya, and be sure to try the spicy lobster soup!) and Catavina area may be a camping spot - beautiful cacti and rocks, an old onyx mine (El Marmol) which our rockhound friend Greg Arnold would surely love, may be some side trips we'll take, or perhaps we'll save them for the way back so we can get to see the whales in Scammons and San Ignacio Lagoons before they migrate back north.

Bahia de los Angeles is one of the areas I know we'll want to spend some time, but maybe we'll go there on the way back north so we don't feel rushed to leave to catch the "tail of the whales." So after San Quintin, we may power through to Guerrero Negro and camp right on the Lagoon (called Ojo de Liebre in Spanish - Scammons is the same place). So we are about 3-4 days from whales, and after than, whatever we feel like!

The water situation will be interesting. We are going to fill our water tank at RV parks, and chlorinate it ourselves for washing, but buy bottled water for drinking and maybe for cooking. I wish they made "Potable Aqua" in large quantities for 75 gallon tanks, so we could use the neutralizer tablets like I do for backpacking - no bad taste! And the Iodine tablets kill even viruses. We have some good filters that we use to fill our tanks - some people add Chlorine before filtering, some after. I like the "pour the bleach into the hose before connecting and filling" technique, since it sterilizes the hose, and some of the bad Chlorine taste should get filtered out that way.

Well, I'm going to get back to my duty as trip photographer tomorrow! And I'd better get to bed soon, since it will be an exciting day and our first day in Mexico in the Moho.

Wish us Bien Viajes!!

Still in Southern California...

But not for long!!!

Okay, the whole month of February is missing - I realize that and have a draft started, but so much happened!! I have photos and lots of stories to tell - moving out of our apartment and into the tiny storage with the big old truck, working on the Jeep installing base plate for towing and wiring braking system, redecorating the interior of the moho, errands and more errands, visiting family and friends - it's been very busy!! But we are ~almost~ finally ready to head over the border, so I thought I should do a quick update to the blog before we do.

First, one more excuse besides the busy one - my laptop died and we've sent it off to the Apple Mothership for a new hard drive, so updating the blog depends on when I can wrench Devin's laptop from him - ha. We'll pick mine up after Baja, so updates should start being more frequent. We'll at least attempt to post photos on Picasa or other photo sites and link to them from here!

Right now we are in San Diego at Campland on the Bay, trying to wrap everything up! The RV was in the shop at Camping World most of the day Saturday getting the SmartTire monitoring system fixed, and yesterday we ran more errands. Today we got new off-road tires for the Jeep and will take care of other items we forgot or were thinking of not doing - like putting together a camping kit for Baja in the Jeep. I just found out the 5th tire (spare) for the Jeep won't be ready till around 4pm, so it looks like we may stay here one more night, then head over to Tecate in the morning.

We plan to camp at Potrero County Park which is right across the border from Tecate, and head over to Tecate in the Jeep to explore and get our FMTs and visit the Tecate Brewery, scout the route through town, etc. Then the next day we'll cross in the moho with the Jeep in tow, and head straight down to Ensenada. A night or two in Ensenada, then on to points south - we look forward to exploring the Catavina area, Vizcaino Penninsula, Bahia de los Angeles, Scammons Lagoon, San Ignacio, Mulege, Bahia de Concepcion, and on down to Cabo and Land's End. Hope to find places to kayak and snorkel, side trips in the Jeep, take lots of photos, improve our Spanish, and just relax!!

More updates on the lost month, and on the coming weeks in Baja, as time and internet connections allow!

Oh, email if you'd like to hear from us in person - a lot of my contacts are on my laptop and not in online address books! And our phones may work in Baja - we updated to the North America's Choice plan which includes international roaming and long distance, so you can call either of us, too!

Why we are really taking this trip

Our friend Ushruf sent us the link to this comic, and it's so us, it's scary!! It comes from here: www.xkcd.com

Since I'm on here - here are some quick updates:

• Wednesday 1/31: We got our Jeep!!!! We love it!!!! Pics soon!
• Thursday 2/1: Devin's last day of work!!! Yay!!! (*gulp*)
• Move out: Next weekend!!!
• Last day in apartment: 2/13/07
• First day of the rest of our lives: Valentine's Day... awwww....

More to come when we actually hit the road!