Baja at last, January 8, 2008

Baja California, Mexico

After two nights in the pouring rain at Potrero San Diego County Park we crossed over into Mexico at Tecate. The previous day we had walked across the border to get our visas stamped. This cut off quite a bit of time for our travel day as there is little parking on the Tecate side close to the border, requiring us to park and walk through a questionable neighbourhood.

We met a nice couple who have a house in San Jose del Cabo; Sharon and Stan, they drive down in their 4 wheel drive truck camper from Grande Cache, a town north of Jasper Alberta. We paired up with them and while we didn’t drive with them, we kept a look out for each other on the road and agreed to meet at the Pacific beach campground in El Pabellon just south of San Quintin.

We fortunately did not meet our motorcycle cop who wiped us out of all our American money in Tecate last year. (Having practiced his art for the past year on other unsuspecting gringos he was probably lounging by his pool drinking margaritas) We carried on, having lunch at our usual first gas stop in Valle de Guadelupe. Our next stop was the fish market in Ensenada. We love that fish market! So many different kinds of fresh fish at such excellent prices – tuna, dorado, marlin, swordfish, many sizes of prawns (camaron) shark, pargo, oysters, muscles, goey duck, smoked marlin and tuna but no lobster. There were probably many more fish that I can’t remember right now. We stocked up on jumbo camaron at $10.20 a kilogram, swordfish at $5 a kilo and smoked tuna and marlin $3 a kilo. Yum! We really like to rough it when we camp!

Our destination was the Pacific beach campground at El Pabellon south of San Quintin. We arrived there after dark, about 6:00 at night. It was a bit nerve wracking finding the road in the dark, everything looks so different. Following our splendid dinner of swordfish and camerons we visited with Sharon and Stan, receiving an invitation to visit them in San Jose! Stan says he literally turned the lights on in the new town of Grande Cache when they were transferred there with the Alberta electric company years ago. Sharon was a nurse and delivered the first baby in the new town. They still live there and love it.

We parted ways from our new found friends in the morning; while we headed to Bahia de Los Angeles for a few days of kayaking, they carried on their way to their home in San Jose.

I drove – yes I did! From the junction of Mex. 1 and the road into Bahia de Los Angeles – 63 km. AND I drove back out as well! There are no big trucks on this route, in fact, hardly any traffic at all. No, we didn’t get a picture of it – should have as it will be the only driving I do on this highway. There have been lots of improvements to Mex. 1 but not enough for me.

We had two beautiful mornings of kayaking – we made it almost to the closest island – about 4 km from our campsite before the wind picked up. By the time we got to shore there were some good whitecaps. It is a very windy place, the afternoons we spent inside reading till about 3:30 then went for a bike ride. What could be a more pleasant way to spend the day, kayaking, cycling, playing guitar/Lorne went to the local internet spot down the beach, reading! Wonderful!

The road south of the Bahia de Los Angeles junction is very poor, lots of pot holes and between Rosarito and Guerro Negro it is really terrible, full of even deeper potholes for about 20 km!

Arrived at our destination – San Lucas Cove at about 7:30. Quite dark and late for us. (We received a bit of a scolding from our friend John who spends much of the year at this beach – driving on a Saturday night is not a good idea)

Filled the water tank, and our hot water tank has sprung a leak. I am so glad I brought Lorne with me. Not only does he drive Mex. 1 he knows how to fix things and he is at the moment ripping the bathroom apart to fix this leak so we can have hot water. I cook. Also a useful skill.