It was an uneventful crossing at Tecate, took us 10 minutes tops to walk across the border, get a stamp on our visa and walk back across. We parked at the little market/shoe store on the right hand side just before the border. No charge if we were under half an hour. We found some Ovaltine in the store for Paul and Renata, our friends we are house sitting for in Los Barriles..
We crossed right over without being stopped by the border guards who were armed to the teeth with shiny chrome plated M16s. No worries. It was a spectacular day, perfect temperature and very few people on the highway. There was very little sign in this area of the fires that happened last year. We did pass a group of black jumpsuited police with motor cycles, which they leaped on and tore off in the opposite direction as we drove by.
We stopped in Ensenada to go to the fish market. Picked up a couple of kiilos of medio camarones. Yum. We decided to stay at Esterro Beach resort, just south of Ensenada for the night. Its a beautiful resort with an rv park, we were only able to get wi fi in their office so we caught up a little bit and didn't leave till around 11:30. We planned on just driving to El Pabillon, not a long drive, about 3 hours for us.
We spent a peaceful night on the beach at El Pabellon. There were only two other campers there, such a shame, it is a lovely place and the lady who runs it is so very nice and does a wonderful Job maintaining the place. In the morning we waited for hours for the fishermen to come in with some crab and fish (pesca) for us but unfortunately had to leave before they returned. it was such a peaceful calm day on the water I guess they were staying out longer. We could see them with binoculars and kept thinking they were coming in so hung around till finally it was 11:00 and we wanted to get going.
The road past el Pabillon is very narrow – there is a white line though that lets you know that beyond the white line lies a steep bank that would result in a tip or a roll(s) if one was to cross it. Where there is no white line the steep bank has taken over.... half way to El Rosario and there is a wonderful stretch of a few miles with wide shoulders and shoulders for the shoulders! Heaven. Past the checkpoint and we are back into this extremely narrow stuff with white lines with bites of it all the way down the steep hill into El Rosario. I think it took us less than an hour to get to El Rosario from El Pabillon, good time.
Its a very hot day today. With this weather we really don't need to go any further south.
Unfortunately I couldn't get my camera working in time when we came upon a truck trailer laying on its side taking up the entire oncoming lane! The truck was getting hooked up to a real truck - tow truck, the first of these we have seen on the Baja. It was a very twisty part of the road. They had carefully marked the accident with a single small triangle on the edge of the road for the oncoming cars – well, better than the traditional pile of stones.
They have been dong some work, on this road and there are parts that are really quite nice,
We stopped for the night and a walk at Santa Ines by 3:00. In the morning Lorne found a nail in one of the rear tires so off we went back to Catavina in search of a llantera. This is a very small pueblo – 100 people, the usual gong show happened, we didn't see a llantera sign so stopped to ask at the store – he pointed back down the road and said the man selling gasoline could fix it. We drove back to him and he said no, he had to sell gasoline (plastic gallons of it off his cart – there was certainly no line up) and pointed back down the way we came saying there was a mechanic there who could fix it. Back we went and found his shop, however, no such luck, he was in Ensenada till the afternoon so Lorne changed the tire in his lot, His 12 year old son came to chat with us and to offer his advice so we brushed up on some Spanish.
Our goal today is Bahia de Los Angeles, about 170 km, a 3 hour drive, maybe. We plan on staying a few days, doing some kayaking and will look at a few casas on the beach for sale. This is Lorne's favourite spot and is rapidly becoming mine.
No comments:
Post a Comment