Couple of Months Traveling Through Baja

[Every Miles A Memory]

Wednesday

We wanted to check out the various beaches that are all around us and see if we could find any that we might be able to move to. So we loaded up some lunches and Chuck and Sandy rode with us on our quest.



We checked out a few different locations that were in the Baja Bible, but none matched the beauty and solitude that we were used to from staying at Playa Santispac. Puerto Escondido looked like it used to be a full service village that had a Yacht Club and a full port, but the last hurricane left it with crumbling buildings and empty deteriorating streets.

We spoke to a local sailor who was repairing his catamaran, which had a huge section of the hull missing after being sunk in that same storm; who told us it's free to camp here, no one bothers you and on Sundays all the locals get together in the new Yacht Club for a Potlatch feast.



While we were wandering around the ruins, we walked up to what used to be the old Puerto Escondido Yacht Club Clubhouse. The roof was half way blown off and a few of the walls along with all the windows were blown out. Cindy laughed when one of the doors had a piece of paper on it that read "Book Exchange".

We looked through the door to see shelf after shelf lined with books. This was strange since everything else was in such disarray, yet this looked like a working library.

We walked in to find everything was indeed alphabetically organized by title and looked like someone was still maintaining the book exchange. To our disbelief, we all found a few books that peaked our interest and said we would be back to donate ones we have already read.

The sailor we had talked with had told us about a little fishing village that we might want to check out. We followed his directions to a nice secluded beach that a few Americans along with a few Canadians were camped at. The beach was nice and long, but lined with rocks instead of nice white sand. I guess we're getting a bit spoiled.

Besides, there would be no way Chuck could even think of getting his monstrous Class-A back into this beach. The narrow trail we took had me scraping along a few of the turns and we had to gas it hard to make it through a few of the soft, sandy sections.



So we moved on further South to Ligui Beach. This beach is at the end of a long graded dirt road and is easily accessible by almost any size RV. Our problem was once we got to the beach, I wanted to drive further down to check out a cool looking spot.

Once I ventured off the packed sand, the truck almost immediately sunk into the soft sugar sand. Of course I had Cindy by my side narrating the whole ordeal to Chuck and Sandy in the back seat. I said I just needed to air down the tires since our bed was fully loaded with all our gear, the extra 35 gallons of drinking water and the tires were at their maximum air pressure of 80psi. Much too hard for soft sand

I was letting the air out of the tires, with Chuck sitting over my shoulder laughing, while Sandy and Cindy dug out the sand around the wheels and threw some rocks and drift wood they had found lying on the beach under the sunk tires.

Once the tires were aired down, I threw the truck into 4-Low and walked right out of the sand with no problem. Once the gang was back in the truck, we unanimously agreed that we would just deal with the noise of Loreto and stay camped where we were till the holiday weekend was over.



When we got back to the campground, we had some new Canadian neighbors.

John and Mary-Ellen are a very nice couple who retired at the end of 2007 and packed up their Class-C Camper for a long Mexican journey. They've been in Baja since January and are on their way back North after driving as far South as Cabo San Lucas which is the Southern most tip of the Baja peninsula.

They have this little, old dog that is just as cute as can be, and we all sat talking till it got dark outside. Cindy then made some scrumptious Pizza with grilled chicken breast, artichokes, green peppers and red onion! Oh man was it good! This folks is why I'm very Fat and Happy

[targa88]

Pat,
Excellent trip details and inspiring pix.
This is one of "my" must do trips that I absolutely want to do. However, my time horizon is only 3-4 weeks (which includes travel to MX).
The whale watching looked epic. I would need to investigate how long they stay in those waters ( when they arrive and leave) - March just seems a little early in the year for me to travel.
Thanks for sharing.

[Every Miles A Memory]

Thursday

Everyone keeps talking about the Mission San Javier which is a few hours drive from downtown Loreto. This Mission is the only Mission on the Baja still standing that hasn't been rebuilt and still stands in its original glory.

We decided to stuff ourselves before we left with another huge breakfast at the campground Cafe. While eating breakfast, we met Mark who is a young Canadian that has lived here for the last 14 months working on a big development just South of Loreto.

Mark gave us a bunch of tips on the local driving scene and some alternate routes for driving to the Mission. We've always found that the locals are usually the best secret for up to date road conditions.

Before we left, we were talking with one of the couples who had pulled in with the Escapee's Lazy Daze Caravan that had filled up the campground yesterday. They said they were planning on heading out to the Mission tomorrow and to make sure we give them a full report when we return.

Chuck and Sandy wanted to test their Jeep on these back country roads, so we decided to drive separate. This would later be a very important thing.

The road out to the Mission has been recently upgraded with fresh asphalt on the first 7 miles. It's still very curvy and quite steep in sections, but was a perfectly smooth road. Chuck had heard that with the construction going on, we would be detoured around this new road, but Mark had said that with today being a Holiday, just drive on the new road since no one would be working.

Once the new pavement ends, the road does get a bit bumpy. Nothing that you'd need a 4x4 for, but I wouldn't recommend an RV or anything larger than a truck with a slide in trying to make the trip. We had a few locals pass us in low clearance vehicles, so I wouldn't even worry about high clearance problems.



Once you get into the thick of the mountains, the road does get plenty steep and narrow.

With beautiful views in every direction, it was one of those drives that you just want to take nice and slow and see everything you can.

It reminded me of the Apache Trail in Arizona once it passes Tortilla Flats.

We stopped a few times at the various road side Oasis's and at a little Chapel on the mountain side. At one of the Oasis there was a spring fed stream that flowed down the side of the mountain that was surrounded by big date Palms. We took the dogs for a hike and one of the funniest things happened.



There were numerous pools of water and one was covered in a layer of moss. Lucy, our little Beagle was running along and thought she could walk across the moss and went in over her head. Luca was right behind her but he was tall enough that he only went in to his belly.



I cant believe that Lucy didn't yelp out in terror as she hates water so much. Luca didn't seem to mind that much after the initial shock wore off that he was standing in cold water and not on solid ground. But boy did Cindy and I get a good laugh.

By the time we got to the Mission, the temperature seemed like it had doubled since we left the campground. Now remember that the campground is only two blocks from the Sea of Cortez and the Mission is 22 miles into the middle of the desert.

We wandered around snapping some pictures of this beautiful structure and glad we had made the journey. It's very beautiful and well worth the long bumpy drive.

Chuck and Sandy pulled in a few minutes behind us and Chuck needed to borrow some tools. I guess along the washboard road, a few screws in his hard top had worked themselves loose. I set him up with my box of spare screws and a Phillips head screwdriver, and while I had the tool box out, our friendly campground neighbors who had pulled up in a taxi cab asked us if they could borrow some tools also.



I guess after that bumpy ride, their taxi driver couldn't get his van started either. So with the front of the Mission looking like a repair lot, Cindy and I continued to walk around snapping some pictures while Chuck tightened up his windshield and a few taxi drivers worked on their vans.

To think that I was being made fun of back at the campground when I got out my big tool box to work on my bike. I dont think Chuck or anyone else is making fun of lugging that tool box around now.

This historic mission is very nice with amazing rock work and glass windows said to be the first in a building structure in California. The interior architecture was decorated with three baroque carved and gilded wooden altar-pieces which were carved over 250 years ago in Main Land Mexico, shipped over from Tepozotlán on boats and carried by mules into the mountains.

By the time we were finished with our tour of the religious grounds, the Lazy Daze group had decided that their taxi wasn't going to start back up. We had 3 of the ladies jump in with Cindy and I and another couple crawled into the back of Chuck's very small CJ-5.

This is where I said the decision on taking two vehicles came in handy. The only problem was Cindy had wanted to bring the dogs with us. I have never understood why women always want to bring the dogs where ever they go? Do the dogs get to go in and explore the mission?

I'm thinking if you asked two lazy dogs if they wanted to sit at home on their big fluffy pillows with a fan blowing on them, or ride in the back seat of a bumpy truck, they'd choose to stay home.



But of course Cindy gets what Cindy wants, so the dogs came with us. Well when we put 3 women in the back seat of the truck, that means the dogs get to sit on Cindy's lap.

Luca, the big Pit Bull did not like this at all. He's the type of dog that wants to be sprawled out and likes his space. So he had 90% of the seat, and Cindy and Lucy shared the other 10%.


The red circle is Chucks Jeep heading down the road. I've heard since being here that there is a dirt road leading in the back way to the Mission that is pretty secluded and hopefully on our next visit o Baja, we'll make that a few day excursion

Cindy will always say to me while were driving, "Can the dogs come up here with us?" I usually just look at her with some dumb look on my face saying "Are you out of your mind!?"

After this ride, I don't think she'll ever ask that stupid question again. None of them were comfortable and maybe things happen for a reason. It took us helping 3 stranded women for her to realize that we don't have lap dogs, no matter how bad they want you to think they can act like one.



The ride home was great and we all had a couple of good laughs sharing different travel stories. These women had been on the road in Mexico for longer than us, so they gave us plenty of places to stop at if we decide to head further South.

The more we think about it, the more Cindy and I keep saying "If were this far South, why not go the rest of the way?"

When we pulled back into the campground, everyone brought chairs into a nice shaded section between the RV's and we all sat around till the sun went down. This group of Escapee's Caravaner's was a whole lotta fun and were filled with hilarious stories.

We've put together a GGallery for Mission San Francisco Javier if you'd like to see more of our images from this day trip.

[Every Miles A Memory]

Pat,
Excellent trip details and inspiring pix.
This is one of "my" must do trips that I absolutely want to do. However, my time horizon is only 3-4 weeks (which includes travel to MX).
The whale watching looked epic. I would need to investigate how long they stay in those waters ( when they arrive and leave) - March just seems a little early in the year for me to travel.
Thanks for sharing.

March is the ideal time. The trip report will be pretty long as we stayed all the way through April, but by the end of April, we were hearing from people that we were meeting that their Whale Watching Trips were pretty uneventful.

3-4 weeks would be a good amount of time if you have everything planned out in advance as to your routes. We played alot of it by ear and just went where locals would point us.

[Every Miles A Memory]

Friday

Today is one of those days of the year where my emotions run wild. Six years ago on this day my older brother was killed in a motorcycle accident. I'll never forget when my business partner and one of my best friends, Dave Munson who owned the Red Dog Saloon with us, pulled me into our office and told me the awful news.

We were crazy busy that night at the bar and I had yelled for Dave to answer the phone. I'm sort of glad that he got the initial call and not me as I don't know what I would have done right there in the middle of the bar receiving that punch in the gut phone call?

My older brother Robb and I were best friends when we were younger. He was 3 years older than me and had moved to Florida right after graduating high school. I followed him down there as soon as I graduated high school and he was actually the one who introduced me to Cindy.



Our first few years as room mates in a big city was also our first years being out of our small rural town of Milford, Michigan. What an eye opener that was.

To go from a three stop light town to West Palm Beach Florida was quite the shock to our ego's.

One day we were the Bonish Brothers who knew everyone in our town. We were known for our wild parties we would throw on the weekends and Robb was known for just about everything else.

From fast muscle cars, crazy dirt bikes to even faster street bikes. Then the next day we were just two schlubs trying to make it in a town where you had to be really rich or really good looking to get noticed. Something we lacked heavily in both departments.

It didn't take long for us to work our way into the party circuit that South Florida is known for. I could talk for days of parties that most would think would be impossible to be true, that is unless you were some of the lucky people who attended them with us.

Then after a few years of living the lifestyle most young guys only dream of, I took a step back and thought "If I keep this up, I wont make it to see 30."

Robb and I used to always say "Neither of us will ever see 35 and if we make it to see 40, something major had gone wrong in our lives."

Well when I tried to bring him with me to the side of life that meant we actually kept steady jobs and had things in the refrigerator besides cases of beer and expensive vodka, he said "I'll see you on the other side little brother!"



I settled down with my wife Cindy, even though there were many times where we dove back into that lifestyle for a few of his notorious parties, some lasting for a few days, but for the most part, we went our separate ways.

The drugs had a hold of him way too tight and no matter what Cindy and I did for him, we couldn't get him to think there was any other way. He saw no use in me having to work 3 jobs to take care of my family, when he could make that kind of money in one drug deal?

There were times when we thought he was going to live a normal life and leave the partying behind. He got into bodybuilding fulltime and was winning contest after contest.

He found a great girl after many years of acting way too crazy and we thought she just might be able to settle him down after they had got engaged.

But then at 31 years of age, it all caught up to him. It's strange how things work out in life isn't it? He died six years ago today in Tijuana Mexico. That's only a few hours from where I am right now and here I am only a few months shy of that age we both swore we'd never make it to. And I don't plan on dying any time soon.

I guess there are many ways to look at life. Some look at it as a giant party and couldn't think of living it sober, and others think of it as a giant party but don't really need the drugs and alcohol to have a good time. I know I'm having the time of my life and except for a few beers during Happy Hour each night, I don't really need all those drugs to let me know that life itself is just way too fun to miss out on.



Since Robb died, my family has changed quite a bit. Cindy and I both took a step back and said "Wow, that could have been us very easily!" It really hit home how short life is and we both decided that we wanted to get the most out of everything we do.

His death was also one of the main reasons we really buckled down and started to work on getting us to where we are right now.

Death isn't really a sad thing for me. My beliefs are that when you die, you go to a much better place. So the way I look at it is - Those family members who died are in a much better place than I am right now, so I don't really sit around and feel sad over the whole thing. Do I miss them? There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of them, but I almost never get teary eyed over it.

I just remember the good times we shared, and there was plenty of those, and know maybe they're helping me with what Cindy and I are doing today.

Sorry for bringing in so much of my personal life to this usually happy blog, but I felt I needed to share some of it.



Since today is Good Friday and I was raised Catholic, Cindy and I decided to head into downtown Loreto and see the Stages of the Cross Procession they had going on for the religious holiday.

They were having a reenactment of the final day of Jesus' life, where actors are dressed up like Roman soldiers along with everyone else involved in the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. They have Jesus carry the cross all the way through town before he is Crucified at one of the local churches.

When we got to the main square, the procession was just passing us and the streets were jammed packed with locals watching and following along on the narrow, dusty streets. Cindy and I stayed ahead of the police escorts in the front so we could get some good pictures and continued to walk along while the crowds prayed.

I realized this would be a great way for me to learn the Spanish language. Being as I was brought to this ceremony every year as a child, I knew most of what they were saying even though I couldn't understand their language.



This was very weird to be walking in a large mob of people who were all mumbling Hail Mary's and Our Father's in a foreign language and following a bunch of dressed up Roman Soldiers. Some of the soldiers were walking and others were riding horses that were sweating massive amounts of water out in this oppressive heat.

The procession went on for miles, and every few blocks the actor playing Jesus would drop to the ground with the large wooden cross landing right on his back while the many other actors participating in the reenactment would say various prayers over him.

The temperatures were probably in the high 80's and with the crowds pushing together tightly, I could feel my shirt getting soaking wet with sweat. I could only imagine how hot it must have been for the actors in full uniform or for Jesus dragging the heavy wooden cross down the street.

It was a very emotional ceremony with women crying all around us. One of the women in our group had to leave and go back to the campground as she said "This is just too emotional for me to handle, and I'm not even religious."



When we finally got to the church where they had the 3 crosses set up on a hill for the Crucifixion, there wasn't a dry eye in the crowd. It was so weird to know exactly what was going on even though all the words didn't make any sense. It was almost like a dream for me. A very weird dream with women crying all around me and people speaking in tongues.

When the play finally ended, we walked back across town to the campground where I spent the afternoon laying in front of a fan thinking too much. I tried to take a nap, but this is one of the reasons why I have so much trouble sleeping. Every time I try and go to sleep, I just lie there and think about stuff.

With today being the day it was, my mind was just racing with random memories I hadn't thought about in a long time.

Needless to say, I never did get my afternoon Siesta.

Once the sun set and the afternoon temperatures died down, everyone in the campground gathered behind our camper and had a Potlatch dinner. It was nice to just sit and mingle with a bunch of new faces and hear so many new stories.

I only wish I could have called my mother to let her know I went to a Catholic ceremony today. It's like getting a Get Out of Jail Free Card for me....She'd be so proud.

[Every Miles A Memory]

Saturday

Today was a day to catch up on all our chores. I sat down at the laundromat washing all of our laundry including the sheets, which were disgusting! Cindy spent most of the day cleaning the inside of the camper and organizing the cupboards now that the fridge and most of the dry food storage is empty.



Camping on a beach can do numbers to the inside of the camper. Even with trying to hose ourselves off each night before we crawled into bed, I was starting to feel like like I was sleeping on sandpaper.

By the time I was finished with my 3 loads of laundry, and had updated the website on a dial-up speed of a connection, Cindy was finished with the inside.

I love our camper when it's all clean and everything is where it belongs. The only problem is its so small, it only takes about 20 minutes for both of us to be doing things inside for it to look like a Tasmanian Devil has just strolled through the place.

While we were talking with the fellow campers last night at our campground potlatch, we got to talking about wanting to head further South just to be able to see everything Baja has to offer. One of the couples from the Lazy Daze group, Noel and Jackie, asked if we'd like to go with them as they were headed towards Ciudad Constitión on Sunday and then onto La Paz on Monday.



We said we'd think it over and let them know later tonight. They asked if we wanted to go out to dinner with their group and we'd see if the game plan would work out for the four of us.

Once the heat of the day settled down (it was a hot one today), Cindy and I walked into town to meet the group for dinner. While we were walking through the neighborhood streets, I looked into a yard and said "Oh look, that guy is carrying a little goat."

Cindy was saying "Oh that's so cute" when we noticed his friend standing under a tree with some rope. When we saw the guy string up the goat by the back legs and pull out a big knife, I thought Cindy was going to crap her pants.

She started running on her gimpy ankle as fast as she could as we heard the goat give out one last scream before it was prepared for Easter dinner tomorrow.

That's just what you have to put up with when you're in a 3rd world country.

We met up with Noel and Jackie in front of the restaurant everyone had planned to meet at, but they were closed for the holiday. So we waited around for the others to show up, but after about 15 minutes, we decided to head down the road to La Palapa Restaurant hoping we'd see the others along the way.



The four of us had a great meal and even better conversation. They are a very interesting couple and it was fun to sit and hear about their travels as they've been in Baja for a few months already. If you'd like to see what they're like, Noel posts his thoughts about each day on a short blog here.

By the end of the night, Cindy and I had decided that we'd pack up camp tomorrow morning and head South with them. We figure since we're this far down already, it would be stupid to not make the full loop incase we never get the chance to get back down here. You never know what the future holds, so if you have an opportunity to take advantage of the situation, we might as well jump on it.

Walking home, we knew that the weather was heating up because you could feel a warm breeze blowing in. The last few days have been getting warmer and warmer and tonight at 10:30pm, it was still in the high 70's outside.

[Every Miles A Memory]

Easter Sunday

We were up early this morning and headed to the Sunday morning Farmers Market on the outskirts of Loreto. Everyone had been talking about how much of a good deal you can get by shopping at this weekly market, so we wanted to see if we could find some fresh produce.

One thing that has surprised me is how little the shopping markets offer in the way of produce. There are a few of the staples, but even those don't look all that good. What you do find is so overpriced, we've held out on buying anything.



When we pulled up, the first thing we saw was two goats hanging from one of the vendors racks and I said to Cindy "Hey look, there is our goat we saw yesterday!" Cindy just gave me one of those looks and said "Stop, You're not Funny!"

It's wild how they handle their meats and fish here. There is no such thing as refrigeration at many of the markets and there will be piles of meat just lying on top of each other with people handling it with bare hands trying to find a good piece they want to buy. YUCK!

Same with the fish. They have tables set up with piles of raw fish lying on top and when you ask for a certain piece, they pick it up bare handed and put it in a plastic grocery bag for you. Double YUCK!

We found a good fruit stand and loaded up on everything we could find. Fresh spinach, bananas, big red tomatoes, juicy grapes, plums, thin green asparagus, big pink grapefruits, oranges and a few other fresh items that had me wanting to sit down and eat right there. This must be where all the restaurants come to shop because you would see someone walking back to their vehicle with dolly's filled with produce.

Once we had our few bags stuffed full which cost a total of $14 American, we headed back to the campground to get things packed up.

While Cindy was getting everything locked up on the inside, I ran into town to get some more Pesos out of the ATM. If you try and use American dollars no one will give you the proper exchange rate, so you lose money with each purchase.

After I got my Mexican money, I stopped by the water purification place to see if I could get our bulk tank we keep in the bed of the truck filled with good drinking water. Now I was a bit worried about this because our tank is a 35 gallon tank. When I brought our two smaller drinking containers into town while in Mulegé, I got 8 gallons which cost me $8 American!



I'm sure the guy saw me coming from a mile away and thought I'll just give this guy any price and he cant really argue about it. Besides I'm not one to barter when it comes to buying things. After I thought I got ripped off, which I did, I talked with a few others who said they couldn't believe the prices of the purified water in that town. So I wasn't the only one who paid a fortune for drinking water.

Well after getting my tank topped off here in Loreto, I was awe struck when he told me it was only 40 Pesos. I looked at him funny and asked "40 dollars, or 40 Pesos?" He showed me the price on the register and said again "40 Pesos!"

I couldn't believe I had just gotten 35 gallons of purified water for $4 dollars American. I was so happy, I gave the guy a $2 tip which he was a bit confused with. He looked at me with a look like "Are you crazy?" But come on, what is $2 to us Americans? This is half of what many of these people make per day! How sad is that!

For those who are counting, that means we've been in Mexico for 21 days now and have gone through one 35 gallon tank, almost all of our 40 gallon tank on the camper, but I dumped out the last bit when it turned cloudy and the 8 gallons I got ripped off for. That's just over 80 gallons in 21 days.

That's for those who are trying to figure out how much to bring with you when you come. Remember that Cindy and I drink a ton of water each day to try and stay hydrated in this heat. While on Playa Santispac, we did a great job of conserving water, but that was 10 days straight of boondocking. So it adds up quick with showering, washing dishes and making a constant supply of ice cubes for our margaritas.

When I got back, Cindy was ready to go and I hooked up the truck to the Sunline and did my stuff outside. I made sure I checked everything twice so I wouldn't loose another set of jack stands like my last idiotic mistake back in San Diego.

Noel and Jackie were ready to get on the road, so we all took a few minutes saying our goodbyes to Chuck and Sandy and everyone else in the campground while we let the A/C get the cab of the truck cooled off.



Once we got on the road, we knew it was going to be a different trip from here on out. Noel's Camper was about the same size as ours in width, so when approaching semi's that took up all of their lane and a bit of ours, we didn't need to come to a complete stop like Chuck would have to do with his huge Class-A.



It only took a few hours before we pulled into Ciudad Constitución and found our next campground for the night, Manfred's RV Park.

This park has 30 full hook-ups slots, many of them were pull-thru sites, a nice little pool with a palapa over the bar and restaurant and it even has internet access.

By this time in the afternoon, the heat of the day was up at 99° on our temperature gauge and we thought we might need to use the A/C already. This would be pretty early since it's still only March.

The RV Park only had 15amp service, but it wasn't enough to run our A/C properly. It would turn it on, but the A/C unit didn't like it that's for sure. We ran it for a few minutes just to cool the camper off so we could leave the dogs in there while we jumped in with Noel and Jackie to go to the grocery store.



Once we got the temperature down to tolerable conditions, we went into town and did some grocery shopping. Ciudad Constitución is the first town South of Ensenada that has a full service grocery store and man did we need it.

When we had talked with Chuck about what we needed to bring while we were still in the planning stages, he had told us that we would be buying fresh fish in each campground, so we didn't bring all that much meat products, well we brought as much as our freezer would hold. But the windy weather conditions have kept the local fisherman on the shore, and finding fresh fish wasn't as easy as Chuck had made it out to be. That and the produce wasn't as available as we thought it was going to be. So we were really running low.

Plus we don't really have that much room to store stuff like many do when they come down here for long periods of time. Cindy and I try to eat as much fresh food as possible, and rarely eat from a can or items that are dried for long term storage. You can probably tell that from the size of my belly.

Shopping at a Mexican grocery store in Mexico is a challenge for us. In America, everything has both languages on the packaging, but here, it's only in Spanish. So we had some fun trying to figure out what is what. Some of the packaging is the same, but many things are completely different. Luckily Noel is fairly proficient with his Spanish, so when we would get stumped, he could always translate for us. Again, the open meat is weird for us, but I think were getting used to it.

After shopping, we heard there were two-for-one margaritas in the campground bar. Cindy and I grabbed the computer and headed down to see if Caroline's margaritas compared to Zulema's.

Jackie and Noel were already relaxing in the afternoon breeze, and luckily the temperature was dropping fast with the sun getting lower in the sky. It was still warm, but nothing like it had been when we pulled in. That was just too hot.

When I asked Caroline if they had a payphone so I could be a good little boy and call my mother and father for Easter, she said since her 15amp service couldn't run my A/C, she'd let me use her phone for free since I was paying for Full Hook-ups.

I thought that was very nice of her and was a fair trade.



Talking with my mom, she told me that my nephew Austin, the one who had come to visit Cindy and I in Arizona just got invited to try out for the Junior Olympics! How great is that!!

I'm so proud of him and his amazing ability to excel at any sport he plays. To watch this kid play hockey, you'd think you were watching a pro, and to think he's only 11.

I like to joke with him that when he's playing for the NHL, I'll be his personal photographer. He just jokes with me and says "Maybe if you're lucky, I'll let you take some pictures of me then."

While in the bar talking with a few of the fellow campers, Jamie told us about the Whale Watching Tours over in Lopez Mateos. I guess Noel and Jackie had tried to go out on a whale watching tour when they were with their Caravan Group, but their boat was the only one in the group that didn't see any whales up-close.

Our campground host and bartender, Caroline, said a three hour tour was only $20 per person, so we asked if she could make reservations for us for the morning tour and we all plan on taking another shot with some Gray Whales. Like we said before, this was so fun the first time, we could do it every day and not get bored.

Cindy and I also met another nice couple from Pennsylvania who have been in the Baja for the last five months. Fred and Deb had some great stories to tell and it was great hearing their last few months condensed into a half hour with just the crazy highlights for us all to laugh at.

That's the beauty of Baja, you have a young couple like Cindy and I having the time of our lives, an older mature couple like Noel and Jackie who are a few years older (In their 60's), but having just as much fun, and all the other couples who come from various walks of life with different status symbols back in the states, but here in Baja, we're all just a bunch of gringo tourists having lots of fun.

[meafordmike]

Hi Pat
My reading finally caught up to your posting.
Great trip report so far.
Keri-Ann and I would love to extend our travels longer then the U.P overland trip we enjoyed with you this past summer.
Keep up the great posts
Mike Scott

[Every Miles A Memory]

Hi Pat
My reading finally caught up to your posting.
Great trip report so far.
Keri-Ann and I would love to extend our travels longer then the U.P overland trip we enjoyed with you this past summer.
Keep up the great posts
Mike Scott

Hey Mike, I'd love to share a good Baja trip with you and Keri-Ann!! There is a Camping Trip some members are putting together in Georgia/Tennessee area this January if you want to do a short weekend?

[Every Miles A Memory]

Monday

With an early start on our morning excursion, we piled in our truck and headed over to Lopez Mateos to see if we could get up-close and personal with some more California Gray Whales.

Driving across some barren farming fields, this area of Baja is pretty deserted and abandoned looking. Big open plains of nothing which reminded me of Central Florida or much of the desert Southwest.

We found the little fishing town of Lopez Mateos and talked with the guides at Aquendi. They explained that the boat cost $1500 Pesos, and the original $20 per person would only be if we could get a few more people in our Panga. They suggested we wait around a few minutes to see if more people would show up.

It didn't take long before 3 more people showed up which brought our cost down to $23 per person. This was much cheaper than the $50 per person we paid back in Guerrero Negro which made it all the better.



While cruising out into the Bay, we had beautiful views of wide open sand dunes protecting us from the Pacific Ocean. Some sections were lined with thick mangroves along the shoreline, where other parts the dunes fell right into the water.

I spotted a small coyote along the bank that looked like it was stalking a Great Blue Herron, but when we stopped, Cindy only had a few seconds to snap a quick picture of it before it scurried off into the brush. How crazy is that to see a coyote on an island surrounded by salt water

We did see a large, bloated Sea Lion floating in the calm water that met it's maker and was waiting to become crab food. I snapped a picture of it and Cindy asked "Why would you want a picture of that?" I said "Because no one will know it was dead, I can just say that we saw a sea lion on our trip!" She gave me some disgusted look, so I deleted it for her rather than start an unneeded argument...LOL



Once out into the Pacific, the water went from glassy calmness, to raging madness. The surf was pounding the shallower mouth of the bay, and I was worried Cindy or I might get sea sick. Normally we're not that good with real rough water.



Once we saw a few boats sitting together, we headed that way figuring they were probably watching something good. Sure enough, when we pulled closer, we could see a few spouts breaking the surface.



This is when it's worth it to do things twice. After our first Whale Watching Trip, I was a bit disappointed with my pictures and how they turned out. I was so excited seeing everything for the first time, I was just shooting wildly at anything that moved. When I got back and looked at them on the computer, I was very disappointed and even told Cindy "I want to do that again now that I know what I am looking for in a picture."

This time I knew not to take hundreds of pictures of them when their just at the surface, but wait till they either broke the surface or when they are right at the boats. It makes for better images and gives you the sense of the whales size when shown near the 20' Pangas.



For the next few hours we circled around the rough surf with any concerns of sea sickness long gone. The whales were out in force today, and we had numerous mother and calf's willing to play with the small boats filled with tourists.

It's wild how the mother will almost encourage the calf to interact with the boats. It's like they like to be petted and are just as curious about us as we are about them. I find it hard to imagine ever being able to harpoon one of these gentle creatures or do them harm. They are just so docile and interesting.



On this trip, everyone in the boat got numerous chances to pet the whales, some doing it multiple times. Cindy got over her fear and once she touched it the first time, I thought she was going to give the thing a massage she rubbed it for so long.



When the boat captain said our time was up, none of us had any arguments. We had been playing in the surf with whales for two hours and had hundreds of good pictures to show for a great day.

I'm so glad we went out a second time and I swear I'd do it a few more times if I could afford it.

Once back at the campground, we packed up quickly and loaded the dogs in the truck. It was so hot outside, they wouldn't put their feet on the hot sand which made up the campground surface. They would stand there doing a dance of trying to keep their feet off the ground till we could get them into the air conditioning of the truck.

From Ciudad Constitución, we headed further south towards La Paz. The roads were very nice and the closer we got to La Paz, which is the largest city in Baja Sur, the wider they got. There were some stretches where you would think you were on an American Highway with shoulders on the roads even.

We checked into a nice campground called Casablanca. It had a beautiful pool, a hot tub, tennis courts, full RV hook-ups with 50amp service, which is amazing for Baja, and even had a nice little coffee shop connected to the office. With big concrete walls surrounding the place and a security gate, I wasn't worried that La Paz was as large as it was.



We all relaxed for the rest of the evening and were in bed early. Every day I say to myself, "Today was so good, how can I top it tomorrow?" Yet each day I find a way to have more fun or a better experience than yesterday.