Streets of Loreto Part 2, Junclaito Beach, and Whales´Tales

We had a great time exploring Loreto. The city has been occupied since the 1600’s, and was the capital of Baja Sur until the 1800’s, when a hurricane destroyed most of the city and they decided that La Paz was a safer bet. The old, historic part of town has streets of cobblestone and interlocking cement tiles, lots of little shops and cafes, and just oozes charm. The mission is still there—Our Lady of Loreto—and is beautiful. We couldn’t go in on Saturday because of a funeral being held there. After the funeral mass, they loaded the casket into the back of a pickup truck, and piled all the flowers and wreaths on top of it. Then, with a police car escort, the truck made its way slowly through town , presumably to the cemetery, with all the mourners walking alongside and behind it. On Sunday morning before we left town, I walked over to the mission hoping to go to mass, but I was about 45 minutes early, so I just went in and said hi to God, and left. Other great things about Loreto: a bakery 2 blocks from our RV park, a bookstore/fabric shop (the fabric was very poor quality, so I didn’t buy any, but it was still fun to come across a fabric shop in Mexico), and excellent fish tacos. Actually, we’ve eaten fish tacos in almost every town we’ve stopped in, and I haven’t had a bad one yet. They sell everywhere for 10 pesos (one dollar) each.

We didn’t go very far when we left Loreto—just about 14 miles down the coast for a couple of days of dry camping on Juncalito Beach. There were quite a few RV’s parked there, both right on the beach and tucked away in some palm trees, but we were able to find a secluded spot at the north end of the beach and settled in for a couple of days of relaxing.We had actually planned on spending only one night there, but I got a touch of tourista, so we stayed an extra day. How I got it is a mystery—although we had forgotten to add bleach to our water that day, all I did was brush my teeth with it. Steve used the same water I did with no ill effects, and his stomach is usually way more sensitive than mine. But Imodium did its magic, and we were on the road again.

We left Juncalito Beach yesterday, still heading for LaPaz, but took a side trip to San Carlos, on the Pacific side, to take a whale-watching tour. The one RV park in San Carlos has closed down, and we were wandering around wondering what to do because we were advised that it wasn’t safe to boondock on the beaches around there, when we stumbled upon the whale-watching operation. The owner, Fito Gonzalez, generously offered to let us stay in the parking lot there. So, after making reservations for an 8 a.m. whale-watching tour, we moved in. Later in the evening, after he had closed up and everyone had gone home for the day, we were visited by the local policia, who were out patrolling, and, although they didn’t speak English, made it clear that this was private property and we couldn’t camp there. I explained to them in my best Spanish (which isn’t saying much) that we were booked for a whale-watching tour at “ocho manana,” and that Fito had given permisio for us to stay acqui. Miraculously, I was understood AND believed!

This morning (January 31st, I think), dawned bright and sunny, with no wind and calm seas. We climbed into a panga (an open boat that looks sort of like a driftboat) with a single woman from England, a vacationing Mexican from the mainland and Luis, our panga driver, and headed out into Bahia de Magdelena to look for whales. It took about an hour to get out to where the whales were, and then the fun began! First, we started spotting spouts off in the distance, then an occasional dark back, and some tails. Before long, there was whale action all around us, and we could see them clearly. Most of the time, the whales were 30 or so feet away, but some came as close as 15 or 20 feet, and one swam right next to our panga and came up about 8 feet away. It was VERY cool.

We left San Carlos after the tour and drove the 45 minutes back to Ciudad Constitucion, back on the highway, Mex 1, that goes to La Paz. We camped in a little RV park just off the highway. It’s an interesting place. The owners, a British guy and his Mexican wife live on the premises, as do what appear to be her parents. The parents have chickens and peacocks, who parade around the grounds. Berta, the woman owner, speaks excellent English, and told me all about herself. She was a secretary at a company in this city, and met her husband when he came here to work for that company. They’ve been married for 11 years. They have an adorable 6 year old son who looks totally Latino, and I did a double-take when I asked him his name, and he replied “Nigel.” He is bilingual, and speaks unaccented English and correctly accented Spanish.

The Streets of Loreto

We just drove in about an hour ago, and I´ve already fallen in love with this place. It{s a beautifl little city (pop. 7200), very clean and scenic, on the Sea of Cortez, lots of palm trees. We are camped in a little RV park, run by a family who lives on the premises. The beach and malecon (waterfront walkway) are just a few blocks away. There is a fishing fleet and a harbor full of pelicans--my favorite bird--dving in the harbor. I´m off to take Ellie for a run on the beach to chase some seagulls. Steve is coming along to supervise because someone said there´s a woman selling puppies on the beach and he does{t trust me. Especially since we are camped right next to a guy who "adopted" a mexican puppy right here in the RV park that was skinny and wandering around without a home. More later!

Recent photos...

Click on the pictures for a better view:

San Ignatio under the Date Palm Trees


Cocoa Bay where we are now.


My friend Juan who joined us for cocktails at 5


Ellie having fun in the bow of the Kayak

Another ho-hum day in Paradise

Warning: do not read this if you are prone to fits of extreme jealousy or depression.

Sandy writes: Let me describe our stay in Mulage so far. We are camped right on the beach and have our own palapa, which is a three-sided shelter thatched with palm fronds. Yesterday morning, we woke up to a beautiful, golden sunrise over the bay. We decided to take the kayak out for a spin, and spent a couple of hours paddling up the bay to the next beach and around an island. It was Ellie’s first kayak excursion, and, while, she wasn’t thrilled, she did stay in the boat and eventually got comfortable enough to nap.

After our kayak trip, we were relaxing in the shade of our palapa, and the vendors started showing up. First it was a woman selling vegetables and tortillas out of the back of her pickup. We bought an onion, a potato, and a bag of fresh flour tortillas. The tortillas here are nothing like the ones in Salt Lake—they are paper thin and delicious. Then, pretty soon, along came the ice cream man. He had a little ice cream truck that announces itself with music, just like at home. But along with the usual ice cream bars, he offered cones and banana splits with homemade ice cream. Being lunch time, we decided to go with the banana splits. We couldn’t believe our eyes when he handed them over—FIVE scoops of ice cream (vanilla and pistachio, chocolate sauce, peanuts, and of course, the banana. It must have weighed a pound. We could have easily split one, but I am sorry to report that we each ate a whole one. Not long after we’d finished “lunch,” the fruit guy came by, selling oranges (2 pesos each—20cents) and orange juice that he’d squeeze right there for you. We bought 5 oranges. Then came the first of three or four people selling fresh shrimp and scallops. The shrimp were HUGE, and cost 12.50 for a kilo, which is about 2 pounds. We bought a kilo. I cooked some up for supper last night—sauteed in butter with onions, mushrooms, and rolled in our fresh tortillas with verde salsa. They were to die for. And we have lots leftover for another meal, or two or three.

Today we woke up and the bay was calm and glassy, so we took the kayak out again, sans Ellie. We paddled out to Isle de Coyote, about an hour’s paddle. There is a pretty little beach on the island, and apparently a hike to an overlook, but we didn’t do those this time. After we returned, we lunched on cheese quesadillas with the last of our tortillas, hung out on the beach for awhile, then came into Mulage to hit the bank, market, and internet café. Steve is delighted to find that “good” beer is only $1.50 a bottle,m and he is happy sitting in an outdoor bar while I’m typing this.We’ll have an early dinner and drinks here before going back out to Los Cocos.

There is a lot to see and do here, but Steve is getting itchey feet—LaPaz is calling to him—so we’re moving on tomorrow. I hope to stay longer on our way back. There is only one road, so we have to come back the way we came, at least as far as Encenada.

Oh, by the way, it was Steve who got led to the bathroom by the dog, not me.

Entertaining the Troops

Entertaining the troops

Because the weather has been cold and windy on the northern Baja Pacific coast,

we decided to barrel down the road and get to the southern part of the peninsula and the Sea of Cortez as quick as we could. “Barrel,” however, is not what you do in the Baja. The guidebooks told us to allow 6 ½ hours to go roughly 200 miles—the stretch from San Quintin to Guerro Negro, and we thought that was crazy. Turned out the estimate was right on.The roads are extremely narrow and winding, with no shoulder and often a drop of a foot or more onto the land alongside. And the speed limit is usually 50 mph maximum, or less. It was white-knuckle driving for Steve all the way. We’ve turned inland from the Pacific, and the country is wild and desolate. Lots of tall cactus, century plants ablaze with bright yellow blossoms, and these really cool weird trees? cacti? called cirios or boojum trees. One of the guidebooks describes them as upside-down prickly green carrots, and that describes them exactly, except that they are huge—some are 30 feet tall. They apparently are found nowhere else on earth except the Baja.

The Mexican government is apparently cracking down on guns and drugs and we’d been told to expect to be stopped and searched at some of the military checkpoints, which seem to crop up randomly along the highway, often in the middle of nowhere. It’s a bit intimidating to drive up to a roadblock with soldiers wearing desert camoflauge and carrying machine guns, but we’ve been waved through each time, until yesterday, when we were stopped and politely asked if they could check our vehicles. I put Ellie on leash and walked her back to our tow vehicle with me because she was growling at the soldier who entered the Royal Palms. After the soldier finished checking out the Jeep, we stood around outside waiting for the guy in the motor home to finish his inspection. There were about five soldiers standing there near me, so I told Ellie to “sit.” She immediately did so, which caused grins and admiration from the soldiers. One of them pantomimed a “sitting up” pose, which Ellie does nicely, so I had her do that. More grins. I then put her through her whole routine—lie down, crawl, shake, roll over, and roll back the other way. They loved it. About this time, their compatriot had finished inspecting the motor home and came over. “My” soldiers made me put Ellie through the whole routine again so the new guy could see. After that, they waved us on our way with lots of “muy bueno perro”s (very nice dog) and good will toward all.

Today we made it to San Ignacio (89 miles, 2 ½ hours driving time), a real desert oasis. It looks like something out of a movie about the Sahara. We are camped under some date palms, right next to a beautiful, calm lagoon. A black-crowned night heron spent the day dozing in the palm right in front of us, and now that it’s dusk, just took off to catch himself some dinner. We had a great late lunch of chicken tacos in town, so will probably forego dinner in favor of microwave popcorn with a DVD movie in a little while. Tomorrow we will be camped on the Sea of Cortez. At the campground in Guerro Negro last night, we had dinner and drinks with a couple from British Columbia, John and Patsy Solly, who were heading home after 3 months on Bahia del Concepcion, near the town of Mulege (pronounced Mule a hay). They were raving about the place and had pictures to prove it, including a whale and a pod of dolphins that came to say hello while they were sea-kayaking in the bay so we’re going to check it out and hopefully stay there for a week or so before wandering down to La Paz..

While we were visiting San Ignatio I followed signes to El Bano (bathroom). It was inside a very ancient store where there were 2 very ancient proprietors. The explained in Spanish and hand motions that I should follow their dog. I was starting to laugh but the guy opened the back door and the dog shot out in a flash so I hurried and followed him. The little dog led me down a walkway, then a ramp, then around a corner to another walkway and when I got to one spot he looked at me and ran back. I looked up and there was the El Bano! Smart dog.

Hola from Ensenada!

We are sitting in an internet cafe in Ensenada, sipping lattes. Despite my misgivings, we did enter Mexico on Wednesday afternoon. Crossing the border porved much less harrowing than the southern California freeway system. The directions in our guidebooks were excellent, and we were able to find the correct road to Rosarito, our first night destination , without any problem, and to the campground we had picked out. It was a mobile home park with mostly permanent residents, but they had about 40 sites for overnighters. We were able to pick out a site a couple hundred yards from the ocean, with a great view. Our first encounter with the locals took place as we were walking along the beach in the moonlight. We were commenting to each other about a boat pulled up on the beach, when a guy walked up to us and started talking. His English was no better than our Spanish, but eventgually we were able to determine than he had been out diving for langusta (lobster), and he wanted to sell us one. We were intgrigued, and tried to negotiate for picking one up in the morning, but he became more and more agitated, trying to get us to understand. "Tengo," he kept repeating. "Acqui." Of course, we had no idea what he was talking about. Eventually he flagged down a passerby who spoke some English. Turned out the guy had some lobster stashed somewhere, hidden from the "federales" and wanted to get rid of them now. He wouldn't be there in the morning. The thought of having a probably illegal, fresh (presumably live) lobster in our fridge, much less having to figure out what to do with it, was somewhat horrifying to both of us, so we declined. When we got back to the RV, I looked up "tengo" and "acqui" in my handy-dandy phrasebook, and thus added "I have" and "here" to my Spanish vocabulary.

Yesterday, we left Rosarito and drove along the scenic toll highway to Ensenada. The views of the Pacific were gorgeous, and we stopped once or twice to admire the waves rollling in and let Ellie chase sandpipers on the beach. We ended up staying in an RV park in downtown Ensenada. Not at all scenic or quiet, but the recommended choice for getting things done. We got our tourist permists, hit the bank to exchange money, found the post office to mail back the Netfliks DVD we forgot to mail in CA, found the supermarket. My Spanish is coming along. I can now ask "Where is the. . ." and "Do you have. . ."and barely beginning to get the hang of converting pesos to dollars value.

It's impressive how helpful and friendly almost everyone is here. We were looking bewildered in "el banco" and a local guy came up to us, offered, in great English, to help, and took us to a bank employee, where he translated and figured out what we needed to do.

Today we are heading about 10 miles south to La Bufadora, a blowhole on tghe ocean. There are some campgrounds there right on the ocean, and we plan to stay a few days bedfore moving on.

On our Way!

Packing up and getting ready was a real challenge. An artic front moved into Utah and the temperatures, normally cold, became frigid. Everything we put in the Royal Palms quickly froze, including toothpaste, dish soap, etc. We ended up running an electric heater as well as the furnace set on low for the 24 hours before we left so we could get everything loaded up. When we left Salt Lake yesterday (Monday) morning, it was 5 degrees. The roads were clear, but the icy temps continued. When we stopped in Springville, about an hour south of Salt Lake, for gas and propane, and it was even colder there. I took Ellie for a walk while Steve attended to the RV, and my lungs ached from breathing the frigid air. Our first night destination was Mesquite, NV, about an hour north of Las Vegas. We stayed in the RV Park at the Oasis Casino so we could have hook ups because that same arctic front had hit them as well--it was well below freezing during the night.
Neither of us are gamblers; I used to like to donate a few dollars to the slot machines, but now that they're all electronic, even that's no fun anymore--they are no longer "one arm bandits"--no handle to pull, you just push a button. What fun is that?

Today we drove as far as Riverside, CA. We are "camped" in the parking lot of the Fleetwood factory, free, and with hookups! Steve had arranged for us to stay here, and we are taking a tour of the factory tomorrow morning. It should be interesting to see how they build these things. Then it's on to San Diego. We initially had planned to get into Mexico tomorrow, but we are re-thinking that. There will be a lot to deal with--immigration, tourist visas, exchanging money, getting on the toll road from Tijuana to Ensenada, and finding a campground once we get to Ensedada--and we will probably be happier if we do it all when we're fresh rather than late afternoon when we're tired and cranky from California freeways.