March 4, 2015–La Gringa, Bahia de los Angeles

The rain stopped during the night and we woke to mostly sunny skies today, so we took a walk along the beach before breakfast.

We passed by the house where Sylvia and Daniel live and around the rocky point. We were greeted by John and Vally, from Utah, and their dogs out on their morning walk. They are a really nice couple and we had fun chatting with them before we headed back to eat. After breakfast, we noticed clouds starting to form, so we decided to walk east on the beach to explore that area in case it rained again later. Someone had taken time to gather starfish.

We saw a few of these skeletons along the beach. We couldn’t tell if they were fish or birds, but they could definitely be in a horror show!

There are several islands in the Bahia de Los Angeles and you can see some of them off the southeastern tip of the shore.

Looking back to the west, we could see our lonely little RV and the storm clouds rolling in, so after an hour, we headed back.

Tucked back in the hills, we spotted the remains of two structures. We both said they reminded us of Roman ruins … come on, use your imagination!!!

We were back to the RV by 10:30 just as it started to sprinkle and I wasn’t feeling good, so I spent most of the day sleeping.

The weather cleared off and after lunch Tobey went back over to John & Vally’s and learned how to clean fish. They rewarded him with six sea bass filets that I fixed for dinner. I didn’t eat, but Tobey said they were delicious.

Later in the afternoon, the three of them went clamming, but the tide was too high, so they will try again tomorrow.

It got windy in the afternoon, but we did sit outside with our chairs tucked up next to the RV and watched the shore birds. I think I will need to invest in a Mexican bird book to be able to identify all the different species.




The dolphins didn’t show up today so we hope they will be back tomorrow.



RV CAMPING – BAJA CALIFORNIA

March 3, 2015 - Laguna Ojo to La Gringa, Bahia de los Angeles

Don’t always believe what people tell you or what you read.

We read – and were told - that camping at Laguna Ojo de Liebre and catching a whale watching trip from there was a lot less expensive than taking a trip from Guerrero Negro. Not necessarily true. We took the 16+ mile trip in on the washboard road to the camping area so we could check out the boats first thing in the morning. The cost was $560 pesos ($40 USD)per person without a naturalist guide or $700 pesos ($50USD) with a guide for a 1-1/2 hour trip. Tobey decided not to go, but I went on the trip without a naturalist. It was fun and we saw a lot of whales, but none of them came up to the boat like we had on our first experience on the way down the Baja.
We did go through the mini-museum where they had lots of information on the gray whales, migration, mating, and conservation efforts. It was really well done. While I was on the boat, Tobey got everything packed up and ready to go and retrace our drive back down that 16+ mile washboard road!

We stopped in Guerrero Negro at El Muelle Food Truck for fish tacos. They were pretty tasty! It was parked in front of another whale watch excursion office, so we checked out their prices – $600 pesos per person ($43USD) and it included lunch and transportation. When we took the trip from town we paid $650 pesos ($46.50 USD) each, but it included the transportation, lunch and was 2+ hours with the whales! While I paid a little less, we would have been better off booking in town again and saved that horrible drive in the RV!

After lunch we restocked groceries, propane, and an ATM stop before moving on to our destination in Baja California (North). We had to pass through the military inspection stop and they did a pretty thorough inspection this time. He checked cabinets, refrigerator, drawers, and tapped on the ceilings to make sure they sound hollow. Apparently, people sometimes smuggle stuff in the ceilings of their RVs! Heading north we passed lots of century plants and Tobey pulled over so I could take come pictures. The flowers are such a bright yellow in contrast to the everything else around that is so brown!


There were also lots of these flowering ground plants. From a distance, all you can see is the red covering the ground, but when you get close, many of them have white flowers.
As the afternoon ticked by, the clouds got darker and darker and the rain began to fall. It was not fun, at all. The road also got narrower and narrower. As a matter of fact, north of Ejido Rosarito, a beer truck crossed into our lane and hit our driver’s side mirror. The mirror arm is there, as well as a few shards of mirror, so Tobey can still sort of see behind us.

We are hoping to find an inexpensive mirror we can duct tape on to get us by!

We turned off Highway 1 and headed 66 km east to the Bahia de Los Angeles. The rain stopped for a while and we were lucky to catch a rainbow.

While the road started off pretty good, it didn’t last. The rain started again and we had several patches of construction. Once we got to the town, there were several choices of places to camp. Following the advice of some other people we met, we drove all the way to La Gringa camping area (the furthest one north of town) over 8 miles of dirt/rock/washout road. They told us it had a sand beach and was really great, and the road wasn’t too bad – just a few areas to watch for.

It took us over an hour to negotiate the road and by the time we got here, the rain had started again. To top it off, from the RV it looks like the beach is really rocky! Whine, whine, whine. According to the camping book, it is supposed to be a free camping beach, but Daniel & his wife, Sylvia, who live next to the beach met us as we drove up and charged $100 pesos to camp. ($7USD).

The one good thing so far was we did see several dolphins swimming and jumping in the bay before we fixed dinner. Hopefully the rain will stop tomorrow and the dolphins will come back because neither of us is looking forward to the drive out of here!

GPS: 29.04069N, 113.54508W
RV CAMPING - BAJA CALIFORNIA

March 2, 2015 - Santispac to Laguna Ojo de Liebre

We woke to a cloudy, windy, and cool day today. We planned to leave the beach today, so I guess it is as good a day to have icky weather as any! We were on our way by 8 am. Our first stop was Mulege. We parked at the entrance to town and walked up the hill to the prison museum. There was a $15 peso entrance fee ($1USD). The former territorial prison was famous for being operated on the honor system. Many of the convicts were allowed to leave the prison at between 6am and 6pm to work at jobs in the town. If one prisoner created problems, like not returning, all of the prisoners were punished.

The young woman who gave us a tour (in Spanish) did tell us the inner courtyard was where the dangerous criminals were kept and they were not allowed to leave. She also showed us where some of the guards used water torture on some of the prisoners and it made them crazy.


The prison housed females in the front rooms.

The picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe was painted by one of the female inmates. Inmates were housed here from as far south as Cabo San Lucas and it was used until 1975 when a new facility was built just south of Santa Rosalia. We passed the new prison on our way north today.
We again went through areas of diverse vegetation. We found a spot to pull off and get a good look at one of the elephant trees and several different flowers.

We were told the white flowers are a “prickly poppy.” The spine is covered with stickers. The purple flowers reminded me of mountain lupines, but we will have to check it out later. We also went through an area with datillo and cardon cactus.

We drove into San Ignacio, a town that is surrounded by date palms. Several of the trees, as well as buildings on the way into town were damaged or destroyed by the hurricane and the two RV parks were virtually non-existent. We did go into the Mission San Ignacio Kadakaaman which is located across from the town square.

Construction of the stone mission started in 1760 and was completed around 1786. There are three carved and gilded wooden altar pieces that date from the end of the 18th Century. During the first part of the 19th Century, the indigenous people disappeared from this area as a result of epidemic diseases and cultural changes in their way of life. The mission stopped working and gave way to a different society formed by “mestizo” families that assured the national identity in this remote part of the country.

We had originally planned to camp at San Ignacio, but decided to continue further north to Laguna Ojo de Liebre, just south of Guerrero Negro. On the way, it did rain and the temperature dropped quite a bit. We passed through an area that had little sand dunes which seemed to just pop up against the landscape.

Approximately five miles south of Guerrero Negro is the turnoff to Laguna Ojo de Liebre. The first mile or so of the 25KM road is paved, then turns to gravel and packed dirt.

The road winds through the flat desert and part of the salt-evaporation ponds which is one of the major industries in the area before arriving at the lagoon.

We were treated to a beautiful sunset and hope to catch a whale watching trip tomorrow if the weather warms a bit.

GPS 27.74816N, 114.01414W
RV CAMPING – BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR

March 1, 2015 - Playa Santispac

We went to check out a few of the other camping beaches near Santispac this morning on the scooter. Los Cocos, 3 km south of here, has a much smaller bay, but was pretty. We snorkeled at Playa La Burra ten years ago, but now most of the sites had full-time palapas and it didn’t look like there were any “short-timers” like us there.

We continued to Playa El Coyote, 7 km south of Santispac because our guide book says there is a trail leading to a hot spring near the water’s edge. The road leading to the south end of the camping area had a rock garden with a sign encouraging people to add their sculptures, so I did.

Some of the rock cairns were quite elaborate – check out the one made into an arch!

El Coyote has a long, easy walkable beach, and lots of folks that come for the winter season. We chatted with several people and found out that the hot springs is really only accessible by swimming to it, and it has been taken over by the seagulls and is really dirty. We passed going out to it!

They also invited us to join in their Sunday morning swim to one of the islands. We watched everyone assemble and there were more in the “support” crews than swimmers. Eight swimmers donned wet suits and fins while more than a dozen folks got in their kayaks, motor boats, sailboats, and SUPS to cheer them along! It was quite an event – one fellow blew a conch shell to gather everyone and did a little start your races type bugle, and they were off! Most of the swimmers were back-floating and everyone looked like they were having fun. That is one of the benefits of staying at one place for a long time – you really get a good sense of community.



Back at Santispac, our friends Marla and Andrew pulled in this afternoon! It was fun to see them again.

Later, Tobey and I walked the beach both directions. When we reached the east end of the beach, we passed by a permanent housing compound and came to another camping area that faces the Bahia Concepcion. There were three campers there and they had a nice view of the islands, but the beach was quite rocky.

Looking westward back at Playa Santispac in the picture below you could see it was low tide.

We spotted this egret in the hills along the eastern shore.

There were nine boats anchored in the bay today and two of them looked like this one below. They reminded us of some kind of fishing boat, or maybe a retired military vessel. It sports a Canadian flag.

Our guide book also says that at Playa Santispac, “a short walk to the west of the main beach, a trail along the base of the highway, will bring you to a natural hot spring.” We found it this afternoon, and it was hot, however … it was not exactly what we had envisioned! The water was only about a foot deep and the bottom was muddy. Not a good day for hot springs!

This evening we went to Armando’s Restaurant on the beach. They advertised they were having a pig roast tonight, followed by live music. We arrive about 4:45 and found a table. Many of them were reserved – even though we were told we didn’t need a reservation. Another couple was looking for a spot, so we asked them to join us since we had a table for 4. They were from Minnesota and it was fun chatting with them.

The restaurant made an announcement that they had reservations for 90 people and there were more than 150 here, so we weren’t sure we would get food. We were persistent and did get fed! It was $140 pesos per person ($10 USD) for the BBQ pork, potato salad, frijoles, and garlic bread. The meat and BBQ sauce were really good and we had plenty to eat.

We stuck around for a while to listen to the band, Fast Eddy and the Slow Learners. They were pretty good – played lots of music from the 60s, 70s and a little 80s. Lots of people were dancing and everyone seemed to be having fun. Even back at the RV we could hear the music for quite a while. Another good day!
RV CAMPING – CALIFORNIA BAJA SUR

February 28, 2015 - Playa Santispac

This morning was a big day for campers here at Santispac, the vegetable truck came – woohoo! It’s a pickup loaded with all kinds of fresh veggies, eggs, and tortillas. We took our shopping list and managed to get all of our veggies and some tortillas at a reasonable price and everything looked fresher that what we have seen in many of the grocery stores.

Later, we took the scooter into Mulege, 21 kilometers from here (12.6 miles). That doesn’t sound very far, but it took us almost 30 minutes! I wanted to visit the former federal prison which has been converted to a museum only to find out it is only open Mondays-Fridays! BUMMER.

We did visit the restored Mission Santa Rosalia de Mulege. The site was explored by Father Juan Maria de Salvatierra in 1701, and this is the fourth mission founded by Jesuit missionaries in 1705.The mission originally served about 2000 of the “cochimi” Indians in this area. Construction of the temple here began in 1754 and was completed in 1766.

The inside of the Mission here is very simple, unlike the Mission San Javier we visited near Loreto. It was very cool inside, probably because the walls were about four foot thick!

Behind the Mission was a trail to an observation area which had a good view back of the Mission and it’s property.

We were also able to look back toward the town of Mulege and the Rio Santa Rosalia. The area is very green and lush with palm trees because the river goes right by the town.

They were also having “youth group” activities at the Mission while we were there. It was fun watching the kids interact with the leader.

Back in town we noticed four beautiful bougainvillea trees in one of the squares. The color was so vibrant, it almost hurt your eyes!

We zipped around town and found a place for lunch. Danny’s Saturday menu was carnitas (cooked shredded pork). We had five tacos and drinks for $120 pesos (about $8.50 USD). They were delicious!

Back at camp we spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out in the sun, playing cards and relaxing. While we were playing cards, the flan lady came by in her van. She drives slowly along by the RVs and if she spots you in your RV (we were playing cards), she honks and asks if you want anything. The back end of her van was full of homemade flan, pies, cookies, and pastries. We got two dishes of flan for $50 pesos ($3.50 USD) and had them for dessert tonight. They were WONDERFUL!!!

A pontoon boat passed by this afternoon in the bay. We didn’t know if it was a private boat or chartered, but it was certainly full of people! We were treated to another beautiful sunset and quiet evening, another day in paradise.

RV CAMPING – BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR

February 27, 2015 - El Requeson to Santispac

Today we had a long drive from El Requeson to Santispac – about 24 miles! We left our camping site at El Requeson about 11 this morning and we had to wait as four RVs from a caravan were heading up the road and we fell in right behind them. They also turned into Santispac!
We parked and got settled in and were surprised to have a couple from Switzerland whom we had met at Los Frailes parked right next to us! It really has been fun meeting people from all over – then seeing them again.
After lunch we walked on the beach and chatted with some of the people from the caravan. We also met a family with a 7 year old daughter from Poland who are tent camping in Baja. They told us about their one year travel adventure through South America, some in the US, and now Baja.
There were several beach vendors, both at El Requeson and here. Most of them came over from Oaxaca, Mainland Mexico, and brought a variety of goods from blankets to pottery. Unfortunately for them, we don’t need anything.

We enjoyed a quiet day and had fun watching the birds along the beach.

There are two restaurants on this beach and the music was at Armando’s tonight, which is located at the OTHER end of the beach! We could hear a little, but it stopped by 10pm, so no problems for us.
GPS: 26.76582N, 111.88609N
RV CAMPING – BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR