February 8, 2015 - Los Frailes

Today was wonderful! We took a walk on the beach this morning to the north end of the beach to find the trailhead that leads up the hill overlooking the bay. We think we have it and will hike it tomorrow. Reading, napping, and lunch, then repeat!

This afternoon we went south on the beach for about a mile. There are some really beautiful homes overlooking the bay – and with them so far from everything, it makes me wonder how many of them are inhabited.
Looking back at the beach we are camped on seems a long distance off!


We spotted a couple of whales today, but only a few rays. Around 5, we went out again to watch the fishermen coming back in with their catch. As they finished cleaning the fish, the pelicans and gulls were right there to gather up the heads and guts. It was a process repeated over and over, boat by boat!
Tomorrow we might take the scooter back to Los Arbolitos and see what that area is like and then take a hike.

February 7, 2015 - El Chorro–Los Frailes

While there are two other Americans who are camped at Chorro Canyon and love this place, we decided that one night was enough for us. We did walk down to the hot springs for a quick dip before taking off.The water was clear today, after all the sediment from moving stone and sand settled. We sat for a little while before hitting the road.
Rick, the other guy camped there, drove Tobey back up the road a little way to check out one area we were worried about. There was a steep hill and low branches, so we knew we would have to stop there. Tobey got his trusty saw out and cut three large branches off and we managed to make it up the hill without any problem. I was busy watching and totally spaced out taking pictures of my Paul Bunyan!

We passed by some small areas where the river was really shallow and had what looked like spawning areas for fish. It was interesting to see. Tobey stopped a second time near some houses to cut another low-hanging branch so it didn’t scrape all the way down our roof and solar panel.

A littler further down the road, we stopped to see some interesting “art” next to one of the houses. I couldn’t tell you what it is supposed to be for sure, maybe a super-hero? It had a horn from a bull stuck in one of the eyes. Kind of strange!

Well, one and one-half hours later, we made it back to Santiago and Hwy 1! We had decisions to make, since we hadn’t decided where we were heading for sure. We opted to take a side road and head back toward the beach (and going south!) There were supposed to be camping areas at Cabo Pulmo where there is an underwater national park, then more camping further south at Playa Arbolites and Los Frailes.

After passing through the small tourist area of La Ribieria, we had about 10 kilometers of pavement - not great pavement, but pavement. It ended and we had another 15 kilometers of washboard and gravel until we reached Cabo Pulmo. We went by several of these “watch-tower” like structures and can’t figure out what they are for – whether it is to watch for fire, drug boats, or animals. I plan to ask some locals and see what they say.

Our top speed on the road once the blacktop was gone was about 8 mph. It took more than an hour to go the 15 kilometers to Cabo Pulmo. This was our first view of the water.

Unfortunately, there were no good places to camp near there. Most of the land was posted private property and the one RV camping area was in town, far from the water. We stopped at the dive center/watersports shop and they told us that there was better camping at Los Frailes, so we continued down the road another six miles. They told us about 20 minutes. Well, almost an hour later, we arrived!

One of the scooter tie-down straps had broken on the road in, but didn’t come unhooked from the RV. Tobey was able to use his Boy Scout skills and tie some knots to put it back together and re-secure the scooter. When we get back to a larger city, like La Paz, we will probably need to search for an Auto Zone to get another strap!

We laughed that it is like a “mini-Quartzsite” with water! There are lots of campers here, scattered through the arroyo and in the wooded areas. There is a small fishing camp where the locals keep their boats. We parked and walked the area before picking a spot to make sure we didn’t end up in soft sand and have to be pulled out!

We took a walk along the beach and saw several mobula rays, a type of manta ray, jumping out of the water. We also watched some local families coming to fish. This was our view from the RV just about sunset.

It is really pleasant hearing the waves coming in to the shore. We plan to spend a few days here since neither of us is anxious to traverse that road again!

GPS: 23.38248N, 109.42974W

February 6, 2015 - Cabo to Agua Calienta, Chorro Canyon

As easy as it was staying in Cabo, we decided we did need to go ahead and make a move today. We had lots of chores to do this morning – dumping tanks, refilling water, a little housekeeping, packing things up, and loading the scooter – but we still managed to be on our way before 9:30 !

We stopped at the overlook coming into San Jose del Cabo – about 20 minutes down the road. We wanted to get one more look at the water before our journey took us inland!
Saying goodbye to the beach, Hwy 1 turns inland and heads to the mountains.
At Km 82, we stopped at the Tropic of Cancer. When we were here 10 years ago, the globe in the picture below was painted white – although most of the paint was chipping off, and it was all by itself on the side of the road.

Now, there is a lovely pull off with a road-side chapel and shops. There is a marker in the front and you walk through an archway to the globe that is now painted and easy to identify. Notice the line marking the 23 degrees,28 minutes north of the equator.

A few kilometers down the road, we turned off to Santiago, the last real town before we would reach El Chorro Canyon and the Agua Caliente hot springs. We stopped for lunch at Palomar Restaurant because Tobey read that it was supposed to be so good. The service was good, the people were friendly, and the food was okay, but it wouldn’t warrant a return visit in our opinion. It’s funny how a place gets a reputation and every gringo follows suit!

Our Streets and Trips map didn’t have the road from Santiago to El Chorro, but the owner of the restaurant showed us a topo map and directed us to go past the zoo and continue for 15 kilometers or so. Tobey did have a Google map that he pulled up and had on the computer, so we also tried using that, but I am terrible without the GPS to know which curve we had just passed, so we both got a little testy before we finally arrived!

Just outside of town the road turned to gravel – washboard gravel. Our top speed was about 5 mph! These mama cow and calf were along the side of the road – they probably could have outrun us, if they had tried!
Well, we FINALLY did arrive - about 1-1/2 hours for the 15 km drive – and the road got much narrower than it was when we started! The best part of the drive was near the last curve in the road, a bobcat ran across the road in front of us. It was really cool!

The camping area is run by the local ejido (co-op farming group). It cost $140 pesos ($10 USD) to camp and use the hot springs. After setting up, we hiked down to the river and hot springs. We saw this bug – is it a spider or a other insect? We couldn’t tell, it was crawling on the ground and was BIG!!!

We waded across the river just downstream from the dam and hiked as far as we could – climbing over lots of boulders. We went as far as we could without scrambling up the hills, but apparently, there is a different trail that will take you to some waterfalls. Guess we missed that!
When we got back near the dam, there was a group that runs a bio-farm near here and they were working on rebuilding the hot pool area that was destroyed by Hurricane Odile in September. The hot water comes out of the rock wall along the right side of the picture so they were carrying huge rocks over to build a “hot tub”.

They really manhandled some HUGE rock to build a pool.

Tobey and I watched for a while, then we pitched in to help We shoveled gravel and sand, then helped carry filled buckets over to the hot tub area.

We worked until the sun started setting behind the hills, then we all relaxed a few minutes in the newly constructed “hot tub” as a reward!

They told us there used to be an area walled in with rock, but the hurricane wiped it out, as well as part of the dam. Also, before the hurricane the river was filled with cattails and other vegetation – now most of that was gone. Mother nature certainly is a powerful force!

There are a couple other Americans camped here, but it is really quiet. After a HOT, HOT day (seemed like 90), the evening cooled off and should be a quiet night’s sleep. No cell reception here for the Banda, so we will post when we can.

GPS: 23.44078N, 109.80600W

February 5, 2015 - Cabo San Lucas

We had a beach/spa day planned for today and were a bit bummed when we got up and it was pretty cloudy. Oh well. We went into town to the Pueblo Bonito Rose Resort anyway and it turned out just great! We made our massage appointments for the afternoon, picked up towels, and headed to the lounge chairs on the beach. The clouds started to clear and the sun came out – WOOHOO – I was a happy camper!A group of ten people from Iowa sat in the loungers on both sides of us. We had fun chatting with them and watching them buy tons of souvenirs from the beach vendors. It was really pretty funny.

We rented a kayak and paddled out from the resort and were zipping away from the resort and they sent the “kayak police” after us! It seems we went past the orange buoy and you can’t do that. In our defense, there were about ten different orange buoys and we just picked the wrong one as the outer limit!

When our hour was close to up, we decided to circle the black buoys and head back in. We were really surprised when we got closer and found out it was a sea lion! He was just hanging out, flipper in the air!

A couple of jet skiers came zipping by and he dove under the water and disappeared. A few minutes later, we spotted another one trying to imitate a shark!

We had lunch and hung out by the beach until 3 pm, then headed to the spa. We enjoyed their steam rooms, hot tubs, and massages. It was a pretty relaxing afternoon. We decided to have their Asian food buffet for dinner and it was great. Tobey got sushi, and we both had shrimp stir-fry, made to order. Yummy.

We had originally planned to be back to the RV before it got dark because driving the scooter at night isn’t the most fun. As you can see from the picture above, we didn’t make it! The resort was really pretty and we had a great day there (thank you time-share presentation!)

We plan to leave tomorrow and head the East Cape.

February 3–4, 2015 - Cabo San Lucas - Still!

Tobey and I are both tired tonight – we had a busy day! We headed into town this morning to collect our gift from the timeshare presentation we went to yesterday – and we had to wait! Geez, don’t buy and they make it really difficult. Oh well, we got our money and it is finished now and that is good.

We went on a whale watching trip that was supposed to leave at noon. (Mexican time) We waited on one boat for 30 minutes, then the captain had us go to another boat and he had to stop for gas before leaving the marina! SO … 45 minutes later, we were on our way!

We did a little tour of the snorkeling area, Lover’s Beach, and the “Cabo map rock.” If you look upside down at the rock below, it looks like the Baja California Peninsula.

We also saw the window to the Pacific and Los Arcos, the rock formation for which Cabo is famous, before heading out into the open waters.

We headed out of of the bay into the more open waters of the Sea of Cortez and were rewarded with a few good shows by the humpback whales. The first one we spotted was putting on quite a show. As our boat got closer, this whale was just slapping his back fin up and down in the water, over and over! It was amazing to watch.


After this whale went underwater, we spotted a few more, but none quite as entertaining!We spent about 1-1/2 hours and saw several whales – it never got boring! On the way back into the marina, we saw some parasailers and a cruise ship in for the day.

A final bonus to the whale watch trip was as we were following a fishing boat back into the marina. Two sea lions were following along and one jumped up on the back deck to get fish handouts from the catch! Once he had his fill, he jumped back in the water and the other climbed up to get a snack! It was really funny.

After the whale watch trip, we headed back to RV for fresh water showers after getting pretty soaked with salt water in the panga!

I took some fun videos of the whales http://youtu.be/PuJsAdzQX5A

and sea lions http://youtu.be/dgIITg8uA-c

We had dinner in town at Los Ajos Restaurant. Tobey had the carne asada dinner and I had chicken enchiladas. It was really good and reasonably priced. Both meals, drinks, and tip were $320 pesos (about $23 USD). We were so full, we were able to bring home half for lunch tomorrow!


Going to bed now, we’ll decide what happens tomorrow in the morning!

February 4 - Another day enjoying everything Cabo has to offer! Tomorrow we are going kayaking and getting massages. Guess we will spend another night in Cabo!

February 2, 2015 - Cabo San Lucas

Tobey and I went to a timeshare presentation this morning – geez, when will we learn???? It sounded just too good to be true, so we said no, and were finished. Mostly. Today is Constitution Day in Mexico, so the banks are closed, so they couldn’t give us our parting gift which included cash. We need to go back to their office tomorrow to pick it up – guess they know how to make it even less attractive to attend these things!!

We went to Los Claros for lunch, fish tacos, of course! They were really good – maybe the best so far – and it has to do with the sauce you put on them. I am pretty sure we ate here ten years ago so I will have to check our scrapbook when we get home! It’s really funny how familiar it seemed.
After lunch, we walked to El Medano Beach and joined the hundreds of tourists off the cruise ship for a while! Every bar was packed, and lots of “beach game” drinking activities were going on. We just kept walking!

We did meet a nice young German couple on the walk to the beach. They live in the north of Germany – near Hamburg. They were taking a pre-wedding trip since they just moved and she was between jobs. Europeans know how to travel – they flew to the US and are on a one-week cruise, then will rent a car in San Francisco and spend seven weeks driving across the US to Miami. After that, another cruise from Miami to Italy, then home and plan a wedding!

We hope that we can get a better picture of the “arch” of Los Arcos tomorrow when we go on a whale watching trip at noon. I think they may take us to the beach by the arch – we’ll see.
Anyway, I don’t want to jinx it, but the scooter seems to be running okay, and we are getting around without any major problems. We just need to be sure to watch for the “topes” (speed bumps) that seem to appear out of nowhere and especially hard to spot at night! We did hit one kind of hard last night and a piece of the scooter broke off – thank goodness for duct tape!

As bad as this thing looks, one Mexican guy asked Tobey if he would consider selling it and how much he wanted for it! I think Tobey must be really proud of his handiwork because he told him $1000 USD! The guy said, “no, seriously, how much?” Right now it’s not for sale since we wouldn’t have any other transportation once we park. Hmmm, too bad we aren’t closer to home – I would be playing “Let’s make a deal!”

February 1, 2015 - Cabo San Lucas

It was bright and sunny today – at last!!! We went into town and walked around a bit near the marina. It is really busy and lots of Norte Americanos in Cabo. Most of the menus are bi-lingual, lots of the prices are in US dollars, and almost everyone we met speaks some English. It is so much different than on mainland Mexico!

We had fish tacos at Gardenias, a place that came highly recommended and has a 4-1/2 star TripAdvisor rating. They were tasty, but not quite perfect!

We were told we could probably watch the Super Bowl at the casino which is located inside a huge shopping mall next to the marina. We went up and checked it out but decided it really wasn’t a fun place to be, but coming out of the mall gave us a great view of the marina!

There were several places that were selling “SuperBowl” packages for food and drink. We made a reservation at Rock and Brews, where we could order off the menu and stay to watch the game as long as we wanted. It is located on the marina and the picture below shows the view from the bar!

We zipped back to the RV to grab jackets, then back into to town to watch the game. We got in on the pool for the game – $10 for a chance to win $250 on the half-time score and $600 on the final score. We had Patriots 5, Seattle 0, and we came away with $0. Oh well, at least it gave us something to cheer for in the game!

We had a really nice Mexican family at the same table with us, and a couple from Chicago. It was a fun atmosphere and the burgers were good. With tip, our dinner and soft drinks were only $320 pesos (about $23 USD).

We will go back into town tomorrow and poke around some more, maybe book another whale-watching trip. That’s all for now!