Bahia Concepcion was great, but we needed some internet action so we were forced to leave the next day. We make the tough decisions around here, so on to Loreto. There’s not much in the way of camping or boondocking right near town, so we found an RV site that was set up mostly for long-termers. We were packed into spots right next to each other – some giant rigs the size of tour buses – but everyone was friendly. Some folks were pretty much moved in permanently – their rigs essentially built-in and immobile. Not exactly what we are normally looking for, but it sure was convenient.
The place was quite nice, with a restaurant, internet access and washing machines…and some of the best showers we’ve had in a while. Bode now asks in advance, “Does this place have plumbing? Internet?” Not always in that order.
We were only a few block from the center of town, so it was great to walk around and have a home base right there. Loreto is a pleasant little town, though I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it before now. It has an airport so lots of folks fly straight here.
We headed over to Mc Lulu’s taco stand for dinner. I’m not sure who Jason is more surprised by, me or Bode at our fish taco eating abilities. It’s been really great to have a kid-approved standby meal for about $1.25. I’ve stopped stocking up on lunch supplies. Lulu was great and helped us with our Spanish some more – maybe we won’t need to find a school after all if we can keep meeting such nice folks.
There are several things to get used to in Mexico (we can discuss toilet paper later.) One is the perpetual drive-by’s of vehicles with speakers on top of their car announcing something !muy importante! We still haven’t figured it out – maybe an election coming? A big sale at the supermercado?
Every single town, no matter the size, has one. Sometimes several. It is pretty interesting to see all the variations and what kind of car get’s pimped out with a PA system. We all joked about getting something like this for the bus and handing Bode the mic when we roll into a new place. It just looks so cool – maybe we’ll get one and just crank out the tunes whenever we’re in the mood.
Also, we just got an e-mail from Jad at GoWesty – we’re supposed to be featured on the Daily Driver section on their site today. Thanks Jad!
Santa Rosalia is an interesting place. It was a French-owned mining town and they sent their copper to the Pacific Northwest. There, instead of returning with empty ships, they filled them up with lumber to send back to Baja. As a result, the town is mostly wooden buildings with large wrap around balconies. Quite different than the usual stucco and cement we see everywhere else.
The big attraction here is the Eiffel-designed church. It is a prefab metal building that is actually rather plain on the outside. Inside, it looks like a regular Catholic church. The church was revealed at a 1889 Paris World Exposition, where Eiffel also unveiled the famous tower in Paris. He won an award for the church. It was later bought by the Frenchies in Mexico for this town.
The other attraction is the French bakery. Bode had fallen asleep in the car, so I ran in. They had several French/Mexican goodies without egg and butter, so I bought a couple. He was awake when I came out, immediately ate 2 of them, and I went back in for more.
Also, if you’re missing your firetruck in Fresno, it’s here.
We continued on to Mulege, which had been recommended by several people. It was a really nice town, and everyone is pretty accustomed to seeing norte-americanos. It was getting late, so we found a cheap motel next to a very clean laundromat and headed out for pizza. Yes, it’s that easy here.
From what I’ve gathered, usually this time of year Baja is packed with snowbirds from the US and Canada, but not so this year. Most places are empty, and I’d say 90% of the gringos we do meet are Canadian (and 90% of those are from British Columbia.) I think the bad publicity and economy have kept out the Americans.
So far, we’ve felt very safe here – everywhere in Baja. Most of Baja is set up for travelers, but not over-built like so many destinations on the mainland. For the most part, the Mexicans speak English (or at least enough to do their business.) They are also very accommodating when I’m trying to practice my Spanish. It’s sort of a mixed blessing when I try really hard to ask questions in Spanish and they respond in English.
The next day we headed a few miles south to Bahia Concepcion. We were all hungry, so we pulled into the first beach/campground that we thought had a restaurant. The restaurant was closed, but we ran into Kassandra and Justin, whom we met at the Bay of L.A., and pulled up near them for the night.
They were cool enough to entertain Bode and play cars and trucks in the sand. They hosted the bonfire later that night and more folks (more Canadians!) from down the beach came over to swap stories.
The Bay of Conception was beautiful, and the water was safe for a 4 year old. There were nice sailboats lazily moored off the beach – something we haven’t seen yet in Baja.
There are lots of great looking beaches around here and we’re starting to see more and more campers lining the miles and miles of clear blue water. And, it’s getting noticeably warmer.
Bode felt better the next morning, so we decided the best thing for a kid with a weak stomach is a 3 hour dirt road and then a boat ride. All this to see the California Grey Whales at San Ignacio Bay.
They said it would take 1.5-2 hours to get there. They didn’t mention the road conditions, so we headed out. We passed 2 guys that seemed broken down on the road, but both insisted ‘no problema.’ So we continued on.
About 5 miles to our destination, the right front shock came off. Jason bolted it back on backwards to hold until we got to Ecotourismo Kuyima. We walked out to the boat with a French couple and the captain.
We were happy to find that there are some pretty strict rules about tour boats here. Only a limited number of specially licensed boats are permitted here each season. We only saw 2 other boats the whole time and both of them headed back a few minutes after we got there.
Within 20 minutes we were seeing whales. Our captain (no English) navigated us onward and we found more and more whales. Ultimately, a few mother and babies came right up to our boat to check us out.
It was pretty amazing, and one of the highlights of the trip so far for both Jason and I. Bode seemed to think this was an everyday occurrence. That is one damn lucky 4 year old.
We took hundreds of photos, and a few movies. I’m not sure that whale photos are that interesting to others, but hopefully you can see how close they got to us, and how many there were.
The ride home was the least fun part of the day. Within minutes, both front shocks came off and there wasn’t much we could do this time. Jason removed them and we rode 3 hours back without shocks on the front of the car. This has cured us of wanting to do any off-roading for the near future.
We rewarded ourselves with some mighty fine street tacos when we got back to San Ignacio.
Jason was able to McGyver the shocks with a knife and some giant washers the next day, so Red Beard is riding semi-smooth again.
San Ignacio is known as the date palm oasis, out in the middle of miles and miles of desert. There wasn’t much scenery on the way here, but the Transpeninsular Highway was smooth and easy. The town is beautiful, with palms and water and fruits. Dates are the big deal here, and we walked by a small store where a woman was making date cookies, pies and bread. It smelled wonderful. She even made us a batch of cookies without milk or eggs so Bode could have some too.
We ran around the town square, there were a few little girls giggling at Bode trying to speak Spanish. There were some teenage girls who just had to touch his curly blond hair. We tried explaining to him that not many people in Mexico have blond hair, but he got confused and later asked why people here didn’t have curly hair.
After many nights in the bus, we decided to splurge on a little more space and stretch out a bit. We read about a cottage that rents rooms that look over a beautiful garden (Casa Leree), so we nabbed the last room. It’s tranquil and serene – an oasis in the oasis.
About half way through the date cookies, Bode told us that it was making him sick. I ate the other half, and we headed to the room to do some reading and vegging out. It was Super Bowl Sunday, so Jason went out to a local restaurant to watch the game.
Still wondering if it was possible to be allergic to dates, I was a little surprised when I was reading a book to him and he threw up all over me. Then the bed. Then the floor. So, that was my Super Bowl Sunday… probably still better than Peyton Manning’s.
Anyway, from the sound of it Jason had a great time. The game was all in Spanish, no super bowl ads, and with a lot of Mexicans who didn’t speak English. Everyone asked him who his team was and he was going with El Santos from the start.
The best part was probably that he had no idea what was going on at the hotel.
After leaving The Bay of L.A. we headed down more back roads towards Misión San Francisco de Borja. The desert landscape was verdantly dense with varying cacti and boojum. The boojum is one of the more unique looking plants I’ve seen and looks like an upside-down spiked green carrot – sometimes with a yellow bloom on the top.
A few hours later we arrived at the mission and were greeted by the dogs first (as usual.) There are only a few people out here and one guy pushing a wheelbarrow stopped to talk and gave us quick tour of the church. There are still services here every Sunday, but I can’t imagine where people come from to attend.
There’s a small hot springs here too, but we decided to bag it and head back down the long road to the main highway. We immediately made a wrong turn (no signs out here) and ended up in some sort of bone yard. Cow skulls and fat vultures everywhere. Fortunately, we could still see the mission and headed back and corrected our course. The roads were an occasional challenge, but a few hours later we were back to sweet sweet asphalt.
The Baja 200 is not a big deal – most gringos have probably never heard of it – it’s only two years old. Bahia de los Angeles is a tiny little town, so when it’s race time, it’s a big deal.
The night before the race is a big party on the main square. Vendors selling race stuff, parts, and lot’s of showing off and drinking beer. The moto-cross riders were in full regalia, as if the race were starting in minutes. It was a scene. A small one, but still a scene. The teenagers were clutching their cell phones waiting for important texts and such. Smaller kids (and Bode) were jumping in the inflatable jumpy house and all over the playground. Adults were drinking, eating, and bragging. We may have been the only gringos – it was very cool.
The dirt bikes started at 7 am sharp the next day, so we completely missed it. Everyone else started at 10 am, where I was introduced to the joys of pineapple tamales.
No gringos in the race – except one 65 year old woman who was really a local. She was complaining about how they had merged some of the classes and she would be racing against some of the big boys. Speaking of the big boys, L.A.’s local boy won the big race last year – The Baja 1000. That’s his red/white/blue truck.
At 10 am everyone fired up their engines and the green flag started waving. There were 30-second staggered starts and about 60 cars, but the order didn’t make much sense to me. I would have thought the faster cars would go first, but it seemed pretty random. It must have made for an interesting race once they all got out in the mountains.
The cars ripped through town and got to skid around a few paved corners before hitting the dirt out near the cemetery. A few of the bigger vehicles were already breathing down the necks of the smaller guys before they were even out of sight. There were clearly some local favorites, who were greeting with honking and cheering from the scattered crowd. My favorite was a little white bug – almost Herbie-like – but much much sadder. The finish line was somewhere up in the hills, so we didn’t stick around or head up to find it, but I can practically guarantee Herbie didn’t win this time.
