Travelin' with Tyler in Tortuga

Walking the beach at Cabo Pulmo (East Cape)

Now that Tyler has joined us, we headed for Cabo Pulmo which lies south of Los Barriles about 30 miles.  The first part of the drive was on pavement but the last 6 miles was of washboard dirt, which made the ride seem farther than it was.  Ol Tortuga does great on the highway, but we've been reluctant to take her on the back roads of Baja. This penninsula has only the main highway paved, and just about everything else is dirt and gravel. Even in the small towns, only the main one or two streets are paved and the rest left lumpy and rocky. Riding in the noisy, rock and roll back, I finally took refuge in the over-cab bed to escape from the noise and jostle.

Full Moon rising at the Solstice

We had been to Cabo Pulmo about 12 years ago with the Wells family and it was interesting to see that not too much has changed around there, except the addition of several little hotels. There wasn't much to the dusty little town except about 4-5 dive shops, three restaruants and one little "store" where you could get water and a few grocery items.  We finally figured out where to stay by riding our bikes down the beach until we found another motorhome and asked about staying in the area.  After finding "Ricardo" the owner and paying our $5 per night (and trying to figure out who was going to keep the ONE key that opened the gate to the fence) We found a concrete pad to pull up to and make a camp looking out on the ocean.  We spent three days here reading, snorkeling, walking, painting, looking at the full moon and soaking up the sun.

Jan finds time to paint 

   Cabo Pulmo is a biological reserve with the only living reef on the Pacific coast, and it is within close reach of the shore.  The coral seemed a bit beaten up here, but it still supports a lot of tropical fish which were fun to swim with.  I really enjoyed the copious amount of tiny silver fish that would encircle you in a "fish cloud" and  almost become disorienting with their group swimming and swaying.
  We returned to Los Barriles and the RV park for civilized services of laundry, hot shower and an evening in the hot tub, then left the next day for La Paz 2 hours to the North. We spent the afternoon walking the Melacon along the waterfront, eating shrimp tacos in a little taquaria under the palapa roof and being among the Mexican families come to celebrate Christmas in the town.  Finally we found what I would call the feeling of "Mexico" in the larger city of La Paz.  It was relaxed, and had a market, an old town, and pretty walkway along the bay, decorated with whimsical statues and sailboats out at anchor.

Camp on the Bay at Cabo Pulmo

Driving north 20 km for the free camping beach at Tecolote, we camped by the same family from White Horse Canada that we had camped by in Cabo Pulmo. As the sun came up we awoke to a fantastic natural phenomena the next morning. Literally hundreds of Pelicans came out of nowhere to join each other in a chaotic feeding frenzy along our shore.  (Tyler even got up to check it out)  They were diving singularly and in groups , hollering, crashing into each other flying up and diving again. This went on for about 20 minutes and all of the sudden it was over and the pelicans were flying off in all directions to be mostly gone within a few minutes.  I took some video which I may try to post, if it doesn't take all day to download from our marginal internet connection.

Pelican feeding frenzy near La Paz

On the day before Christmas, we headed on down south to Todo Santos and were surprised to find a four lane highway for most of the way down. We had been to Todo Santos in the 90's and at that time it was just finding it's feet as an Art Center. Now there are a dozen galleries, a theater and the streets have been cleaned up.  It still has a nice feeling to it, even though there are quite a few more gringos present.  (Jim, we tried to look up Barb Perkins, to find out that she has turned her bar into a Mexican furniture store. She still owns the building in town and lives upstairs, but we weren't able to connect with her this time. We'll get back there sometime and I'll look her up.) We found a trailer park about a 15 minute walk down a dirt road from town and plopped down the Tortuga under a palapa for Christmas and a few days hanging out in the area.  The main activity on Christmas Eve was at the central church with a procession and a mass held at midnight.   The trailer court happened to be next to a statium where a big party was being held (we found out later) and the music and noise went on all night long, still strong at 6:30 in the morning.  The cresendo came at midnight with home-made, VERY LOUD, "bombs" going off by the dozens.  We were happy to hunker in Tortuga and wait for daylight.

Catching whales along the Melacon in La Paz

We spent the next three days around Todo Santos and the beaches, mostly at the surfing beach at Los Cerritos about 12 miles south, returning to Todo Santos for the evenings. The new highway has cut off a lot of access to the beaches (Las Palmas where we used to go was hard to get to and is now privately owned.) We found that much of Baja is up for sale and there are a lot of hotel and condo developments along both sides of the cape. A lot of the free camping places are now private. You can still camp on the beaches if you can get to them, as it is a law that all beaches are public in Mexico.  If you can find access, much of it is still miles and miles of deserted sand and ocean without many people at all.

Christmas Day in Todo Santos  

We had a nice Christmas day, opening a few presents and walking out to a pretty lagoon by the bay where Tom spotted some whales at sea spouting and there were lots of shore ducks in the water. That evening we searched around for a place to eat Christmas dinner and found that most everything was closed.  We did find a little taco restaurant where a bunch of Mexican families were eating and filled up on a bunch of delicious tacos de pollo. More parties were held around the neighborhood, (one by the local police we found out later from the park manager) again with loud local music and general hubbub that lasted into the dawn. We fell asleep to the live bass ompah of mariachi which pounded through the brain all night :-l
Our last day and night with Tyler, we spent at the Los Cerritos beach.  Tom talked Tyler into taking some surfing lessons.  He did really good and was able to get upright and catch several waves into the beach during his lesson.  I think his kayaking and snow boarding experience helped him out there. Since had the board the rest of the day, he decided to try his luck with the bigger waves. 
                          He got hammered and maytagged several times, but I think he had fun trying anyhow.
We took him to the airport on the 28th and he is back in Seattle getting ready for the next difficult semester of math and physics.  It was a lot of fun hanging out with him here in the sunshine.  We are at Los Barilles for a month.  So if anyone gets a bug to come on down we have a spare couch for company!
Feliz Ano Nuevo!
Jan and Tom

Old Town Todo Santos

Baja xmas tree found along the road  made from a

Century plant strung with tequila and beer bottles

Tyler catches a wave at Los Cerritos beach (West Coast)

Ahhh, Bahia de Concepcion

Bay of Concepcion

Tom looks out into the bay

View from home

 Bay of Conception  12/10/10
We left Mulege and didn’t get too far because we found the Bay of Conception. Clear blue tropical water, white sandy beaches, and though there was little shade or palm trees, it was still very appealing to stop and spend some time here.  We were captured by a small beach called El Requeson where a spit went out between two bays to an island just off shore. Again we found a group of Canadians (British Columbians) who had banded together in their large motor homes and trailers and had built palapas around their rigs to keep out the wind. They looked settled in for the winter. A good percentage of the people we find here are from Canada and the rest are from the Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mt. states.  We pulled little Tortuga right up to the water and had a nice day/night just hanging out and not driving for once, watching the pelicans doing their synchronized dance as they dove for fish.

Vultures hanging out in the dusk

In the evening  we took a walk to another nearby beach, which seemed even more appealing as each camping site had a little “grass shack” palapa built into it.   A cool sight was the vultures which come in to roost each night.  Their silhouettes could be seen decorating the tops of cactus, each with its own little perch.  At this time of year, there were only a few people camping there.  We may try to find this place for a week’s stay on our way back North.   We are trying to decide what it would be like to just hang out here by the water, and wonder if we wouldn’t get bored after a while.  It would probably be a lot more fun if we had our own group of friends (hint, hint) camping next door.  I think maybe a small town would be more appealing to hang in... At least you could get tacos on demand when you needed  to. 

To La Paz 12/11/10

Since yesterday was a day of rest, we decided to put in a long drive, 290 miles to La Paz. The road went along the water to Loreto and then crossed over the pass though the Sierra La Giganta Mt. range.  It was a really fantastic stretch with the layers of huge blue mountains fading into the distance andreally green valleys, colored by mesquite trees, punctuated by cordon cactus poking up through the greenery.   In La Paz we tried to find a campground close into town, but weren’t able to locate it where our map indicated.  Instead we had a little accident  with a dead tree which we hit with the top of our camper and knocked it over.  There was only a little damage done to the camper, but we felt sorry for the tree. It’s really difficult to know were the top of Tortuga is, as there is an overhang over the cab... Usually we are aware of that limitation, but it went off the radar with that tree. 
     LaPaz is the biggest town we’ve driven into in Mexico so far.  We just passed through on our way to a beach 20 km North East of town where we could camp for free.  We will return to La Paz sometime and hope to find a safe place to park in town so we can explore a bit.  Having a camper is a big disadvantage for checking out towns, as it is not recommended to park on the street... it has a big target on it for thieves. So unless you find a campground, it is difficult to leave it for long.  We are still working this out.
Thanks for checking in with us.  If you'd like to leave us a message, email us at tcope@pobox.com!

The Tortuga has landed (for a while)

Los Barriles (the barrels?)

We’ve arrived at Los Barriles on Sunday (Dec. 12th) and have settled into an RV park in the middle of town for a week.  There were two other choices of camping places, one in a very crowded trailer to trailer park and another at the “North Beach”, which was a bit more primitive right on the water (and right in the wind). Los Barriles has lots of windsurfers and kite boarders because, well, there’s a heck of a lot of wind here when it blows.   Anyhow, for now we’ve opted for the RV park, with the pretty landscaping, the pool and the hot tub and a bunch of other older Northerners.  (OK, maybe we are showing our old age, but hey we also ge hi-speed internet from our Tortuga here).  My vision of what this winter would be like is changing rapidly.  Baja (at least the part we can get to in Tortuga) is full of gringos and seems to lack the definite Mexican culture that we experienced on the mainland last year.  The Mexican people in this town are very friendly and seem to be accepting of the Gringo invasion. They smile and wave as they drive by in their pickup trucks and are very cordial in the stores etc.  The restaurants in Los Barriles seem to cater to the gringos and rarely do we see the Mexicans going out to eat. It helps to speak Spanish, but most people who hang around the tourist services also understand English.  There isn’t blaring music, or public markets, or dance/music street performances like we’ve seen in cities all over Mexico last year. I think that this “frontier” of Mexico is much more laid back, very safe (so far) and much more full of visitors.  So this winter’s stay could be more like living in a beautiful, warm climate in say, a border town Arizona.  I guess that isn’t all bad, it’s just different than we expected. 

(IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE PICTURES BELOW ENLARGED, CLICK ON THE PHOTO)

First order of business, a haircut from mom

   We picked Tyler up at the San Jose Del Cabo Airport on Thursday Dec. 16th.  He is joining us for 10 days over Christmas Holiday. When Tyler was 10 years old, we traveled the USA in a motor home just like Tortuga for 4 months(many of you will remember.)  Now Tyler is 6’2” and he takes up a bit more space.  He has to sleep at an angle on the couch and his feet stick out into the driver’s side, but so far he is doing OK.  He is happy to be somewhere that he can wear shorts and can get away from his math studies for a while (although his is reading a physics book for fun!)  We will probably travel around the southern tip of Baja while he is here for some adventure, although he is enjoying the hot tub here so far :-) 
 We are starting to get to know Los Barriles a little better (6 days here now).  I have run into  friends from Stevenson Washington, Linda and Mike Hunter, at an art festival our first day in town.  Linda is also in my plein air  painting group in the Gorge, so  we’ve already gotten together to paint one day. We are hoping to meet a few times a week to paint.  There are a few other artists in town, but as of yet, I don’t  know if they are into painting out.
I’m seeing that that is how I’ll be spending a lot of my time.  Tom is doing a lot of reading.
There really isn’t much to Los Barriles.  It has one main street with a few stores, banks and several restaurants and taco stands.  We did go to an open mike music gathering the other night and will probably be meeting more people as time goes by here.

Tyler at our pad in Los Barriles

 

Would you like a sample of rum?

One more tale before I go: On our way to pick up Tyler, we stopped into the Cabo Costco to pick up supplies for Ty’s visit.  As we were walking around, it felt just like the Costco in Portland with free samples (and American prices).  But when we got to the liquor section, where lots of older gringos wandered around on canes and baskets full of alcohol, we found the free samples that you wouldn’t find in any Costco in the US.... little plastic 1 oz cups of rum and tequila. (Oh yes, I think I’ll try that one now, yes, and that one, too) Yahoo!  Now that’s what I call shopping!

Boojums, Monster Cactus and Elephant Trees

Tom meets the Boojum

Jan and the giant cordon Cactus

12/8/10  San Quintin to Mulege.  Our second day on the road was a long but a beautiful drive.  Fog had rolled in on our campsite and we thought it prudent not to drive on the highway with limited visibility so we waited until about 9:30 in the morning before leaving the campground.  The road headed inland and up along the western side of the mountain range which follows the peninsula, continuing along through an amazing and fascinating landscape; home of the Boojum tree. The plains shifted up into huge hills which had their tops lopped off into mesas.  Then it became rocky and we started to see our first Boojums.  This is a plant right out of a Dr. Seuss book with it’s tall (up to 50 foot), fat trunk covered with small, prickly green sticks and a top with tiny yellow branches.  They look like huge, green carrots stuck upside-down in the ground.  These were sprinkled across the landscape of boulder strewn desert hills and in-between giant cordon cacti which reached to 60 feet tall . This seemed like the quintessential Baja desert that I’d imagined.  Other wild looking plants were also abundant here: A cactus that looked like it wore fur and the Elephant Tree, a relative to the sumac with a short, gray trunk and limbs that appeared to have been blown up with a tire pump.  It would have been fun to explore the area, but we have decided to blast on to Southern Baja and get set up for when we meet up with Tyler at Christmas break.  We plan to take our time with some of these places that we’ve passed through on our return north.

Along the Boojum trail

We passed the border station between North and South Baja and after having our wheels sprayed with insecticide for $20 pesos (go figure... I guess we could pass go then) we camped our second night behind Mario’s restaurant in Gurrero Negro. A lot of “campgrounds” here are connected to restaurants. Usually it is just a big lot with hook ups, which we don’t really have to use, but the campgrounds seem to be the safest option for sleeping overnight.   Tourism seems to be down here, and again we were the only people camping in the RV lot.  After another foggy morning, we headed inland again and crossed over the mountains to the Sea of Cortez.  The water seemed extremely blue after our few days of rolling through dry, subdued colored desert. We are camped in a nice little campground in Mulege tonight and we even have internet and a hot shower for once.  Mulege is a small town in a palm oasis setting and is quite the welcome respite for the weary driver (Tom). A nice bike ride to loosen stiff sitting muscles and a gin and tonic has taken the stress away as we are enjoy our fish tacos in Tortuga under swishy palms tonight.

Across the border and south, finally

Indio Tamali Festival

Tarantula found on our desert walk

Miles of greenhouses along the coast

Ocean side at San Quintin

12/4/10
After returning from Portland and a good Thanksgiving, we spent three days in Palm Springs with Aunt Marg.  We said our goodbyes on the third day and then headed out of town south toward Mexico.  We had one short detour, as we were caught by a sign in Indio: “Tamale Festival Parking, turn right”.  Well, we couldn’t pass up tamales could we?  We checked out the street fair which was several blocks of tamale stands and music stages, and ate our fill of tangy tamales.  The hometown parade with high school marching bands, horses and cars full of politicians and the Tamale Princesses took up a bit more time, but hey, that’s what serendipity travel is all about, eh? 
Tortuga took us southeast to Anza Borego State park for two days, where we camped along side the outlaw campers on the back roads of the park.  Anza Borego is a beautiful high desert, full of wonderful cacti, oasis, tarantulas and other desert things. Camping is free in the outback and lots of people drag their campers/motor homes out here for the winter.  They bring barrels of fresh water and have solar panels on their rigs and just hang out there for free..There didn’t seem to be many rules; at least that’s what we discerned.

Heading south again through the dry desert we were surprised when we gained altitude over the mountains and came back down through beautiful little canyons full of live oak and yellowing sycamore, the ranch/cowboy country of my childhood Saturday morning western dreams... Rin Tinn Tin, Furry and Roy Rogers. Then we realized that we were only about 40 miles east of San Diego. This really could have been the places where they filmed these sagas.  We drove on to Tecate on the Mexican border, passing a rather creepy looking, huge iron wall out in the middle of nowhere that stretches for some miles along the border as it comes close to the road.   Tecate is supposed to be the easiest border to cross, and following advice from friends who have driven to the Baja,  we crossed over on foot the day before to get our tourist cards and pay for them in town at the local bank.  We returned to the US and stayed in the County park that night, then got up early the next morning and scooted across while all of the “bad guys” were still asleep. A piece of cake.

Our first few hours driving in Mexico were fairly intense.  The crossing was mellow and getting out of town wasn’t too hard, but then we hit road construction for about 12 miles. Yikes!  With the rising sun in our eyes, dust flying, and an unmarked, torn up, bone jarring, car wrecking, two or one lane road to follow, it was quite exciting to navigate.   Every once in a while there was a flag guy to show you which way to go or stop (if you could figure out what the strange flag signals meant... “does waving backward mean come or go?”)  and hoping that you didn’t get in the way of the oncoming trucks filling both sides of the road.  After that, the regular, narrow, semi-smooth roads felt pretty good.  The road is about 19 feet wide with no shoulder all the way down most of the Transpeninsular Highway.  One crazy thing that they have on the roads are the “topes” or a series of speed bumps which will take out your front end  if you don’t slow down.. They show up in the middle of towns, before dangerous curves, and sometimes out in the middle of nowhere just for the heck of it.  It starts out with teeth grinding bumps far apart and which get closer together at you approach the “big bump”.   One really does have to slow down on that dangerous curve, or it will wreck your tires.  We drove down the windy highway where it came in just north of Ensanada, and just kept driving until we hit San Quentin about 200 miles down the coast.  Our goal was to get far south in one day to avoid any hassles/bad stuff related to the border.  The plan seemed to work. One impression of the drive south along the coast was the immense acres of greenhouses lining the roads.   The rows of white wagon train-tube-shaped houses, blocks-long would stretch out almost as far as the eye could see.  Our “campground” the first night in Mexico was right on the ocean, in a big flat lot.  Not too scenic, but we did have a front room view of the ocean and a great sunset.  We just kept our fingers crossed that the tide didn’t come up too high, as we could see the remnants of sandbags which once kept water at bay.