Bucerias we like you so much we decided to stay… Until Monday

After our first night staying in the hotel we woke up early and took the doggies for a walk.  Being the good American Tourist with dogs, and not wanting to get sand all over our room, we then bathed them in the outside shower you use before getting in the pool. Unfortunately that upset the owner of the hotel, who didn’t realize that our doggies were quite as big as they are.  We negotiated with him to move out of our room and into the vacant lot next door.  A lot filled with coco palms right on the beach.  We also had exclusive access to a bathroom with two showers, a toilet, a urinal and a sink.  All together the location suited us much better than a hotel room would have as we were able to spread out and enjoy the “camping” life we wanted.

Anyone looking to camp in Bucerias should check out the Corita Hotel just north of town.  Not only do they have the site that we used they also have RV hook ups.  All and all the staff has been very accommodating and we could be happier with our situation.

 

The first two days we spent getting little errands done and taking the boards out in the mornings.  Our truck broke an arm, something that I didn’t know trucks had but apparently are very important to the steering of the vehicle (I guess its correct name is the drag arm.)

We celebrated Valentine’s day with a dinner of steak and potatoes.

 

 

 

 

Fritz met the neighbors who invited him to play a game of Botchy Ball, I don’t think he did very well as they didn’t invite him back.

The third day was spent resting on the beach, bird watching swimming and enjoying coco locos, a drink of coconut water, rum and lime which Fritz is very good at preparing. We also went into town where we were instantly recognized as the people with the stand-up paddle boards…  I guess we can never join the CIA as we seem to stand out where ever we go.  

  

 

 Basically life in Bucerias has been slow and wonderful. Today we will get everything reorganized and ready to go, so in the morning we have an easy departure for Tequila and then Guadalajara.We are still debating if this jaunt inland will take us to the pyramids of Teotihuacan or if we will swing back to the coast through Barre de Navidad.Either way it is time to get moving because if we stay any longer we may not ever leave. 

Finally the Mainland

La Paz to Puerto Vallarta

We arrived in La Paz early on Sunday afternoon to find them in the full swing of Carnival.  The plan seemed simple enough, find a hotel, Skype with mom and then go to Carnival.  Finding a hotel during Carnival proved a bit more difficult.  The first hotel had room but no parking, the second parking and room but no dogs, the third no room and so on an so on.  We drove through the city for about 3 hours before deciding on not going to Carnival and just heading down to the port to find a hotel there so we would be able to skype with mom and find out about a ferry to the mainland.  We found a hotel only to find it closed.  Across the street there was a great (but very expensive) restaurant.  The waiter’s there were so helpful, they called around to the hotels and found two that had room, parking and would accept dogs.  Back into the truck we went, back to La Paz, we missed the turn off of the road back to the center and looped all the way back to the North side of town.  Not wanting to fight the traffic yet again (and now in the dark) in hopes of finding the hotel we went for the second option… it turned out to be a very nice hotel… if you are a truck driver.  The only upside of the day was that I got to Skype with my mom!

The next morning we were off and running early to find out about a ferry to the Mainland.  When we arrived at 8 am we were told to go to the other ferry office to find out about cargo ticket, they told us to come back at 10 to buy the tickets and that the ferry left that day.  We drove back to La Paz to get some necessary items for our 18 hour trip and were back at the ferry at 11.  We booked our passage and headed to the beach to run and swim the doggies so they would sleep the rest of the day, and the next.  

 

We also stopped by the restaurant to say good bye to the very helpful waiters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ferry ride was great.  We had the upper deck almost completely to ourselves, our nice comfy bed to sleep in and 18 hours of relaxing and whale watching (we saw a breech and a roll which made the trip even better). 

 

 

 

 We arrived in Mazatlan at 9:30 the next morning and headed south through beautiful landscape of rolling green cane fields.

We stopped for comida corrida in Tempico and paid $13 for a 4 course shrimp meal with a couple of cervezas.Our destination for the day was a little town that I had read about on quite a few overlander’s blogspots called Sayulita.

I should have known when I saw the Subway sandwich shop by the Pemex that maybe this wasn’t our type of place and the 30 foot high arch welcoming our arrival to the town should have been hint number 2 but it wasn’t until we turned left into the cobbled stoned main street that I really knew that this was definitely not our type of place.  

 

Sayulita is a cute, picturesque even Mexico town. Cobbled streets with a Xocalo in the center, restaurants lining the side with second story balconies where one imagines a Senorita waiting to go on Paeso. The problem is that it was filled completely to the gills with American tourists. There were signs advertising the zip line, yoga studio and surf school. I am sure that every waiter spoke great English and that all of the food was carefully prepared so it was safe for tourist’s stomachs. I might be being a little harsh in saying this, but it reminded me of a Dude Ranch where American’s can come and experience “Real Mexico” without giving up any of the comforts they expect. It felt like the Disney version of Mexico and I expected to hear It’s a Small World playing in the back ground. To be fair, it is different from the gated resorts that surround the area, where visitors never even get a glimpse of what is outside of the manicured landscapes enclosed in the 10 foot walls that keep them trapped. But in my opinion it isn’t much better, it is still a sterilized, Americanized version that looked like Olvera Street in LA.

We headed south to Bucerias and found a hotel for the night. We are planning on staying here for a couple of days, Fritz wants to get the front end of the truck looked at (something about break calibration?) and I want to take the boards out and get in the ocean. Yes the hotel we are at has a swimming pool, security at night for the car, and I could probably get a message if I wanted to, but the family in the next room all speak Spanish and all we have to do is walk across the street to get a Taco de la Calle, so we actually prefer it here. 

Maybe we are just weird.

The drive from LA Bay south was beautiful, the desert is greener than I ever saw before and the road is exceptionally well maintained.  Besides glimpses of the Pacific and wishes that it was warmer so we could explore we also saw quite a few bird’s nests one with these birds in it.  I wish I had a bird book and I may download one on my Kindle.

We flew through Gurrero Negro without even stopping, except for “Agricultural Fumigation” where we paid 20 pesos and they didn’t spray our car!

 

 

Unfortunately,  I can’t say that we saw much of Santa Rosalia, we hit the out skirts of the town and rather than turning left into the town we decided to check out the camping sites and set up then go back later to see it.  Sadly the first camping spot we had heard about was closed, the second one was a little on the skivvy side and before we knew it, it was 3 o’clock and we were in Mulege… oh well we missed it.  Mulege is a cute little village on the side of a River next to the ocean.  The streets are cobbled rather than paved and they are also a size medium and our truck is an extra-large.  One good thing about this is that it forces Fritz to drive slowly so I check out the town… the bad side is it leads to a lot of comments like “really, can this street get any smaller?” to which I think in my head, yep and it probably will!   We headed off toward the beach but turned around before we got there.  Instead we spent our second night in a row in a hotel, right next door to a laundry mat so now we have clean clothes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner was street tostadas and flautas which were surprisingly difficult to find.  We decided to head still further south (yes it is still too cold I have on 2 long sleeve shirts, my UGG boots, I am kind of inside and I am STILL cold!)  We got a good tip on a camping spot 35 miles south of Loreto from some hippy kids who have be backpacking for the last month. 

We arrived at Loreto around 1PM on Saturday only to find it still cold and still windy.  There is nothing worse than camping on a windy beach with sand blowing everywhere and a tent that is about to fall over, all this can be done in relative comfort but only if it is warm enough that you aren’t huddled in a truck.  Yes we are wimps and there are people who camp in the snow, during snow storms, but not in Baja and I am not one of them. 

 

 

 So once again we chose a hotel.  This time because it was early we asked around a few… the first was $790 pesos, the second $650 but w/o parking, we found one that had parking for $500 it was right in the center of town and looked promising if a bit shabby, then we found one on the outter edge of town, $700 pesos with parking and a kitchenette, it also had a swimming pool and hot tub, guess which one we chose? 

Now I am the first to admit, this is NOT what this trip was supposed to be like, we had dreams of camping on sandy beaches, taking the SUP’s out every day, living the lives of Gypsies, staying in one place for a few days then moving on… What we’ve been doing is more like race, driving 4 to 5 hours a day, staying in hotels, not really spending anytime in anyone place, but as with everything in life you make adjustments and learn as you go.  And we are.  Our rough plan now is to head to LA Paz, check out the ferry to Mazatlan and then decide if we stick around Baja or not.  I would love to see Cabo San Lucas, find Chucks old house and finally get in the water, but the weather reports says more of the same.  We are being flexible and not making any set plans, that is what this trip is about but I did check out the weather in Mazatlan and while the highs are in the low 70’s the lows are in the upper 50’s and that sounds better to me! 

Northern Baja

After leaving Pete’s Place we slowly headed out of town.  Our first stop street tacos, then the bank, then to the gas station and finally to buy groceries.  While filling up the tank Fritz noticed the air in our back tires was low, so we checked the pressure only to realize that our gage only went to 50 psi and our tires needed to be at 80.  That lead to a detour to the auto parts store to buy a better gage, back to the gas station and then to the Mercado, we left Pete’s at 10:49 AM and it was 2 by the time we hit the road for real, off like a herd of turtles as usual. 

We arrived at Gonzaga much quicker than expected as the 5 miles of bad road we encountered on our last trip has gloriously been reduced to less than one.  There were three other camper’s at our favorite spot, two men we didn’t meet, Jim from New Mexico and Vincent also from NM but not traveling with Jim.  Yes I could tell you their whole live stories because I spent quite a bit of time talking to each of them, Chatty Cathy as always.  We also meet our other neighbor who lives here full time, Alfredo, who was nice enough to show Fritz the proper way to clean a fish…

 

no we didn’t catch it we bought it at the fish market this morning, doesn’t get much fresher than this.

By 10 AM this morning the other camper’s had packed up and left, so now we have the beach to ourselves.  Our decision to stay my not be the most prudent one as last night the D.N.I.W. (spell it backward but just don’t say it out loud) came up.  It was blowing hard enough at 10PM for me to wake my saintly husband and suggest he go out and move our camp chairs and other valuable objects so we didn’t lose them in the night.  We hope it stays calm this evening (though anyone who has camped in Baja knows it is a false hope), and we are glad that we have a nice cozy bed in our truck rather than a noisy tent to sleep in.  Tomorrow we are off to LA Bay, we’ve been told the road out to Chalapa is much improved in the last 18 years since I last drove it, and I hope to God that is the truth as we only have one spare tire! 

When we woke up on Thursday morning there was no wind and I thought briefly about staying one more day in Gonzaga… until Fritz opened the door and a frigid breeze blew in...

 

that was enough for me to change my mind and for us to back it up and head further south.

The road from Gonzaga to Chalapa was much improved

but it still took us 2+ hours to drive the 30 or so miles, partly because we stopped to take pictures of the flowers

and partly because we had to follow these guys for a while.

Driving into LA Bay was a beautiful road, nicely paved and the hills were exceptionally green.  Once inside the views were amazing, but the hotels and houses that have sprung up in the last 30 years make getting to the beach difficult.  At first we thought we would camp, but after driving down a couple of roads only to find small campsites with rocky beaches or people who didn’t allow dogs, we decided that 4 nights of camping was enough and that tonight we would splurge on a hotel.  Rather than stay here for a couple of days as we first thought we would we are heading out tomorrow.  The thermometer hasn’t gotten over 73 since the trip began and we are getting tired of being cold, so tomorrow we hope to put some miles under our belt and stop at Santa Rosalia or Mulege if we can get that far. 

On Monday we moved north about 3 miles to a beach camping spot, where we could watch the big game (too bad SF lost L), and we decided we liked the spot so much we would stay one or maybe two more nights.  There were only two other couples in the site, both from Canada who are here until March when the Baja 2000 starts and they will need to move on as the camp will be full, I guess it is booked well in advance. We spent our first night in the truck as a family.  Dogs all settled in behind the front seat and the two of us sung as bugs in a rug in our bed.  After the game we spent some time watching our new TV, it only gets one station, the Milky Way but it is incredible enough to keep us entertained. 

All of our equipment seems to be running perfectly, we accidently set the fridge too cold and froze our eggs and ½ and ½… which meant the doggies got frozen egg treats for breakfast and we had to find milk for our coffee. 

On Monday we headed into San Felipe to get some stuff, and on our way out of the camp ground we saw about 5 RVs lined up to get in, we had heard a large group was coming in and luckily had move our spot from right across from the toilets to the last open spot on the beach… boy was that a good move.  When we got back the camp ground had completely changed.  There were now 40 RVs in the camp instead of the 3 of us that were here the night before.

Let us just say the Americans had arrived, from the man wearing the orange jacket directing people to open parking spaces, the cats on leashes and the USA flag flying, we know it is time for us to move on out.  We did see something that made us happy our truck is not quite as big as them and we will also use it as a warning to stay out of soft sand…

 

The first day!!! San Felipe

Our morning started early, packing up the truck, cleaning my mom’s house and saying our last goodbyes.

Then it was down to Solana Beach to meet Kristin and Chris of www.drivetheamericas.com .  Unfortunately our phones had been turned off so we had to stop at a rest stop to contact them and let them know we would be late.  Oh well, it had been a while since I used a pay phone and I guess I needed the practice.  Meeting with them was definitely something I am so grateful we did.  Just to meet face to face with another couple who has done the journey made us both realize that one, we can do this and two we really want too!

Then it was to Mexicali, our first border crossing.  While easy enough to do, it did take some time. The first step was to find the office that would do both the car and our visas, strange that can’t be done at the main border but only at the border near the airport about a 30 minute drive (only 11 kilometers but you know how they love the “Alto” signs in Baja.)  Once we found the office the fun began.   First to “Migracion” for our visas, then to the cashier where we paid and got the paperwork for the car, back to immigration and then back to finish the car, all in all about 1 ½ hours. 

That left us in a bit of a pickle, darkness was quickly approaching and we still had a two hour plus drive to San Felipe… the plan was to head back in to Mexicali find a hotel and stay the night.  We didn’t completely retrace our steps but were told that there was a cut off road that would get us to San Felipe.  We found the road and the only issue we had was the poor woman who lives in our Garmin screaming at us to “get back to the highlighted route” we finally did connect with that route but were well outside of Mexicali.  We stopped at a Pemex to see if there were any hotels or camping spots and were told it was 1 hour back to Mexicali or 1 hour to San Felipe, by now it was really getting dark (sorry mom). 

We had driven the road about 3 months ago and I remembered that it was in very good shape, except for a 5 or so mile part that had construction.  With Fritz promising to go slow we pushed on, we were lucky enough to get behind a car that wasn’t going to fast and follow him close enough to see where he slammed on the breaks or fell of the road, all the while getting passed by lunatics going 100+ MPH down and pitch black road.  I am glad to say the construction on the road is complete and we arrived around 6:30 with no problems.

Instead of finding a camp site we found a hotel and settled in for the night with a delicious dinner of street tacos and a warm shower and coffee this morning.  Today we find a place to camp, watch the superbowl and then we will head to Gonzaga… Manana maybe!