March 20 to 26, 2008

March 20 to 26, 2008

Puerto Escondido to Playa Santispac, Baja California Sur, Mexico

 

Thursday ; Puerto Escondido to Loreto & return

This morning we chatted with the man in the only other RV rig in Tripui RV Park. He's from Vancouver Island, and has been coming to the Baja for the last four winters. Bo played with Chaca, the Mexican puppy the man rescued a few days ago. Seems like a lot of Mexican dogs end up being rescued / adopted by gringos. He gave us directions to the beach nearby called Rattlesnake Beach, and to the beach a few miles north at El Juncalito ( J sounds like H ). The Dickinson's and we loaded up our dirty laundry and headed out to explore the beaches and Loreto. Rattlesnake Beach was a short distance down a standard Mexican dirt road ; one lane, narrow, and very rough. When we got to the beach we were stunned to see ... many vehicles, tents, and families. I guess today is day one of the Easter five day long weekend. We drove north to the beach at El Juncalito. Same story ! Tough, little dirt road, ending at a large beach with ... WOW ... hundreds of cars, tents, and families ! We're glad we decided to hunker down in the gringo RV park, instead of heading for the beach at Playa Santispac.

We drove into Loreto, about 20 miles from Puerto Escondido, and began looking for a laundromat. We stopped and asked for directions to a laundromat twice. The first directions did not result in us finding a laundromat. The second set of directions brought us to a lavenderia, where the woman would wash, dry, and fold our clothes, and they would be ready tomorrow after 3:00 P.M.. Not really what we wanted, since our "home" is 20 miles away. I suggested we go to Loreto Shores RV Park, where we stayed on our way down south, and we knew they had laundry facilities. Great idea, Daniel ! We got our laundry done, and visited with two rigs from our caravan who did not leave when our caravan left there twelve days ago, and they're still there. We didn't much like that RV park. To each his own, I guess ! We went for lunch to a little taco stand called McLulu's. Another great lunch ! I had uno taco camarón, uno taco carne asada, y uno taco machaca. Oh ... y uno cerveza Pacifico. HA HA HA !

We drove along Loreto's malecon / waterfront, then parked and walked around the tourist shopping area. I bought a t-shirt with a map of Baja California Sur ( South ). Before leaving Loreto I refilled with diesel. I'm putting on a lot of miles, and using a lot of diesel, on this trip. We returned to the Tripui RV Park at Puerto Escondido late in the afternoon. In the evening we went to the Mexican Fiesta buffet at the Tripui Restaurant. It was pretty darn good !

What a lovely night ! Warm, no wind, clear sky, full moon, the mountains behind us bathed in moonlight.

 

Good Friday ; Today was sunny and hot. I spent much of the day working on a trailer repair. I discovered that a panel underneath the trailer was falling off, held up mostly by a plumbing pipe underneath it. Most of the screws and bolts in the panel had stripped and / or vibrated loose, and fallen out. Fortunately I was able to scrounge all the hardware I needed for this repair from my inventory of miscellaneous hardware. It was a tough job ( aren't they all ? ) working on my back on the gravel surface underneath the trailer. Apparently, for some of the time, the lower half of my body was sticking out from underneath the trailer. My stomach is sun burned ! And I broke four drill bits doing the repair !

Erbon had requested a "day off", with no travelling or activities planned, so while Joanne and I worked on the trailer, he and Lorraine rested, reading and enjoying the fine weather. After finishing the trailer repair, we had a very late lunch, got cleaned up, put away all the tools and hardware, then went for a long walk with Bo. A long, slow walk ! My right knee is very sore again today. After returning from our walk we visited with Lorraine and Erbon for awhile. We spent the rest of the very nice afternoon chatting before preparing a communal barbecue dinner.

 

Saturday ; Puerto Escondido to San Javier & return

Today was sunny and hot, temperature in the 90's F. / mid 30's C.. We thought it would be cooler up in the Sierra de la Giganta mountains where we were going today, but it wasn't. We took a day trip to the little village of San Javier, to see the Misión San Javier, a church built in the mid 1700's. It's the second oldest church in the Baja peninsula of Mexico. We drove about 15 miles north towards the city of Loreto, then turned off Mex 1 heading west into the mountains, away from the Sea Of Cortez. After about 10 miles the pavement ended, and we had to drive about 25 miles of the most difficult dirt road we've encountered so far on this trip. And we've driven a lot of really tough dirt roads ! It took us about 2 hours to drive the 25 mile section of dirt road. Finally, after a somewhat brutal ordeal, we arrived in the little village of San Javier.

The mission church is actually called Misión San Francisco Javier de Viggé-Biaundó, but is known locally as Misión San Javier. The church is unrestored, in original condition. And it's very well preserved. It was actually quite busy there today. Many Mexican families were there today, perhaps because it's Easter weekend. We didn't want to go there yesterday or tomorrow, fearing that many Mexicans might be going there on Good Friday and Easter. We wandered around, inside and outside the church, taking photos, and admiring. We sat down under a tree and ate our picnic lunches, then browsed briefly in a little arts and crafts / souvenir store. I bought a gift. And then < sigh > it was time for the ordeal of driving back. On our way back we stopped briefly at an area where there some cave paintings, but they were nowhere near as elaborate as the ones we've already seen. Amazingly, Erbon actually fell asleep in the back seat of the truck, on the roughest dirt road I've ever driven. I guess some guys can "siesta" anywhere, any time. HA HA HA !

Once we were back on Mex 1 headed south back to Puerto Escondido, we decided on impulse to go take a look at the Fonatur development at Nopoló. Another federal tourism development agency project that was abandoned before completion. This one was a little closer to completion than the one at Puerto Escondido. The golf course was actually completed, and is being used. There was a small townsite of expensive gringo homes, completed by private enterprise. And because of the initial plans ( 30 years ago ) to develop huge resorts at Nopoló and Puerto Escondido, the city of Loreto got an international airport and a cruise ship harbour, which was great for their economy.

What we thought was going to be a day trip of perhaps 3 or 4 hours duration turned into a 7 hour outing. And when we got back to Tripui RV Park, I was tired ... again !

 

Easter Sunday ; Today was sunny and hot ! We had a restful, although somewhat unproductive and frustrating day. I spent the morning doing monthly computer maintenance chores ; backup of all files and photos, disk cleaning, disk fragmentation, etc.. I executed a new maintenance function I found on the computer ; "chkdsk". Remind me not to execute that function again when I need the computer. It took a long time to run "chkdsk". I also downloaded and processed yesterday's photos.

My plan for the afternoon was to spend a few hours online at the Tripui Hotel adjacent to our RV park, using their Wi-Fi ( for a fee ), getting caught up on e-mail, bill paying, blog updating, and so on. But ... with an unreliable, slow Wi-Fi signal, many other laptop users, some with bandwidth hogging Macintosh computers, some with bandwidth hogging Skype phones, I got very little accomplished, and blew off the whole afternoon doing so ! I chatted with Lorraine briefly. I chatted with our "neighbours", a family with 5 children from Vancouver who drove from Vancouver B.C. to here, and will be driving back to Vancouver, all within the children's 2 week Easter break from school ! YIKES ... now that's hard driving ! I used my Wi-Fi phone to phone an RV park under development north of here to make arrangements for a visit in a few days. I lent my phone to the Vancouver man so that he could make some phone calls. My Wi-Fi phone is pretty popular down here. I've lent it to many gringos whose cell phones won't work in Mexico, despite the assurances of their cell phone service providers that they would work. And despite these people all having paid extra for their cell phones to work in Mexico !

After an Easter dinner of barbecued meat loaf ( not exactly a traditional Easter dinner ! ) I went back to the hotel to try using Wi-Fi again. "No problemo" when I had the signal all to myself, without other users. I got my blog updated, both text and photos.

 

Monday ; Puerto Escondido to Ligui Beach and return

Today was sunny and hot again. Aren't they all, down here ? ! Joanne had a very late start to her day this morning. I walked over to the Hotel Tripui and used my Wi-Fi phone to return a phone call from a man in Kamloops, B.C. who had left a phone message for me a few days ago. He was calling regarding the job application I submitted in Yuma, Arizona early in February applying for a summer job in the forest fire fighting industry in B.C.. I played telephone tag with him this morning, and left him a message. I downloaded and reconciled our two March MasterCard statements. I prepared and submitted another dog training article for our Riverside RV Park Resort bi-monthly newsletter. Joanne and I walked over to the little convenience store beside the campground to buy some potato chips. They teach them young down here ! The teenaged girl who was working in the store "accidentally" overcharged us. This "rip off the gringos" attitude down here is wearing very thin on me !

After lunch we went to see the beach at Ligui, the first town south of Puerto Escondido. Lorraine came with us, but Erbon didn't. We drove a few miles south on Mex 1 to the little village of Ligui. Mexicans' definition of what constitutes a village is pretty loose. Three shacks, one of which will have a big Tecate sign indicating that they sell Tecate beer, is a village. HA HA HA ... I kid you not ! Tecate is a town near the U.S. border, east of Tijuana / San Diego. The only industry in town is the Tecate brewery. And their signs are everywhere ! We followed a dirt road ( well, of course ) from the village of Ligui to the beach on the Sea Of Cortez. I drove Lanoire right onto the beach, as I've done on a number of other beaches. "Anything goes" is the rule on Mexican beaches. We wandered along the beach for awhile, wading in the shallow warm water, taking photos. Bo found a dead fish in the water and brought it up on shore. Guess he thought it might come in handy later. HA HA HA ! The beach was back to being mostly deserted after the Easter long weekend. But ... and this is a sad element of Mexican culture ... there was garbage everywhere. The abundant litter everywhere is one of the distasteful components of visiting Mexico. Mexicans have not yet developed any concern for the environment. And they have such a naturally beautiful country.

Back at Tripui RV Park we met to plan our next few days of travel. I downloaded and processed today's photos. After barbecuing supper I walked over to the hotel to get online with Wi-Fi, pay a MasterCard bill and shuffle some money around.

 

Tuesday ; Puerto Escondido to Playa Santispac

It's 7:20 P.M.. It's just about dark outside. I'm typing this listening to the sound of small waves lapping on the shore a few feet behind the trailer. Joanne is washing dishes. As soon as she's done, I'm going to light a campfire, on the beach, at the water's edge. A few minutes ago, I bought homemade fresh tortillas and fresh ( still warm ) date loaf from a Mexican man in a beat up old pickup truck driving along the beach selling his wife's baking. Life is pretty good right now !

Today was sunny and very hot, temperature way up in the 90's. A great day to be at this beach on the Sea Of Cortez. This morning I made a few phone calls before we departed the Tripui Resort, then we headed north on Mex 1. On the outskirts of Loreto we stopped to refill a trailer propane tank and the little propane tank for the barbecue, then stopped again to refill water jugs at an agua purificado ( purified water ) business. We drove for a few hours, reaching Playa Santispac just south of the city of Mulegé. Our caravan was supposed to camp here on the beach for a couple of nights a couple of weeks ago, but the group unanimously decided to stay at a serviced campground because the nights we were supposed to stay on the beach were windy.

When we arrived at Playa Santispac we found that 2 rigs from our caravan were here. Gary & Patsy, and Bill & Eileen. They are all from Washington. Patsy and Eileen are sisters. We got parked on the beach near them, then chatted for awhile before heading off to the shallows on the south side of the beach to go "clamming". Lorraine, Joanne, Patsy, Gary and I collected clams for quite awhile, collecting far more than we could possibly eat in one night, we discovered later. Only Gary, Patsy, and I wanted to eat clams. While rooting around in the soft sand looking for clams, Joanne came up with a handful of ... YIKES ... a crab ! She shrieked and dropped it, and it went scuttling off indignantly. HA HA HA HA HA ! After clamming we walked over to the little muddy hot spring around behind the mangroves, and walked around briefly in the little, hot pool of muddy water. Bo was off leash all the time, having a great time romping in the water, rolling on the sand, and occasionally finding a dead fish to haul up on shore. It's a good thing I took Joanne's advice yesterday when she insisted that I delay giving him a bath, which I was going to do yesterday, until after this stay on the beach. While clamming we found a very unusual looking starfish. At first we didn't know what it was, having never seen a starfish with so many legs or tentacles or whatever they're called.

I kept about 50 clams for myself, and gave the rest of the pail full of clams to Patsy and Gary. We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in our folding chairs, beside the Sea Of Cortez, in the shade of the trailer, avoiding the intense heat of the sun. Teddy was very hot inside the trailer, so I thought it would be a good idea to cool him off by dunking him in the Sea Of Cortez. He disagreed ! I carried him in my arms out into the water, then gently lowered him down until his legs and abdomen were in the water. Of course he freaked, frantically flailing around in what could best be described as "cat tries to swim". HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA ! He pouted at me for the rest of the day.

I cooked my clams, and added them to the Fettuccine Alfredo I had asked Joanne to make. Pretty good ! This batch of clams was better than the batch I caught and cooked a few weeks ago. That batch I had let soak for about 24 hours before cooking. This batch I only soaked for a couple of hours. Maybe that made a difference ? I built a campfire on the beach after supper, with firewood that has travelled a lot of miles in the back of our truck, through Canada, the United States, and Mexico. HA HA HA ! We sat around the campfire with Erbon and Lorraine, chatting until late at night.

 

Wednesday ; I am typing this at 6:30 P.M., sitting outside in a folding chair, in the shade of the trailer, on Playa ( Beach ) Santispac, on Bahía ( Bay ) Concepción, on the Sea Of Cortez. Joanne is beside me, reading a book. Bo is sitting looking vigilantly out over the water, where a few feet from shore pelicans are nose diving into the water to catch fish. The water is calm. The air is cooling after a very hot day. The sun is setting behind the mountains. There are 2 sailboats moored out in the bay. I have just set up the barbecue, to prepare supper shortly, and I have built a campfire, ready to light, after supper.

One could stay here on the beach for quite awhile without having to move. Vendors have been coming by all day, hawking their wares. This morning an ice cream truck drove by. We each had a cup of pineapple ice cream topped with chocolate sauce. A few times today pickup trucks with huge tanks of water in the back drove by, selling bulk water to replenish trailer fresh water holding tanks. Vendors walked by selling clothing and jewellery. A truck drove by selling pizzas. Tonight we expect the man who sells his wife's baking to drive by again. Although a bit expensive, the date loaf we bought from him last night was superb ! I ate some as a bedtime snack last night. Joanne had some as dessert today after lunch.

We had a lazy, restful day. We read books. We chatted with Erbon and Lorraine. Two more rigs from our Baja Winters caravan arrived here today. Baja Winters will be leading most of the caravan group back to the United States, starting Saturday from Mulegé, just north of here. We decided even before the trip began to travel back independently. This morning I had an eclectic breakfast of home made goods purchased from as far away from one another as is possible in North America. Fresh tortillas, purchased last night here in Baja California Sur ( South ), spread thickly with the last of the ( not so fresh anymore ... HA HA HA ) Bakeapple jam we bought in northern Newfoundland 21 months ago. I went wading out into the water a couple of times today to cool off. Bo came out with me once. HA HA HA ... Teddy didn't ! I found another one of those unusual starfish with many legs / tentacles, the same as the one I found yesterday while clamming. I brought it ashore and photographed it. As I'm typing this, fairly large tropical fish are jumping out of the water just a few feet from shore.

It's now 7:00 P.M., and I've just decided to finally put on a t-shirt, only my second article of clothing worn today. I've spent the entire day wearing only a bathing suit. Nice work if you can get it. HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA ! After barbecuing steak for supper, we once again spent the evening sitting around a campfire chatting with Erbon and Lorraine until quite late.

 

DSK