The slow road North

After some confusion about what day we were supposed the leave the house we'd rented (we actually packed up a day early!) we started a deliberately leisurely journey home. We started the day heading South (yes, we know that's not the way to Seattle!), rounded the tip of the Baja Peninsula, and ended up in El Pescadero on the Pacific Coast. We searched for two campsites that sounded great in our book, only to find they were both closed. It was looking like our only option for the night was an RV park by the road! But, as is often the case in Mexico, things quickly changed for the better. A lovely woman named Tiffany offered us a space in the lot she and her husband had just cleared so their friends would still have somewhere to stay in the area. For the huge sum of $10 we had a restroom, running water and an absolutely splendid view of the sunset and the whales spouting in the distance. We enjoyed evening and morning walks on the beach (Cayenne was a big fan of chasing the vultures, ICK!), whale watching (they were particularly playful in the morning) and had a great time visiting with our temporary neighbors! Thanks for picking up strays Tiffany!

We spent the final day of January driving North to La Paz. Our "itinerary?" for the day included a stop in the Artsy town of Todos Santos. It was a bit touristy for the mindset we were in, but we did take pictures of the Hotel California and found an absolutely scrumptious cappuccino frappe...leave it to the Seattleites to find the latte stand in Baja! We used the well equipped RV Park in La Paz for a restocking stop again (read: More Beer!) We had fun visiting with the "permanents" and the caravan leaders and hearing all the recent gossip about the crime at the border. We left the next morning with a gift of the world's largest papaya and two hot lattes! (okay, that's really why we stopped here again!)

Fueled by caffeine and the desire to get back to the beach, we set course for Ligui, a small community where the locals welcome gringo campers as a means of bringing in $$. There is no organized campground just a beautiful beach with plenty of spots to set up camp between the small dunes and scrub brush. We grabbed the last choice spot on the South end of the beach and set up our casita.

Saturday morning we hiked over a small ridge to the south and discovered an unihabited beach that is a beachcomber's paradise, shells as far as you can see. Dana was in heaven. In the evening we were invited for drinks around the campfire by Bob and Liz, an outgoing couple from Colorado that we met when we first arrived on the beach. The fire burned late into the evening, the margaritas and cerveza flowed, as did the tales of adventure and misadventure.

On Sunday we were greeted by Liz early in the day, with a gift of a beautiful fresh Yellow Tail. After some less than perfect fileting techniques and some up close and personal visits from the pelicans, we ended up with an exquisite fresh fish and cerveza lunch (thank you Bob and Liz.) We spent the afternoon happy hour visiting with Keith and Betty and Pearl and Ron our neighbors to the south. Keith and Betty are a retired couple from BC, who when they were about our age, built their own sail boat, sailed down to Costa Rica, then on to New Zealand and back. We loved hearing all of their stories and reading the articles that Betty wrote for Cruising Magazine. Pearl is an artist, so the artwork came out and the ladies had a great time exchanging crafting ideas and trading their wares! Dana's earrings are now traveling around the country in Pearl's and Betty's ears!

Monday we replenished our water supply and explored Ensenada Blanca, a beautiful beach about 3 miles south of Ligui. If this area hasn't been turned into a resort by the time we return, that'll be another great place to stay!

We forced ourselves to leave the beach on Tuesday and head upward and inward to Ray's Place in Mulege. We opted for an inland location at this latitude due to the tent lifting wind gusts by the sea...btw: 2:30am is a screwed up time to take a tent down!!!

Ray's Place was a large, lush, green, grassy yard (remember, we're in the desert!) surrounded by fruit laden orange trees and a beautiful view of the sunset and mountains. We made fresh squeezed OJ each morning and picked bags of oranges and tangerines to take with us.

Our neighbors for the first night, Dan and Kristi Brookshire, started their Baja journey from Winthrop Washington. They joined forces with another couple, Jack "Peligroso" and Delilah Eakman, and deserted their RV Caravan to venture off on their own. Here's the small world part: three weeks earlier Dan had helped us set up our tent in the "Tornedo" at Bahia de Concepcion. Baja's just like that. Now we hope to visit them at their place, The Silverline Resort, for the Winthrop R & B Festival in July!

We might've skipped the restaurant at Ray's, but for the strong recommendations we'd received. It turns out it was likely the very best meal we've ever eaten in Mexico, and many other places for that matter! Our decision to stay here one more night was based largely on wanting to try another item on their menu. Scallop stuffed prawns, calamari steak, oysters rockafellar, surrounded by sauteed vegetables from the farm you could see from the restaurant window...you get the idea. Oh, and did we mention the margaritas? Muy Peligroso! The price isn't even worth mentioning!

We left Ray's on Thursday, after a night of having the whole place to ourselves, with happy bellies and our bags of sweet oranges.

From there we were off to Guerrerro Negro. The only camping here is an RV park behind a restaurant, not very sexy but it is clean and well run. The best thing about this stop was we met Jim & Mary Borrowman who we would run into over and over on our trip north. They hail from Telegraph Cove on the North tip of Vancouver Island where they own and operate Stubbs Island Whale Watching...hmmmm...sounds like another trip in the making...

The next stop was Bahia de Los Angeles which is 40 miles off the main highway and would be our last chance to camp on the Sea of Cortez. The road in runs through desert scrub and cactus which was all green and blooming from the recent rains. We were even greeted by two wild horses running along the side, and at one point across, the road. As we crested the last rise and got our first glimpse of the beautiful deep blue water of the bay we were somewhat disappointed to see the water's surface scarred by whitecaps. Arriving at Daggetts Camp we cleverly arranged our "home du jour" so we could use a 30 foot rolling resort for our wind block and still have an unobstructed view of the beach. Gotta love the Pod!

We spent three days here walking the beach, eating fresh fish caught by one the other campers, watching the dolphins frolic, playing Sequence (a fun and addictive board game) and socializing with our neighbors. Just to our South were Dallas T. Smith, retired person at large, and his wife. Dallas and his wife at the age of 70 are planning next year to drive down through Central America and into South America in a Jeep Rubicon. Dallas, we hope we're still that young at your age.

We also explored as far North and South along the bay as the roads and 4-wheel drive trails would take us. On the exploration of the North end of the bay, Playa La Gringa, we spotted Jim and Mary's gray motor home parked on the beach. We spent the afternnon visiting with them and drinking coffee. Jim has an espresso machine and knows how to use it. He is also an expert on birds and was able to tell us the names of all of the different birds we had been seing on our trip. Mary and Dana discovered they both are addicted to collecting shells and Mary had some great books that showed many of the different types we'd collected. We also learned about the coyotes that inhabit Playa La Gringa. Apparently in the dead of night they will drag off anything that is left outside, including an outdoor carpet, a bin of dirty dishwater and one of Jim's sandals. As the afternoon turned to evening we said our goodbyes not knowing if we would run into them again.

Completely relaxed, and starting to get excited to see everyone back home, we continued north to San Quintin and our last night in Mexico this trip! And, as the foreshadowing would lead you to believe, we did run into Jim and Mary Borrowman again. We shared a lovely campsite on the Pacific Ocean and combined our dinner ingredients for some excellent, makeshift tacos. Cayenne seemed to sense this was our last night on the beach as well and she ran, crashed and tumbled over the sand dunes until she remembered how incredibly lazy she really prefers to be!

We headed out early so we could be sure to cross the border into the U.S. before nightfall. We'd decided to add slightly more time to our drive and avoid the "beautiful" city of Tijuana entirely, once again crossing in Tecate. What a great decision! We took the Northern Baja Wine Route and fortunately we had time to explore two of the wineries. The first was L.A. Cetto, a large winery that we'd become very familiar with already and thoroughly enjoyed. The second was La Casa De Dona Lupe, a smaller, organic winery with the added bonus of homemade cheeses, breads, jams, olives...and on and on. We sampled almost everything and bought almost everything and had a great time visiting with Shirley, who with her mother, is responsible for this wonderful place. Previously unbeknownst to us there are over 20 wineries in this area! Now added to our "to do" list; a wine tasting tour in Northern Baja. Wanna come?

The border was a quick 20 minutes, but they did send us in for an agricultural inspection. Perhaps it was because a large amount of the Baja was still stuck to the Jeep and the Pod! Fortunately our Mexican grapefruit and excessive wine inventory remained undetected and we are now officially smugglers. Shhhhh!

Back in the U.S., with our contraband grapefruit, we washed our clothes, tried unsuccessfully to wash the dog (long story,) and decided, on principle, not to wash the Jeep. We also wished Jim and Mary safe travels...again! We're looking forward to our visit to Telegraph Cove in late August and seeing the romantic(?) Minke whale skeleton.

We continued north from Chula Vista and spent a much quieter night at the Visalia KOA this year (the train tracks were closed for repairs.) And the next morning we were off to "Sportsmobile" in Fresno.

The Problem: find a vehicle as maneuverable as the Jeep with the Pod, but large enough to accomodate some additional creature comforts. The Solution: take an extended body Ford van, fit it with 4-wheel drive and trick out the inside with custom accessories. Okay, we admit it, it's officially an RV. But it's a really cool one! (we're never going to live this down!) And if you ever happen to see a margarita colored Sportsmobile driving around, look closely, Jimmy Buffet may be inside! We missed meeting him by a day!!!

We topped off an already great day with good old American bar food and microbrews with Scotty and Karen in their neighborhood just East of San Fran. Thanks for letting us crash in the palace you guys and we loved snuggling with Wiggles! Our timing turned out perfectly and we were able to hang out with our other friends, Scott and Elizabeth Dygert, for the rest of the weekend, drinking wine, eating amazing dinner and hiking to brunch with all the dogs. Thanks for the fun! We hope to see you in a few months when we swing back down there!

Our "non" adventure ended with a quiet dinner in our favorite restaurant in Medford, Oregon and a chilly, but comfy night in a little log cabin by the creek. It was here that we added this year's rule to our Mexican driving guidelines. Rule #5: Don't drink with the Canadians (retired or otherwise), it's a losing battle and one of the most dangerous aspects of camping in Mexico!