Los Barriles

We have been here for just over a week. There is sport fishing at certain times of the year.  The wind blows every day which is why the Kite Boarders and Windsurfers are here.

It amazes us that they all get on and off the water about the same time. They must have a sense as to how much wind they need.  They maneuver around boats and buoys that anchor the boats and love to jump and ride the waves. Starting on Jan 12 there will be the 2^nd annual competition called “Lord of the Wind.” We might try to come back for that, after Scott leaves. So unless you are into these sports there is nothing much to see or do. It is fun to watch the jumps that the Kite Boarders do.   So we are in a holding pattern until Scott comes in Jan.

Reef at Cabo  Pulmo

We did take a drive to the only reef in Baja at Cabo Pulmo and stopped at Trinity RV park in La Ribera. The RV park had all sorts of interesting art.

Livestock on the beaches, just taking a stroll.

One day the tide was so high it came up past the fence.

Todos Santos

We headed out of La Paz Dec 10 and stopped at the CalGas outside of town to get propane. They wouldn't fill the tank in the Motor Home, only the small tanks! From what Tom understood from the security guard, there was a place in La Paz. But, after our last adventure trying to find a tire store in Loreto he decided that would not be fun driving around with the motor home on small narrow streets looking for a propane store, which we probably wouldn't recognize as such. There was nowhere else to get propane until Cabo. So we drove to our next camping place in El Pescadero, just a few miles south of Todos Santos. Here we stopped at the Pemex to wait for Bobby, the owner, to lead us into our stop. We would never have found it on our own! The way was dirt, of coarse, bumpy and a turn here and a turn there. We are now sitting between homes, farm fields and about ¼ mile from the beach on a lot Bobby is turning into a camping area. Not complete.

We drove to Cabo on Monday to reserve our site at the Vagabundos campground in January, where we will meet up with Scott for a week. We also went to Costco! As we were totally out of propane and wouldn't be able to fill until we drove the motor home to Cabo. Tom bought 2 BBQ tanks and we filled them up on our way back to camp. There was so much road construction on Hwy 19 we have decided not to drive the Motor Home on all the construction. We will backtrack and head to Los Barriles on Sat with a stop in the mountains, to see what that is like.

Getting to the beach you will see the “Crap” sign. Think this is a cute way to put things. I walk the dogs every day and have met some of the locals. So now I get a few waves and how are you. The birds are teasing Mistek, they get on the roof, car and hop around on the ground. He was watching from the dash and decided he would get one those birds. Only he forgot there were windows, he ran full force, right into the passenger window. He sat there dazed for a few minutes, can you say Silvester. We have cruising around looking at some of homes and beaches, all the communities are so different.

Todos Santos

Yesterday we walked thru Todos Santos. Not a whole lot of people walking around. The stores were begging us to come in and look around. I kept saying no there is nothing I need. For an art community there were a lot of the typical stores: jewelry, clothing and pottery. Nothing you wouldn't find elsewhere.

We were visited by the police. We didn't get out of the motor home fast enough so they did their siren for a second. Tom walked out to talk with them. They were collecting “donations” for the Orphans Christmas. Of coarse we gave a donation! Not only is it a good thing it helps with relations with the police. While in Santispac we had also given money to a women that needed help with medical bills for her son. Not sure what he had, but he had a brace between his legs. Apparently when you give money you have to sign a paper, because we did it for the women and the police.

La Paz Cont'd

A couple we met at Santispac pulled in. They say in Baja you'll run into the same people several times if you are Rving. We took drives on the Hwy 1 coast and also a trip south to La Ventana where the wind blows most days. It's were you go to do Kite and Sail Boarding. You'll find some unusual rigs on the roads in Baja. Watch out for animals on the road.

Street Fairs and an Indiana Jones Hotel

Tom bought new tires for the motor home, yesterday. Tom was afraid that since one tire blew because it was rotten on the inside, the rest weren't far behind. To be installed on Monday. We went to the fair by the marina and to the fair downtown. I found a most unusual motel, it reminded me of the movie Indiana Jones, complete with a stuffed monkey. Also found a sculpture made from soda bottles.(Keep strolling down, still haven't figured out to place the pictures.)

 

 

La Paz

Pulling into camp we see Dan and Lisa with their caravan. We joined the group for a lovely dinner in town and then went to find a street market that was to be downtown. We found where the market will be, but it wasn't going to start until tomorrow. There was a wedding going on at the church. Everyone had lovely apparel on and the little girls had beautiful ruffled dresses, one in silver and another in a bright red, there was even a small boy in tails! Another day we were stopped at a light and someone jumped onto the first car in line and started to juggle, one way to earn money. 

Tom's computer crashed. Didn't think to bring our Norton 360, hopefully we can download it from the web without a charge. His Microsoft Streets and Trips is gone, which we use as our GPS. It took 2+ hours to download it from the web, and of coarse there was a charge. The next day we found our copy, figures

On the way to La Paz

We stopped overnight at Ciudad Constitucion. We were greeted my a boy who spoke perfect English and directed us where to park and took our money. We never saw the parents. It is not unusual for kids to do business at a young age.

A Baja Day - Dec 1, 2011

The first day traveling in Baja we heard a very large Pop.  It scared us, but we couldn't figure out what it was.  Well after 500 miles we had an aha day.  I was following Tom to our next beach camp area and kept looking at the back tire.  My thoughts were it seems like the left back inside tire was low or bulging.  (I am always telling Tom I think a tire is low, he keeps telling me NO.  Needless to say I didn't mention it until we got to the beach)  Tom finally decided to check the tires.  The tire was FLAT...FLAT and the compressor couldn't pump it up.  We had to go back 35 miles to Loreto.  We stopped at 4 tire places that said they didn't have the correct jack to jack the motor home up.  Finally in downtown Loreto we found a place.  The tire was not only FLAT the sidewall had blown out and had a big hole in it, thus the loud bang.  It took us an hour to find the tire store and another hour to have it replaced.  RV tires are rare in Baja.  We had to get two tires slightly smaller and mounted on the rims. 

Villa del Palmar

We moved to one of the beaches we found on our day trip yesterday. You had to drive thru a manned security gate. There was a huge hotel “Villa del Palmar” that was on the other side of this bay and had made a graded road. They are still adding to this complex. They owned much of the land so they could expand. We were boon docking and the only ones on the beach. I learned from one of the customers of the hotel that 25 turtles had hatched on the beach and were released. Another fix when we get home, the edge of the counter in the bathroom is all swollen and separating. Seems the on top of counter sink has been leaking underneath. Tom took the sink apart and seems it was not installed correctly. He can't seem to stop the leak and he doesn't think the counter will dry out and return to normal.

A day trip south of Loreto

Tides out

We took a day trip and drove south of Loreto to look at other beaches. Our camp in Loreto was a compound with palapas and homes. Some of the beaches were interesting to get into. One in particular you had to know where the entrance off the highway was and then you drove down the arroyo full of various sizes of rocks. There were several people on the beach with motor homes, 5^th wheels etc and they were staying for an extended period. The problem is there are NO services, water, dump, electric or garbage. While our solar panels would be OK to keep us going with power, you had to use a blue boy and go to town to dump and they used 55 gal drums to hold water, which they also filled in town. It's amazing how people camp. Of coarse we have camped in a few places that like that for a few days and then go down the road making sure our next stop has water and a dump station.

Loreto

Tree that we got stuck on

Tom was following his GPS (we had the jeep in tow) and it took us down a one-way street lined with trees in planters with a big tree on the other side. We got the tree stuck against the side of the motor home. I had to get out to direct Tom around. We had to back up to clear the tree and we missed the planters on the left my mere inches. A policeman came and stopped the traffic behind us, which wasn't really necessary as no one could get around us. Cars were turning around. We had the entire street blocked. The GPS strikes again, many times the GPS has taken us a route that we could of avoided, as there was a better route. Tom thinks Microsoft Street and Trips (our GPS system) must think everyone uses small cars instead of a big motor home with car in tow. There is a supermarcado, but we found a small macardo just off the center round that I would prefer, with a good meat market. This town had a wonderful center square with pavers. This is also the town were we drove around looking for a tire repair place. We were out of kitty litter because of Mistek's adventure. We searched many a grocery store (macardos) and they did not carry kitty litter. Our frustration was growing and I was just about ready to take sand off the beach! We finally learned there was a pet store in town. They had kitty litter, but the old fashion kind (non-clumping). We will have to make do, but perhaps La Paz

Mission-De-Nuestra

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

will have the kind we want. Another search!

Vendors in the town square

Bahia Concepcion Beaches

Coastline south of Santispac

 Took a day trip to see the other beaches on Bahia Conception.  They are all so different.  Here are just a few.  

Playa de Narranga

  

 Playa de Naranga had several cabins you could rent.

Playa de Coyote

Notice Playa de Coyote how close to the cliff and water the road in to the campground is.  This not an unusual sight.

Playa de Coyote

Playa-Ensenada-el-Burro-

This is a typical outhouse.  I'm sure glad I can use the facilities in the Motor Home.

Playa-La-Perla

El-Requeson