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

 

Mulege

Playa Santispac

Mulege was ravaged by a hurricane (2006?) and it still looks like it needs rebuilding.

It has a river through the middle of town.

Still haven't repaired everything

There are no large grocery stores, just several very small ones. There is a lovely old mission west of town. We camped at Santispac south of town. At the end of the campground is a restaurant. They serve ribs on Saturdays and people come from several of the small communities to eat. You need to get there early before they run out. Each day vendors came to sell bread, produce, firewood and ask to wash your rig. If the wind wasn't blowing there were several islands you could kayak to. I saw three porpoise while kayaking one day. Around the corner there are houses sitting on cliffs made from rock. They have very long steps going down to the water. It was so windy one evening that the slide topper was bouncing around and banging. The neighbors said it looked like a sail. We knew the topper was loose and had tried to get it repaired under warranty without luck. Tom can't figure out how to tighten down the topper so he put a pair of vice-grips on the end to hold it down. Temporary fix until we get home.  The awning wouldn't roll back up, seems like the motor is broke.  Another thing to fix when we get home.  That means we can't roll it out to get shade.

On the way to Santispac we stopped for gas.  So did the carnival, fun colorful rides 

Mission Santa Rosalia

Mission Santa Rosalia

Mission Santa Rosalia

Vegetables delivered from the back of a pick-up

Motor Home washing and waxing on the beach

Carnival coming to town

Mistek's Mishap

We joined a group of people for a campfire while at Santa Rosalia and when we returned found Mistek had bumped the water faucet and drained all the water into our holding tanks. We had just filled the fresh water tanks, so there was a lot of water! The holding tank overflowed into the shower and over the rim to soak the throw carpets and flow out under the slider. The kitty box that was sitting in the shower absorbed much of the water, thank goodness. But, still had a mess and now had to clean up and dump the tanks. Tom was able to equalize the tanks until we could move the motor home in the morning. Of coarse, while trying to take care of all this Mistek got out and I was out with a flashlight looking for him, without success. Around 10:30 p.m. he finally showed back up and we were able to him back inside.

Santa Rosalia

 

The town of Santa Rosalia was established by the French to mine copper. The roads are very narrow and show the french architecture and has lots of colors on the buildings. The mine was closed when copper prices fell, but a consortium is in the process of reopening the mine. This is bringing in lots of business to the town. Also in town is the church, Iglesia Santa Barbara de Santa Rosalía. This church was designed by A.G. Eiffel, the same one that did the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It was prefabricated in France and shipped by boat around Cape Horn. It is all metal construction. 

We actually camped south of town at Playa San Lucas. This RV park was more like a small community, people had been coming here for years and set up their rigs on the beach. If you were coming to camp there was a slim chance of getting a place on the beach. Most of the regulars had small fishing boats and that was their pastime. We purchased 1 kilo of shrimp from a vendor coming around. That was a lot of shrimp to shell and devein. It made for several dinners. There was a small restaurant / bar that was trying to get established at the end of the campground. One of the regulars decided that they would do karaoke every Friday night. We were there with a few of the regulars for the opening night of karaoke. The bay was shallow and everyone told us to shuffle our feet if going into the water as there were sting ray in the sand. I saw several of these when kayaking. A local lady on the main road did laundry for 40 pesos, (approximately $3.00) a load. This was for washing, drying, folding and using their detergent. What a treat, and cheaper than doing it myself. Dropped off in the morning and pick up in the afternoon. A couple across from us lost their refrigeration and Tom was able to fix this for them. If he hadn't been able to figure out how to fix it they would have had to go to La Paz 250 miles away.

Guerrero Negro

 

This is the first town crossing into southern Baja. At the crossing we had to pay 20 pesos because we had fruit in the vehicle and supposedly the sprayed the underside of the motor home. The RV park was behind a restaurant. We drove out to the estuary. Tons of birds. Then drove to the old salt factory. It is amazing what people live in. Sometimes it is a few pieces of plywood for walls or an old abandoned trailer.

Someone's home, the white building

Bahia de los Angeles

Our site at Daggets

 Driving into town it looks like a huge town. There are lots of buildings, but the whole town is run down. The road from MX1 to town was great. Apparently there was a plan to take tourist boats on trailers from the pacific side to Bahia de los Angeles as a short cut, so they needed a good road. Needless to say that plan hasn't come to fruition. All of the campsites we checked didn't have water at the sites. Seems the water was trucked in to homes and establishments. Definitely an end of the road stop as everything has to come from Guerrero Negro from the South or Ensenada in the North. This was the first place I got to kayak.  Driving between El Rosario and Bahia de los Angeles there are no gas stations, a distance of about 195 miles!  So the locals become inventive and set up gas out of the back of their trucks.   This old bus is going anywhere today, it is someone's home.

Dagget's RV beach

Someone's home

Keep scrolling down, I can't figure out how to place the pictures

San Quintin

Look at all those hoop houses

The road in to Fidel's

We camped practically on the beach. It sounded like the waves would come at us. The first night here it was so windy the motor home shook and the rain came down in buckets. Thought we were back home with the rain. In the morning it was windy, but the sun was out. Went to the grocery store, what a zoo. I saw people going up some wooden stairs and wondered what they were doing. A couple of days later went to a different store across the street from the first. Again, people were going up stairs and leaving their carts. I finally braved it and went up the stairs. This is where there were clothes, kitchen supplies, Christmas decorations and odd sundries. One lesson learned. Again, Dan and Lisa appeared with the caravan. We stayed a week and the owner Fidel gave some wonderful produce. The town has mass amounts of hoop houses. I believe they are growing tomatoes. We had a campfire two nights with the caravan. What a treat, Fidel supplied the wood.