La Paz

Sandra and friend scouting the shoreline

Kids on trikes, where's the people?

Yesterday we spent the day in La Paz, a lazy walk the malecon (boardwalk) kind of day and enjoy the weather which has been close to 30C once you get away from the water. Like other places there are very few people on the streets and that made it easy for us to spot Michel and Danielle, two French tourists who we first met on the beach at El Requeson. They were waiting to catch the ferry back to the mainland, and then a train up the Copper Canyon, a popular mainland tourist destination. They refused to go to Cabo San Lucas because of it’s artificial nature, an area leveraging Mexican weather but American influence and architecture. Interesting  protest.

Fresh Fish and Pelicans

The Malecon has many statues on it and is a wonderful place for people to walk. Later we’d go out for lunch at a local restaurant, then back to the RV camp where I was put to work helping them lay out some new RV pull thru spots for an upcoming caravan. Maranatha is definitely a story in itself.

Loreto South to La Paz

The Sierra Gigantica's fall into the Sea

A contradiction in  RV Sizes
Canadian vs Swiss

Our stay in Loreto was nice. The retired Swiss couple beside us in the 5^th wheel plated from Alberta were our closest neighbors but in the evening we swapped travel stories as well with a couple from Alaska and another from Australia both travelling together by Land Rovers. 

The Swiss couple had an interesting take on things worth considering. They live 10 months of the year in the 5^th wheel pictured above, travelling and another 1-2 months back in Switzerland. 

They say when they go back and talk with their friends there, the friends only can say that nothing has changed and that they are watching TV until they die. For them they were so enthused about just being in San Carlos west of Ciudad Constitucion and watching the grey whales give birth. Quite the contrast eh?

As we drove south the scenery changed again, this time with some outer islands and the Sierra Gigantica mountains that split the coast line in two and fall into the sea. 

Aided by the travel book lent to us by Greg and Debbi we are learning a lot. It is quite beautiful. 

In Ciudad Constitucion we stop at a Super Ley, a grocery market store after having bought wonderful oranges from a roadside stall. We were going to just make lunch in the parking lot when we decided to go inside first and there was a taco stand. Not understanding the language we ordered 2 X 3 taco lunches with Cokes  instead of 1 lunch where we were going to split a Coke. Needless to say it became supper instead and all for $5.60 Canadian total. Then as we walked through the store to see what they carried, we found a fellow in the back was making fresh tortillas. He flipped 2 off the rack for us to taste. WOW were they excellent! So needless to say we bought ½ Kilo of tortillas plus their own tortilla chips for salsa. Life is good! 

Next onto La Paz, a large shipping point on the Baja where 2 ferries from the mainland come in. Our accommodation tonight is the Maranthanta RV park, an extension of a Canadian Mennonite religious camp. Great accommodations!

Heading South - Stantispac to Loreto

Heading South - Stantispac to Loreto

El Requeson Beach Camp

After a nice stay in Santispac @ 80 peso/nt. $5.00 Cdn. Beach camping experience we headed south to next visit Loreto. On the way we wanted to visit the other beaches to see how they compared. 

There is Posada, Coyote and El Requeson, the beach everyone says is in every ad for owning an RV. Well they don’t show the road in, which right now is truly 4WD only, since the September hurricane but we managed it.  In 4WD Low range 1^st gear. This (above) is what we saw when we got out on the beach. What a beautiful place and we’ll likely come back and actually camp here as we head back north.

Pedro, Pierre, Janet, Debbi,
Greg, Sandra (Missing are Jean and Brian (2)

We left Santispac to the group of people we met in such a short period of time. The benefits of traveling!

May the Force be with you!

Greg, doubles as Mr Spock as Debbi bought him a set of Spock ears in Viking, Alberta awhile back when they drove through.

Greg and Debbi both are super nice people should you run into them and be as fortunate as we have been. Pierre, equally generous, owns a beautiful house on the beach and we BBQ'd there and shared his internet. Just watch out, he has volumes of stories to tell.

Loreto Beginnings

Loreto Promenade

Next on to Loreto the birthplace of California back in 1697. I’ll let you read the picture explanation for the detail.(Click on it to enlarge) The mission church is in good shape and used regularly still as the only church in this small community. 

From our pictures you’ll see one thing missing; people. It is so sad to see that tourism has taken such a hit. This place would get better and there’s lots of room for improvement if the Mexican government can restore confidence, but the corruption, drug problems etc. are really affecting the economy of this small country.

Baja Bound First few Days Potrero South

Shortly after Skyping with Shannon and family back in Calgary we headed to Potrero CA, a popular meeting point and county park for travelers heading into the Baja. We hadn’t been successful in finding someone who was close to our schedule, CJ and Kathy were a week earlier with their plans and had decided to join a caravan for safety, so we were prepared to go in alone. To our good fortune Greg Mustard came over while walking his dog. He and Debbi are from Penticton, BC and were heading in, and have been there many times over 25 yrs. He asked if we wanted to join them and we arranged a time to head out and a radio channel to converse with using the GPRS radios we both carried. 

1st evening

Debbi and Greg

7:15 am the next morning we headed out and crossed at Tecate MX. With visitor cards arranged we filled with gas @ 10.61 pesos /litre and we were on our way.

In Ensenada we stopped to withdraw some cash and pay the visitor card fee at the bank. Later that same day we stopped at El Pabellon RV park, a Pacific coast campsite where we basically boon-docked since there aren’t any real services to be had.

 We unfortunately saw a major drug smuggling importation go down and the military charge down the beach to try and stop the exchange. We don’t think they were successful.

The next morning we headed south again, this time Debbi and Greg wanted to stop at Catavina a favorite high desert hiking area for them. The winds were high in there, the temperatures quite cold and the winds really affected their comfort in driving their Class A Trek motorhome so we passed on staying with them and headed to Baja De Los Angeles a bay some 80 kms away and arranged to meet the next morning at the intersection by 9:00am. We made a wise choice and enjoyed a nice much warmer evening in the Bay overlooking the 

Isla Ángel de la Guarda island just off shore.

San Ignacio Mission

The next morning we connected back up at the junction and began heading south this time a short day to San Ignacio, a northern Mission of the Jesuits back in 1728. Unfortunately the violence, drug problems, and US economy have all affected the tourism in this area and we were basically the only people there, plus Fred and Teresa, another BC couple who joined our caravan.

The RV Park recommended was El Padrino but it was basically a disaster and we stayed at a pretty spot on the oasis lagoon. The owner pumped water from the lagoon into a big barrel and turned on a hot water heater so we could have showers but we passed as the water was green.

Military checkpoint

Gustav Eiffel's church in Santa Rosalia

Playa Stantispac

The next morning we headed off south again with our sights set on Playa Santispac once a very popular spot for snowbirds on the Sea of Cortés.  After filling with propane Sandra and I spent some time in Santa Rosalia visiting the church that Gustav Eiffel donated to the town after the 1896 World’s fair in Paris. The French had quite a bit of involvement there at one time.

Later, after some fantastic fish tacos at a stand there we met back up with Greg and Debbi and arrived at Stantispac in time for the Saturday evening party at Lupa’s on the beach. What great fun! We’ll be heading out on Tuesday to Loreto and continuing south.