Day 7 and 8 Run Report
Run Report. Baja to Conception Bay. Day 7
Pretty much a travel day on pavement. On the way back through Santa Rosalia, we investigated a giant old closed factory on the main road. Turns out it was a copper foundry and the area was a huge copper mining area.
The road out was paved but narrow, steep and dangerous. We had a very close call with an oversized truck coming the other way.
We drove about 80 miles out to the Pacific Ocean to Punta Ascuncion. Camp Sirena was the only advertised RV park in the small town, and offered hot showers and wifi, but it could not compare to the wide open beaches we were free to drive on. So we explored the town and beach access, and discovered the Hotel La Bufadora at the very point aptly named after a blow hole that shot up ocean water at high tide. The Hotel has been taken over by the same lady that owns Camp Sirena. She was off giving whale tours at Scammons, but left the hotel in the hands of her friends who showed us the rooms. Had my wife been with me, I am sure to have taken the honeymoon suite for $70 US. The view and room was absolutely spectacular.
But alas, I just had Roger, so we drove to the next point north, not knowing who owned it, and set up camp. About 3 cars drove by that evening, and we thought each one was going to stop and charge us for the amazing camp privileges, but they were just late night fishermen or townspeople enjoying the drive, and did not bother us.
Photos to follow.
All the Pemex's have pretty nice bathrooms so we really didn't need a campsite with a toilet.
Tomorrow we are visiting Scammon's Lagoon.
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Run Report. Baja to Conception Bay. Day 8
We made it to Ojo de Libre, and camped Night 8 at Estero Norte on Scammon's Lagoon. As the dusk turned into darkness, I heard the whales' breathing as they went 100 yards from our camp to their sleeping grounds. You can rent the palapa camp sites for an extra $10, but you are over 100 yards from the shoreline. If you drive to the end of the road west, and turn north at a tent rental business on the point, you can drive up the Estero and camp within a few feet from the water. On the other hand, the Estero is shallow, so we thought we would not see whales from the shore. Based on the regular breaths I heard, I had the notion that they may have been using the shallow water to keep their baby's blow hole above the surface while they were weaning them, but who knows--I'm certainly no expert.
We broke camp early on Day 8 in order to take the Panga out in the Lagoon to watch/pet the whales. $45 per person. We couldn't keep an exact count but I would estimate we saw about 100 to 200 whales including the babies.
It's best to go early in the morning because the wind is calmest and it looked as though the whales were heading out to the open sea for the day. They were full of energy, beaching and spy-ing.
It seemed to me that the babies were most interested in making contact with the humans and the mothers looked on with tolerance as if to think it was good diversity training for the little ones.
It was 1 1/2 hour tour so we headed out to Guerro Negro by 11 AM.
We got gas, firewood and lunch. We examined the town. The salt industry has made the town prosper. They pump salt water into artificial bays and let the sun evaporate it into 3-5 foot cakes of salt.
Then we headed north on Mex 1 and soon hit a military checkpoint. Very nice people. I gave them half my supply of Oreo Cookies. They have a sign in English asking us to call a San Diego number if we had complaints or suggestions.
We turned toward the coast about 30 miles north at a Ejido call El Rosario and drove to the ocean to a fishing village called Santa Rosalito. *Very rural with kids and families playing in the dirt streets.
From there we took a dirt but graded road to a fish camp on the Pacific Ocean called El Marron which had five or six homes but no people. We camped in the middle of a completely isolated beach, and had a steak we bought in Guerro Negro, mushrooms and rice, and corn.
A strong off shore wind came up suddenly as I was making dinner after dark blowing my chair into my campfire and destroying it.
Hope to see Catavina tomorrow to file this report.
Photos to follow.