The CrowsWing Teardrop Finally Lands in Baja!

[jim65wagon]

FINDING SAND DUNES and GUERRERO NEGRO

Tuesday December 19th 2023
We said goodbye to our new friends, Bubba and Oatmeal. We promised that we'd look up their Instagram and their Youtube channel as soon as we got cell service (turns out they are really funny and fun to watch). We headed back out to MX12 on the other side of Los Angeles. We got behind a caravan of three vehicles. A Class C RV and two full-sized vans. The vans were loaded! I'm not kidding you, these vans made the Clampett's look like slackers in the packing world. From the hitch rack piled to the roof, to the roof pile hanging over the edges and headed well up to the heavens. Every turn they made I held my breath just knowing they would tip over. They would at least slow down for the curves but the vans would lean waaayyyy over in the process. After several kilometers I found a nice straight stretch of road a gunned the engine. Our Tacoma doesn't pass much when he's towing (um, it's a Tacoma, he doesn't pass much when he's not towing either) but I was definitely convinced we needed to pass these guys. We made it around the caravan (finally! After what felt like days! 0 to 60 in....yawn....)

From there it was an easy trip to MX1 and south to Guerrero Negro. We did have a short stop at the Military Checkpoint along the way. I rolled down all the windows (so they can see inside the truck, they seem to appreciate that) There's usually two men, one with the gun and one to ask the questions. Sometimes they'll ask in broken English, sometimes in Spanish.
This time it was a mix “De donde vienes?
To which I replied (after my brain slowly translated it to “Where are you coming from?”)
“Bahia de Los Angeles”
Him: “Where you going?”
Me: “Guerrero Negro”
Him: “Vacationes? Vacation?”
“Yes, um, I mean Si!”
He waved us through and we went on our way. Finally we made it down to our turn, just north of town. We had read there was camping in the dunes just beyond the airport. I started to turn on the airport road but momentarily and quickly decided that since it was an airport they probably didn't just let anyone drive their road. I found a wide spot and pulled over. We each had just a bit of cell service so we googled for more information. Sure enough, the road at the airport led right past it and onto a warren of dirt roads. I turned our truck and trailer around and headed back to the airport road. There were a couple of really severe topes to crawl over right at the airport and after that we were dune free. We hit the dirt and headed out the first road to the water. It led to a wide trashed up circle. We stopped and got out. We could see an RV at the next circle, and there was nothing to separate us from anyone's view. Wide open spaces, no tall vegetation. We wanted a place with just a little more privacy so we started driving the roads, carefully avoiding the flooded sections. Eventually we found a spot we liked right next to the dunes. We parked and unhitched the trailer. A big MAN truck nearby was packing up, they were the next dune over, and we could still see the other RV but at least we had more distance and high spots of sand between us for a visual break.




We locked up the trailer and headed into Guerrero Negro passing through a fruit inspection station along the way. They asked if we had any fruit (no) and if we were on vacation (si). Then the guy waves a tickety looking piece of paper and says
“20 pesos for pass”
Now we don't know if it was legit but we handed him 20 pesos (I mean come on, that's like a dollar and 15 cents), he gave us the pass and Beth tucked it in her sun visor. We laughed about it being the Gringo Tax because the three cars in front of us certainly didn't buy the pass. LOL. We drove on into town and found our first chore: Laundry

The lady at the laundromat was nice and provided us with detergent (which we forgot to buy at the grocery store) and helped us start our machines. We sat out in the truck while we waited, watching people go in and out of the Lavenderia. Some took in bags of dirty clothes and some brought out clear sealed bags of neatly folded laundry. Times up! We walked back in and one of our three machines hadn't washed our clothes. Beth took the two loads over to the dryers and after a google translate conversation with the lady, she got them started drying. In the meantime I was talking to the other attendant using my combination of charades and google. I explained (poorly) that the wash cycle didn't wash and the machine was faulty. She started the machine back up and sure enough no water came out. She stopped it and I moved our clothes to the next machine over (I knew that one worked already) and we started it again.

Half an hour later we had laundry to fold and laundry to dry. Half an hour after that and our last load of laundry was dry. We got it folded and paid the attendants for the services. It was not significantly less expensive than the fluff and fold pricing. Right then and there we vowed to each other that we would just do what the locals do in Mexico and use the fluff and fold service for our laundry. The attendants were extremely nice through the whole episode, helping us out each step of the way, and being extremely patient while we tried to talk with them.

Next was finding another Agua Purificada. We located one along the main street and filled up our drinking water jugs and our 15 gallon water carrier we use to haul water to the trailer when it's parked remotely. 30 pesos later and we had water. A quick stop in the grocery store yielded us a bottle of wine for dinner and the makings for a pizza, including some fresh shredded mozzarella cheese!

Back at camp Beth started cooking the pizza while I transferred water from the carrier to the trailer. Two water hoses, one from the trsiler to the transfer pump and one from the pump to the carrier. I plugged it into the trucks 110 volt outlet and boom! Trailer has water! Easy peasy lemon squeezy. In the meantime some dude on a motorcycle pulls up. I stop what I'm doing and he says the usual greetings:
“Hola, Como Estas?”
I come back with a quick “Bien, bien, y tu?”
He smiles and rattles off a mile long sentence in Spanish. I laugh and wave my hands then pushing my thumb and forefinger close together I said:
“Pocito! Pocito Espanol”
He laughed and in English said my Spanish was good (not as good as his English). As it turned out he was selling cervesas from the case on the back of his bike to the campers at the beach. I told him that we had a bottle of vino already. He shook my hand and drove off. Later on he came back to let me know he sold all of his beer. Lol. Our crusty bread pizza was pretty good sitting out there in the waning light. Pretty good, except the mozzarella was weird. It had no flavor of mozzarella, had no salty taste to it and it was just a flat sad texture. Sad cheese, but still a good day.

 

[jim65wagon]

Wednesday December 20th 2023
The morning we woke to was a moist feeling, grey looking and salty tasting morning. We made our coffee but snuggled back into bed with it. Some days it's just nice to sit and slowly warm up to the day with coffee in bed.

We drove back into Guerrero Negro, passing through the fruit inspection station, where we stopped but no one was outside manning the gate, so we drove on through. We stopped in town at the propane station, and the gentleman at this station just grabs that uncertified fiberglass tank and fills it up, no questions and no odd looks (in the States, even when it was still certified attendants would look at it and say something like “I ain't never seen no tank like dat one before!”). I'm liking Mexico!

We stopped by two different grocery stores, trying to gather up two weeks worth of fruits, veggies, meats, cheeses and wine. We managed, but it was a struggle. In the end we came away with our food, 6 bottles of wine, a Bailey's and a Kahlua for only 118 dollars US! Our last stop was the Agua Purificada for another 15 gallons of fresh water for the teardrop, then it was back to the trailer for a little lunchy and a nappy nap.

Waking up refreshed we hiked over the dunes and out to the ocean. This sand was the finest and softest sand I think I've ever seen. It retained footprints to the point that you could take a step, sink to your ankle and pull your foot out of a perfectly foot shaped hole. We watched the water a bit then hiked back over the dunes. Beth made some fresh guacamole to go with our taco salad for dinner, and we feasted on cookies with tequila for dessert. We had enough cell service that we listened to the Weekly Weird News podcast. The weird news was that a dolphin had been found that had thumbs on it's flippers....

 

[jim65wagon]

LAGUNA OJO DE LIEBRE - WILL THERE BE A CHRISTMAS WHALE?

Thursday December 21st 2023
It was another foggy, grey, wet, salty tasting morning. We packed up our campsite and hitched up the trailer. We had to run back into the Ley Market in Guerrero Negro, we had forgotten to buy cream cheese, toothpaste, and we were rapidly running out of cookies....Emergency! Emergency!

After that stop we began our drive down to the Laguna Ojo de Liebre. We turned off MX1 onto the road heading south through the salt mines. At this point we didn't even know for sure if the campground had been open to camping for the season yet. Our internet search had not turned up a definite date, and no one answered the phone number that was listed in the googles. We met a camper van driving out so I waved the guy down and asked if the place was open. He said it was, in what I think was a German accent.
“I saw lots of birds but no wall”
We thanked him and kept driving toward the lagoon trying to decide if Wall meant Whale. I was pretty sure it did but I'm no language-ologist. Heck I barely speak English rightly.

The entrance to the salt mine road is gated and a security guard greeted us with a pen and clipboard. He took down our license plate and asked me to write my name. Which I happily did, even trying to write it legibly for a change. I started to fill out the “Destination” slot and he frantically started waving his hands with a “No, No” I apologized and handed him back his pen and clipboard with my name in print and the words “Ojo de L” I guess he wanted to feel like he was doing his job well and correctly. Since our jobs when we are not traveling is doing gate guard work, I can totally understand his position.

From there we followed the whale signs, literally. Signs shaped like whales with arrows pointing down the only road available. At times there were intersections but these were always marked with big red stop signs and the wording “Personal Autorizado” that let you know it was for authorized personnel only.

The road was wide and extremely well graded, smoother even the the paved highways we've been on since crossing the border. The little moraine of sand pushed out by the passing grader blade was only a couple of feet from the other side of the road. We topped a little rise and there he was. The road grader was huge! His blade was nearly as wide as the road. I stopped for a second, he stopped for a second. Then I saw a little off shoot road heading toward a hill on my side of the road. I quickly pulled in until the trailer was over the berm and off the main road. The grader driver suddenly got a big smile on his face and waved happily at us as he passed by. I backed back onto the road and we quickly finished our 25 kilometer journey to the campground. One more gate to go, the guard there asked if we were camping and upon hearing us say Si, he said 200 pesos, camp anywhere. We handed over the cash and followed the road to the palapas. We really wanted to stay at a nice palapa, but most of these had been ravaged by the recent storms. We picked Number 12 as it was the least damaged of the lot and had a good water view.

We parked the trailer and then drove the rest of the road to the non-palapa camps. There were really a lot of great spots here, and you really can't go wrong no matter which spot you choose. It's a nice little campground and in season it has outhouses near the palapas, real restrooms and showers near the restaurant,(did I mention that it has a restaurant?). None of these were setup or open as yet. Their official season wouldn't start until the beginning of the year.

Once we decided Palapa 12 was going to be home through Christmas Day, we took to repairing it. I pulled some nails from the framework and reset the one section of woven wall that had fallen down. Meanwhile Beth gathered up Palm Fronds from the ground and reattached them to the roof. These little tasks made our shelter water tight and wind resistant once again.

Finished with chores we took a walk out to the pier where they launch their boat tours to see the whales. The tours weren't running yet, but there was a large crew of people working on the restaurant and the pangas in preparation. Why were we here you ask? Well it was on our way south and sometimes the whales show up early. We decided this would be a fine place to set up and spend
Christmas and maybe be greeted to the sight of the mysterical Christmas Whale.

Walking out on the pier we were greeted by a pair of Osprey in their nest over the Gazebo, and we watched as a large crab walked through a school of fish in the water. The fish maintaining a perfect circle of open water around the crab as he crab walked through them. We heard a loud squawking racket below us. It was a Brown Cormorant trapped in the fishnet that hung off the side of the pier. I grabbed the net and pulled the entangled danosaur up to the rail. Beth took my pocketknife and cut him free of the net. He didn't struggle, he just craned his head around and watched what we were doing. After just a few seconds the net fell away from his legs and wings. I let go of his feet and with a loud Thank You (well, it was a loud squawk, but it was obviously a different squawk than the squawk he squawked earlier) he dove down into the water and swam away. Free once again!

The Pelicans watched


They were amused

We always carry a Kelty Tarp in the truck. With rain in the distance, the palapa seemed a good place to get it out. We used the tarp to form a wall along the open face of the palapa with some bungees on the header of the frame it made a great roll up wall. While we worked an Overland Van, a Subaru and another small car showed up and each picked different nearby palapas. The sites are well separate from each other so there was no intrusion on us. We set up our rugs inside the palapa along with our big table, the stove from the teardrop, our chairs and end tables (ie small stools) and lastly our Campfire In A Can. We drank some wine, read, ate some chips and guacamole. It rained, we stayed warm and dry in our nicely furnished palapa. With a campfire blazing we listened to music and enjoyed a nice December evening.

 

[jim65wagon]

Friday December 22nd 2023
It was a little windy and rainy. A good day to spend in the palapa relaxing with reading and music. After the rain ended we took a walk up the road to the other campsites. Subaru lady and her doggo were out for a run, passing us by. Soon after that she and the rest of our neighbors that moved in yesterday moved out. More neighbors moved in to take their place. A couple in a minivan took residence in Palapa 13, which seemed an odd choice to us, as it's walls were nearly gone, lying all around on the ground. Then a big off-roady looking van pulled in with a Fred Travels the World (or something like that) logo on the side. They took one of the non palapa sites farther up the road. Another off roady Sprinter van took Palapa 11. Now, I realize we all have quite a bit of distance between all the palapas, but it strikes me odd that 2 days in a row, different people in different vehicles picked the palapas closest to ours. Some of the better built palapas are nearer to the restaurant and pier.




We continued our theme of bird watching by day and music in the evening with the CFIAC blazing us to warmth. Freshly made chicken fajitas paired well with a bottle of Shiraz.



Saturday December 23rd 2023
There was a visitor in camp during the night. A coyote walked right into camp. I know you're surprised, right? A group of them spent a few hours howling, barking, and yapping nearby for a few hours. This one though, he plopped a nice fresh one right beside our fire ring. I scooped it up with the shovel and moved it out into the brush away from camp where it belongs. You can have your territory back when we leave, sir. That began a discussion of why I should, or should not go around and mark the camp as my territory ala the movie “Never Cry Wolf”

There was a decent rainbow to the north of us. By standing in the right spot I could get both ends to land on the truck and the teardrop at the same time. Our own little pots of gold as it were.



We took another walk out onto the pier. There was a huge school of some little skinny silvery fish swimming all around the pier and gazebo. After saying good morning to the osprey and pelicans we began moseying back. The workers were still fixing the roof and interior of the restaurant and a few others were giving the pangas a fresh coat of paint.

Beth took the time to work on a YouTube video, while I took the time to write a little bit. I also managed to set out the extra solar panels, the rainy days and cloud cover isn't letting us gain the juice we use through out the day. With all the hard work done we took another walk up through the desert, past where the outhouse was laying on its side. Movement along the desert floor caught our eyes and we watched as a tarantula made his way through the sand and brush.

Once again yesterday's neighbors packed up and left, new neighbors rode in to take their places. Tonight we've got a VW bus, a Skoolie, a Sprinter Van and a Subaru.

Sunday December 24th 2023
The workers surprised us today. We didn't think they'd be showing up, but there they were pounding nails, moving things, painting. Dedicated to their upcoming season for reals.
The wind has picked up making it a little uncomfortable to be out in it. We tried to walk to and sit at the pier but we just couldn't sit for long. We went back to our wind break and set up a hammock inside, out of the wind. The sun just reached it enough to allow a pleasant rest.
Tonight we had cheeseburgers with chips and corn salsa, then we played a Breath of the Wild on the TV with the Switch.

Monday December 25th 2023

Felz Navidad! A fog had rolled in over night and the sun was slowly pushing it away, at least the birds were singing. Figuring that no one would be working today we decided to take the short walk to the restaurant. We were planning on peering through the windows to see how far along they were. Imagine our surprise when we walked up to the Whale skeleton out front and heard voices inside the building! They were still working! Even on Christmas! They were really putting in the efforts for tour season.
Beth fixed a Hashbrown Casserole for lunch and we celebrated the day with Long Island Ice Tea, well, kinda sorta Long Islands. I had to use tequila, and triple sec, and vodka. It worked out well! Trying to continue the theme of a day drunk (don't judge us, it's a holiday!) We spent the afternoon mixing White Russians and eating cookies. Sadly our hopes of seeing the Christmas Whale were dashed and as darkness settled the laguna was still a whale free zone. Lots of birds, no wall....

 

[jim65wagon]

MULEGE - HIDING BEHIND THE LIGHTHOUSE

Tuesday December 26th 2023
Packing up our palapa didn't take too long. We've packed this kit enough times that an hour is about the longest it takes us when we're not in a hurry. Heading East, we stopped in the desert near Tres Virgenes, looking for campsites. It was beautifully remote but after spending the last week without cell service we decided that we needed to find some signal. We've got family all over the States to check in with so we pulled back out onto the pavement. Making our way to Mulege, we drove out onto the spit of land by the lighthouse. Once again it wasn't really a place to camp if you didn't have a self contained unit. There was a selection of campers from a Unimog, a couple Class C's, and a handful of Sprinter Vans and one VW van. They all have that one thing in common that teardrops don't. A place to get in out of the ferocious winds coming off the bay. We drove past all the campers on the beach and found a little area on the backwater side behind some brush. This afforded us a little windbreak and a little privacy. With lots of trash, lots of people and the skeletons of fish all around this was going to be a one night stand for sure.



We ate some shredded beef tacos for dinner and surfed the internet looking at maps for our next stop. Unfortunately for me this used up the last of my data, so we would need to stop and pick up a recharge for my phone somewhere along the way.

 

[jim65wagon]

DEATH WIND BAY! - BAHIA DE CONCEPCION

Wednesday December 27th 2023
With zero kit to pack away and the truck still hitched to the trailer all we had to do was make the bed and wash out the coffee pot and we were away! We drove into Mulege to pick some groceries on the way through. How does anyone in a huge camper or a big trailer get around? I felt like I was inches away from the cars parked on either side of the streets. I got a little turned around on those little narrow one way streets. I started to turn toward the grocery store and that was a one way street going the other way, of course. Traffic was pulling out of it in front of me, so I just went straight ahead figuring I'd take the next turn.

The next turn happened to be a T with the road at the base of a giant stone wall. The roads left and right went up hill along the wall. I turned right. The street climbed around the hill as I squeezed the truck and trailer between the wall and the cars parked on the edge of a drop. Inches to spare.....
The road wound around and we camp to three driveways. Dead end! I pulled into one driveway and backed the trailer into another, maneuvering carefully to not clip the stone walls with the truck and not drop the trailer off the cliff. After several minutes we got turned around and headed back down. After that fiasco we decided to call it quits on Mulege and left town.
Outside of town we found an OXXO and I got a recarga on my sim card. The internet service connected quickly. Yay! Across the street was a PemEx that had a water station inside so we filled our drinking jugs, and picked up some snacky snacks.

From there we drove on down to Bahia de Concepcion. The popular beaches had the mix of tourists with Mogs, Class A's and C's and a large portion of vans. Not wanting to be “in the fishbowl” we drove all the way to the southern end of the bay. Pulling off MX1 onto a dirt road, Beth got out and opened the gate as I eased the truck down the hill using 4lo once again for engine braking. We foolowed a little two track through the washes and along the beach. At the first spot we found that was a decent looking campsite, we dropped the trailer. Without the camper attached we could explore the bay a lot faster and we headed out. With Gaia on the screen we stopped at every decent campsite marking them and deciding which would serve us better.

There was only one other camper along here as we drove along the bottom of the bay, finding a few sites, but one that had a large tree stood out. The tree and corresponding brush created a decent windbreak. Then we drove up the rougher road that ran up the bay (across from all the popular beaches). The road took us right through a small ranch where we were greeted with a growling and barking pack of dogs. A lady came came out and stopped us, at first we though maybe we wren't supposed to be here but she was smiling.
“Buenos dias, como estas?” she asked
“Buenos dias, bien, y tu?” I replied
Her smiled broadened “Bien. Hablo espanol?”
I smiled back and said “Pocito”
She asked “A campar?”
“Si” we both replied
She crinkled her brow and made a gesture with her hands in frustration. Then she said,
“Yo give tours”
I told her that was good, and we'd keep that in mind if we stayed in the area long enough. (We didn't the wind got worser each day)
We continued on our way looking for campsites. The road continued to decline, but not so much that I couldn't have gotten the teardrop through. We did not find any campsites that were out of the wind or large enough for more than just a truck. We turned around and drove back down, stopping to reassess the One Tree site.

It seemed pretty good with a nice Palo Verde and shrubbery between where we would park the trailer and the oncoming wind. It was a short walk to the beach and a long walk from the road. No other traffic and only the one other camper who was about half a mile or more away. We drove back through the washes and ruts, hooked up the teardrop and made one more trip through the washes and ruts to our new campsite. I ran the truck in 4WD making a large loop out onto the sandy beach and circling the tree so the kitchen would be shielded from the wind. We set up the EZ Up next to the tree hoping we could use it for shelter in the evenings. We buried sand bags in the sand for tie downs. One at each corner for the guy lines on the topper and one in the middle of each side with a guyline tied to the frame. We've found this setup works pretty darned well. This system makes the frame much less prone to shaking. Up to about 25 mph we can set it up at full height. Out here the wind cut through the top of the Palo Verde enough that we had to set the EZ Up on it's low setting to keep it out of the winds. I'd guess they were hitting into the 30 to 35 mph speeds. The winds were high enough that without the tree there would be no way to set the EZ Up up, or cook in the kitchen. It was kicking up some really serious white capped waves out on the bay.

A trio of coyotes slipped along the beach in silence....not that you could hear them over the howling winds!

We took a walk along the beach collecting firewood in hopes of having a fire in the evening. The tide was low and there were a bunch of welks leaving tracks in the sand high up on the beach. We rescued some of them by putting them back in the water. By sunset the wind had calmed down enough to build a fire and gave us hope for the next day.

 

[jim65wagon]

GIMME SHELTER - SAVED FROM THE DEATH WINDS

Thursday December 28th 2023
It was a little less windy this morning. We set the CFIAC out beside the teardrop using it as a wind break so we could sit outside and watch the birds while we drank our coffee. Each morning we try to watch what we've come to call “The Bird Show” at every campsite we have. It's enjoyable to just sit, drink coffee, watch the sunrise and watch the birds flit about doing their birdy things.

As the morning progressed the wind picked back up. We gave up on the EZ Up for shelter and took it down, packing it's components back into the teardrop. It's just too windy and the frame rattles and squeaks as the whole thing shakes in the wind. It was fine with the staedy winds but the gusts were getting quite a bit higher. We decided we could just cook out of the back of the truck, or on the running board of the trailer if we weren't going to be able to cook in the kitchen.

Even walking in the wind was a painful experience. The sand kicked up from the beach hurt, the wind stung your eyes and boomed across your ears. Conversation was pretty much a no go away from the tree. The truck was our best way to explore today. Beth said she had seen a couple of beaches from MX1 that looked like they might be sheltered from the wind. The most popular beaches were pretty sheltered, but not being part of the cool kids we didn't just want to go hang out where everyone else was.

Making our way out to MX1 we followed a different route than the one we came in on. This road led us away from the beach and into the desert, twisting through a few shallow washes. This road was in much better condition and is obviously the one the locals would use. It led us past a little ranch house with a herd of cattle in fenced in paddock next to the house. The rancher waved at us as we went by. Eventually we came out to a cattle grate and back up onto MX1 about a mile south of the road we came in on. Nice, two ways to get in. The Ranch Road and the Overlanders Road.

We drove north on 1, driving slow enough Beth could get a good look at all the beaches. We found one called Dolphin Bay on iOverlander that had a few truck campers on it, but nearby all by itself was another little camp tucked in the trees. Labeled “Birdsong” on the app this one sounded like it was right up our alley. It has several well built rock monuments, rock fences around the trees, remnants of a building, an open well (watch your step!) and a pallet palapa that was in disrepair to the point of un-usableness. We got out and walked around, the wind was amazingly less, we could hear each other talk and we could think without pain. The tree cover hid us from the road except in one spot where a wash came down from the road. We could see the roofs of pickup trucks and the windows of large trucks for a split second as they drove by. Good enough. We decided this was going to be the spot and we made plans to move camp.


We quickly drove back to the teardrop and packed away our chairs, locked down the stove, stashed the CFIAC in the truck, hitched up a left. The Ranch Road we found was a much quicker way in and out than the Overlander route so we took it back past the ranch and up onto MX1. We made it to our new site in just under 45 minutes. I pulled the truck up between two of the weird rock stack monuments and backed the trailer between the trees and to about 50 feet from the beach. Out in the bay the white caps were still frothing up out of the water, but the wind at the kitchen was just a nice breeze. Perfect! We can actually use the stove!

Up and down the beach we walked collecting firewood. I tried to fix Beth's reading light in the trailer. It's On/Off switch wasn't working right. Switched Off it would turn on at the slightest movement of the lamp body. That's no good! As it turned out our expensive Stainless Steel lights we put in 12 years ago were built with an incredibly cheap switch. It's mechanism to break contact was a cheap low quality piece and had just worn itself flat. Try as we might we couldn't get it fixed, so I just capped the wiring so it wouldn't short out on anything and we made plans to buy new lights.


With the light repair fizzling out we decided to do something that we could repair. There was an old sign in the trees with information on it. We propped it back up as best we could, but it was large and heavy so it stayed in the trees. At least it's upright now! It read in Spanish:
Mis Recuerdos Mio Alegrias Estan Lugar
Conserva Limpia Este Playa en Memoria de Louis Gonzales Arreola


Which according to our Google Translate reads:
My Memories, My Joys Are In Place
Keep This Beach Clean in Memory of
Louis Gonzales Arreola

Good enough for us Louis. You're beach is clean and a great place to make memories!


Beth went fishing, while I tried to photograph some neat looking birds. They looked like Blue Footed Boobies (are there Blue Footed Boobies in Baja?) but we weren't sure and we couldn't look them up on the internet. We've only managed cell service when we're close to towns even with the Mexican TelCel Sim cards in our phones. She managed to catch a couple of small fish and one very wicked looking fish with a big mouth and wicked looking spikes all over it. I grabbed a pair of pliers and some thick gloves. We got it off her hook and tossed it back into the water, neither of us had any idea what it was or how to clean it without getting spiked in the hand.

We had supper by a campfire. The wind was calm and the kahlua was tasty.


Friday December 29th 2023
The water on the bay was calm this morning. We got out and did some fishing. Beth was fishing with bait on the bottom and I was using a classic Jitterbug on the surface. I got one hit, she got her bait stolen. No fish sammy's today. The fish just weren't interested in a jitterbug. The seagulls certainly were though and more than once I had to quickly jerk the lure out of the water as a seagull dove down trying to catch it as it swam through the water.

We made plans to head south to Loreto the next day. We needed to do laundry, get water, propane, gasoline, fishing line, wine and other groceries. The plan was to spend one night near Loreto and then head somewhere else. So,.we packed up most of our campsite, then built a campfire. After a nice meal of Tortellini with a glass of wine Beth whipped up what we are calling Manzana de Baja. Similar to Bananas Foster but using Apple slices flamed in a Tequila sauce and poured over Vanilla Yogurt instead of ice cream. It was f''n delicious! And eating it by a nice crackling campfire under a bright full moon reflected in the bay was the icing on the cake!

 

[jim65wagon]

LORETO BEACH - WE FAIL TO HEED THE WARNINGS

Saturday December 30th 2023
Leaving our Birdsong camp (that's what we found it labeled as on Ioverlander) we headed for Loreto. We stopped in town long enough to hit an Agua Purificada to fill up the trailer tank. Just south of town we found a dirt road that leads out to a series of palapas on the beach, I will admit I was a little nervous when I saw three cars, one burned out, the other two with no wheels, doors bent and open. It wasn't until later we found this used to be a paintball “arena”

There were a few campers at some of the palapas and we picked one farther down the road than the others. The sand was super soft but I managed to get the trailer parked next to the palapa without needing to air down (currently running 30 psi on all six tires). We unhitched and went back into town, dropping off laundry at the lavendaria, then circling back to a fishing supply store (That was apparently the Gringo store because everything was expensive!) We picked up some braided lines several lures and a filet knife. 132 US dollars (ouch!) later and we were ready to fish! On to the Super Ley! This one only had eggs (we're out of eggs!) in a 3 dozen pack, so the bread drawer in the teardrop has now been rebranded as the egg drawer. We found the rest of our grocery list and drove over to the liquor store on the Malecon. We splurged on some Kraken Rum (our drink of choice is rum and this one will do) Rum is hard to find in Mexico!Along with a bottle of Don Julio Reposado, a Triple Sec and 12 bottles of Strongbow Hard Cider we were ready to pick up the laundry. We had one last chore to finish before we could call it a day. We got out our expensive fishing line and spooled 1/3 of it on Beth's reel, 1/3 on my reel and kept a third back for emergency line. Ya just never know when you might need a good piece of braided line.

The sunset was pretty, I got out the CFIAC and set it up with it's fiberglass propane tank. We sat by our little campfire (not as nice as the real thing but it does the job) and ate our leftover Tortellini. There were several cars driving up and down the beach road. Before bed we set the CFIAC, propane tank, camp chairs and our table under the palapa. I locked all the compartments and doors on the truck. Since we had internet service this close to town we read that campers on this beach have problems with people stealing from unlocked vehicles.

Several cars kept driving up and down the beach road, there was a large group of people at the farthest palapa having a party.

 

[jim65wagon]

Sunday December 31st 2023
Last day of the year! This started off with a bang when we realized that our Campfire in a Can was missing, along with the fiberglass propane tank and one of our 10L Scepter water jugs. The camp chairs and table were still under the palapa along with the lid to the campfire. I checked the truck, it seemed like it hadn't been tampered with. We never heard anyone, the downfall of having a well insulated teardrop.

Yes we should've taken more precautions before going to bed. Does this ruin our trip? No way, no how. We've had stuff stolen out of our driveway in Virginia and we realize there are opportunists everywhere you go. We talked it through and we'll just pick up a new campfire.

To be totally fair the theft really didn't bother us. Why?
1) The propane tank was nearly empty from us using it every night at Ojo de Liebre
2)It was 4 years out of certification in the US and we zero confidence that anyone would recertify it. We were told as much by the guy who recertified our aluminum tanks in San Francisco
3)Since it couldn't be recertified, we were just going to dispose of it
4)The Campfire in a Can was ancient with us having purchased it back in 2008
5) We had repaired it's workings several times already as they had deteriorated from so much use over the years. We couldn't safely use it as a heat source in our walled EZ Up due to the eye watering propane fumes and soot produced
6)The Scepter can Water Jug was actually more upsetting, but they are easily replaced.
7)We've dealt with worse and we were not going to let this minor inconvenience dampen the mood of our trip


THE RAMEN NOODLE ROAD TO AGUA VERDE
We just made our coffee and packed up our now smaller campsite. Then it was time to move south again. While surfing the net the last night we read about camping opportunities near Agua Verde. Eventually we came to our turn off and pulled off of the main road onto a smaller paved road. This one was rough in a cobbly sort of fashion and sections of one lane was blocked off by rock falls from the hill above. We drove around all these, the road turned into a dirt road that narrowed as it climbed into the mountains. It quickly became a classic shelf road, mountain on one side, straight down cliff on the other. It twisted and turned in switchback after switchback. One minute you're looking up at a mountainside, the next you've got a wide open view to the sea below. We started calling it the Ramen Noodle Road and I think that name fits it quite well. If you've been there I think you might even agree.

Once we made it down off the mountain we passed a ranch (Rancho San Cosme) and continued down a couple of roads before turning off and driving a two track to the seaside. There were more than a few campers here, it seemed a bit crowded, but since it was already afternoon we picked a spot tucked in the trees and set up. The sea winds were pretty calm. Soon a lady came strolling over from their campsite across the wash and introduced herself as Gail. She asked about how we found this place and that they (the group of five different couples) were all friends that met 17 years ago in Baja and they come to this spot every year and spend months at a time. They were all Canadian from BC. She didn't come off as rude and never claimed that this was “their” spot. I think she was just sussing us out to see if we were the loud party type that might ruin the place.





After a short conversation she invited us over to their campfire for drinks (BYO), conversation and two of their party were musicians so there'd be a little singing. We agreed and told Gail we'd join them after supper. We finished setting up our campsite, putting awnings on the camper and setting out the chairs and our smaller table. After supper we walked over with our chairs and sat by the fire listening to music and swapping travel stories and life stories with friendly strangers.

Late that night we had visitors, not the drunk kind though, and not the thieving kind. We woke to the sound of “clank clank” “clank clank”. Elizabeth and I both though it was the lids from our Tiki torches. We have some nice metal ones that break down for travel. Funny thing was while we were lying there listening to our tiki torch clanking in the wind, they started circling us.

Wait a second? How can the torches be doing that? Is one of our new friends playing a joke on us? I can see some of our old friends that might. Pick up the torch and “clank clank” “clank clank” walk around camp giggling to themselves like children. We looked out and expected to see humans.
Nope, not human. Four legged. A couple of burros were walking around camp grazing in the dark, one had a cow bell (burro bell?) clanking against his neck. With images of Will Ferrell playing music in a 70's band I quickly went back to sleep.

 

[jim65wagon]

KAYAKING AND FISHING - THE BEAT WAY TO START A NEW YEAR!

January 1st 2024




Happy New Year! Waking up on a beach in Baja makes this a very happy new year indeed! There were clouds in the sky this morning, but the winds were calm and the sea was glass. We quickly decided it was kayak time and unloaded the boats from the truck and threw in our new fishing gear, then we hauled our boats down to the water's edge. Paddling out onto the smooth sea just felt down right good. I always love being on the water. We paddled our boats up to the point north of the beach and fished for a bit. I took a few photos and videos, the birds and the moon were all cooperating, the wind and picked up just enough to make my kayak want to turn me away from whatever subject I picked. If you want a photographic challenge, hop in a kayak and try to take bird photos. They're flying one direction while you're bouncing with the waves and turning another direction with the wind. It's a tough gig.




After getting no takers to our lures, Beth was using a shiny new one and I was using an old spoon I'd had for years, we headed across the bay to the south point. I was doing a little paddle, float, cast, reel, paddle kinda thing with no success. We were pretty far from shore making our way to the south point and I cast my line out into the sea perpendicular to our line of travel. Beth saw me and said: “You're just gonna toss your line out into the open sea and hope you catch a random fish?”
I said, “Yep” and at that moment my pole suddenly bent double the tip dipping into the water.
“Fish on!” I yelled! My boat quickly followed the direction of the pull on the pole and just like that (snap!) the fish was gone! I could still feel the weight of my lure as I reeled in my line. I could see, as the lure got closer that something had gone wrong with it. On closer inspection, the spoon's hook had broken from the body of the spoon. I don't know what kind of fish I had on, but it broke my spoon!

We continued on across the bay and out to the south point. The fishing was pretty good. Beth caught a nice sized Trigger fish, while I caught a Needle fish. She kept hers, I let mine go. Then she pulled in a puffer, and deciding that we don't know the proper way to clean a puffer she released him back into the water. I got a few good bites and a few smaller fish, while she brought in another Trigger.

Now we had fish to clean and it was almost time for lunch. Hmmm, I wonder what we should have? The fish got filleted and two sandwich sized portions were quickly introduced to the cast iron skillet. Fresh Trigger fish makes an excellent lunch! While we were eating one of the couples from last nights campfire came over and wanted a tour of the teardrop. We showed them around the place, they seemed genuinely fascinated by the trailer and the efforts we took in building it. Afterward we got a tour of their camp setup, an Escape 21 trailer. It was nice, but I much prefer the teardrop. We also got a tour from our other neighbors for their van. It's a 1985 Mercedes work van they turned into a camper back in the late 90's. Pretty cool set up, but it was big! Not Unimog big, but it was still bigger than I'd want to drive.

Tonight's fine dining was cheeseburgers and tortilla chips with homemade guacamole. We washed that down with a tequila version of a Long Island Iced Tea (using actual tea for the base) I called it Te Helado de Baja and it was delicious!

 

[jim65wagon]

SAME BEACH NEW CAMPSITE

Tuesday January 2nd 2024
One of the sites farther down the beach had opened up yesterday evening. We decided to take a coffee walk and check it out to compare our site to that one. The site we have is definitely the prettier of the two with trees on each side, but the other has better solar. We planned on staying for several days so solar was high on our list of needs.

Secondarily, the site we were already set up in had more of the “fishbowl” effect. We were parked right next to the wash that the main entrance road followed to get here. So, anyone driving in, or driving out had full view of our setup and us with whatever we were doing at the moment. The other site was surrounded by thick shrubbery (Ni!) and felt a lot more private which is always preferential for us. A more extroverted couple might not agree.



We decided, in the end, to move our camp, so I took the awnings down from the trailer and we hitched up. Pulling the 50 yards or so up to the other site didn't require the entire hookup with the safety chains, gravel guard, brake check, or light check, so that went pretty quickly. Beth dug a shallow hole in the sand to level us up and then we simply walked back and forth carrying the camp gear we had already set out. There was a conveniently half moon shaped shrub that we used to set up the Green Elephant at the edge of camp for the bathroom.

Some previous users had built three tiny fire rings at the edge of the rocky beach. We combined the three into one that was a usable size for cooking, and collecting rocks from the beach we built a nice windbreak around it, two big slabs became a perfect heat reflector in the back of the pit. This turned out to be a great idea and made the campfire quite enjoyable for many nights. After building the fire ring we took a walk to collect wood for our soon to be campfire.

On our way back a really cool Land Cruiser with a pop-top pulled in next to us. The owners were a couple of German guys in the middle of their tour of North America. They were going north getting ready to run up through the US to the east coast via the midwest. We talked a bit about what they might want to see, Death Valley, Slot Canyons of Arizona and Utah, the Badlands, Indianapolis.... Indianapolis? Really? Being from Indiana the only thing I could suggest was the Children's Museum (largest children's museum in the world!) and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum (Home of the Indy 500!)

Beth cooked a yummy pizza for dinner, cooked with cheese that actually had texture and taste this time. It was really good! Then we broke out the rum and a bluetooth speaker. We sat by our campfire, sipped our rum and listened to music while we watched the stars do their slow circuit across the sky.

 

[jim65wagon]

WHO DRANK ALL THE RUM?!!

Wednesday January 3rd 2024
We had another night visitor last night.....someone stole into our camp. They burned all of our firewood, drank all of our rum, and ran the battery on our speaker completely out! Bastards!

We watched a huge pod of dolphins dancing through water. Unfortunately they were too far out to get any good video of their antics but suffice it to say we were quite pleased with the show. For this days explorations we decided to drive the rest of the way down to Agua Verde checking out all the roads and subsequent campsites between here and there. We found lots of campsites along the way, some nice, some not so nice. On one remote spit of land we ran into two sprinter vans packing up their campsites. We drove along the beach away from them so as not to disturb their process. After they left we checked out their site. It was prettily located but there was so much trash all around it may be from previous visitors but I suppose it could be from storm surge too.

Back out to the main road we continued our way toward Agua Verde, we sidetracked a couple more times. One of those times were climbed a hill only to find the two vans from earlier backing up from the other side of the crest and turning around in a wide spot on the road. We stopped so they had room to maneuver then pulled up to see what they were backing up from. Two couples walked over to us as we peered down the road at a gate with a young man leaned against it. He was waving us forward. One of the guys told us, in a thick accent (turned out they were all Australian) that they just wanted to look at the beach below (it was filled with campers) but the guard told them it was 200 pesos to pass through the gate. Even after asking to just turn around the guard insisted it was 200 pesos to pass the gate. Aussie guy number one said something in the Australian version of “There's no way in bloody hell I'm paying 200 pesos just to turn around!” so they both carefully backed their way up the narrow shelf road. Since there was no way in bloody hell I was paying 200 pesos to turn around I took their lead and turned around with them. We talked to them for a bit longer about traveling, where they've been, where we've been etc. It was a good conversation with much laughter right there in the middle of the road.

Eventually we bid them good day, they headed north we continued exploring and collecting firewood for the night's campfire. Back at camp the rest of the day was relaxing, eating fish tacos for lunch, reading, napping, snacking, and working on videos for the youtube. Supper was a nice portion of Tiki Masala for supper with White Russians for dessert.

 

[jim65wagon]

PADDLING THE BAY AND HIKING TO RANDY'S ROOST

Thursday January 4th 2024



The water was calm this morning so we busted out the kayaks and fishing gear once again. We launched the boats and fished for a bit. Nothing was biting so we paddled over two bays down the coast. There was an elaborate fish camp there, complete with large palapas built on stone platforms, one of which had a complete kitchen, stone tables, a huge stone wall with barbecue grill built into it, a stone wall at the back keeping the mountain behind at bay, and several stone lookout points where one could sit and watch the sunrise over the sea. With solar panels on the roof of the kitchen palapa it's exactly the place I would want to buy if I were going to emigrate to Mexico. (Why are Americans emigrating to Mexico called ExPats, but Mexicans coming to America are called immigrants? Aren't ExPats immigrants too, just the other direction?) Later, our new friend, John (the one with the Mercedes Van) told us that the fish camp is actually a kayak camp that someone has been building over the last three years. We couldn't drive to it yesterday because that road was gated and locked.

We spent a lot of time snorkeling in the bay, with lots of rocks and boulders under the waters surface it provided a great place to view the many varieties of fish and undersea wildlife. We swam until we got chilled then paddled our way back to our camp.

Later in the afternoon,we hiked up the ridge line behind camp along the Randy's Roost Trail ( at least that's what our Canadian campers were calling it) From the trail's end we could look down on the fish camp we saw earlier. To make a loop of the trail we tried following the narrow path down to the sandy beach (the bay between ours and the fish camp). The trail quickly got lost in the brush and cacti and rocks. We persevered carefully scrambling down the steep rocky incline, the footing was loose. Beth commented that the trail we had been on looked like a burro track, but the burros were smart enough to turn around before it got dangerous. We were now hiking where donkeys feared to tread, our dumb asses continued on.....

We finally made it down to the beach with neither of us falling or twisting an ankle. Then it was ashort walk across the sandy beach to the next obstacle. The point separating the bays was a tall rocky affair with holes in the wall and a large gap between the cliff edge and a monolith jutting out from the water. We'd been told that at low tide you could easily go between the cliff and monolith to cross from one beach to the other. It wasn't low tide, but it wasn't quite high tide either. We climbed up the low rocks at the cliff base and made our way over toward the monolith. Turning the corner to cut between them and you see our beach dead ahead, looking down you see a wide gap between the rocks you're standing on the the rocks you need to jump to. The sea water roiling between the two. As the waves roll in the water sprays up between in the gap. Beth leapt across first and I quickly followed suit, waiting long enough for the next wave to pull back so as not to get sprayed in the crossing. I'm sure it looked more extreme in my head than it truly was, but it felt extreme and daring. It was fun!

After such a busy and exiting day we settled on a taco salad for supper, and to get out of the wind that picked up as the day wore on we tucked into the teardrop and played Breath of the Wild on the Switch.

 

[jim65wagon]

HIKING THE ARROYO, FEASTING ON CHAMORRO

Friday January 5th 2024
The wind was howling this morning making the air feel so much colder than yesterday. I made coffee but I had to shield the stove with a towel on the side of the teardrop to heat the water. I climbed back into bed and we drank our coffee in the warmth of the cabin.

This area is full of interesting topography. The ramen noodle road we drove to get here indicated that there were lots of canyons we could potentially explore. John told us one of those arroyos climbs up and around to a breathtaking view of the valley. Naturally, with the winds up and the cooler air it was a good day for a hike, so we laced up the boots and walked away from the sea toward the mountains. Soon enough we were walking through a slot canyon, climbing over rocks and boulders, including two 7 or 8 foot tall dry waterfalls. These had enough variations in their faces that we managed hand holds and foot holds so we managed to climb up (but more importantly, later we managed to climb back down!) We managed to get in a 3.9 mile hike that got us climbing and moving and getting some exercise (gotta work off those tacos somehow!)








Late in the afternoon, we watched a bird feeding frenzy out in the water. It seemed like there were hundreds of birds all diving into the water, flying in great circles and diving in again. I think it was a fascinating sight and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it.








Beth rebuilt a section of our firepit to cook (well not cook but reheat) a Chamorro we picked up in the grocery store. We'd never heard of Chamorro, but it looked and smelled like a smoked ham, so once heated through it should be delicious. I built a fire and once we got a goodly bed of coals, I scooped them over to the cooking section and we laid the ham on a grate, later adding some peppers, onions, and Beth whipped up some mashed potatoes. We turned and turned the ham and as it heated the fats inside started rendering dripping into the coals and just causing the most amazing smells to come out!

After what felt like hours (to my stomach) of rolling this fat ham around on the grate it was finally deemed heated enough to eat. We sliced some chunks off and tucked in. The onions, potatoes and peppers were good, but the chamorro was amazing! Smoky flavor, tender, juicy with just the right amount of crispy bits to crunch on. Oh My God! I want another just writing about it!

 

[jim65wagon]

SOMETIMES YOU JUST MISS HAVING A COUCH TO RELAX ON

Saturday January 6th 2024
After a light night feasting on the chamorro we slept in. By the time we made it outside it was brunchtime so we whipped up some breakfast burritos. Then we gathered up more firewood and then, bored to tears with our beach life, we built a couch. Yes, we built a couch. One of the great attributes of this beach we landed on is the rocks. Rocks for days! Worn smooth by the ocean, and many of them are big and flat. Heavy enough that I could only carry one or two at a time, flat and smooth enough to make a good sit. Spending a few hours, we managed to build a nice loveseat for the two of us. The back reclined just right so we could lean back comfortably and watch the ocean. With an end table on each side we had drinks easily at hand. We sat there watching the boobies fly around catching fish until the sun went down behind the mountains behind us. As soon as the sun went behind the mountain the winds picked up and it got cold! After dinner there was no staying out to watch the stars, we climbed back into the cabin and played video games to pass some of the long night hours.