29 November 2011
It’s been quite a long time since I’ve taken the time to write and I really want to get back to it and this journey down the Baja is going to be the catalyst. While we were resting up in Yuma from our trip around the good-ole USA, I wrote a note in one of the many travel blogs that we would be crossing into the Baja by the first of December and if there was anyone that would want to join us in their RV we would love to have them along. Well Jack and Kathy wrote back and told us that it would fit into their schedule just fine and they had another couple that would like to come as well…Bob and Evie. We also got a call from Bonnie and Doug so we had a full sized caravan to travel the Baja with, how great was that. On the 29th we crossed the border at Tecate and headed for San Quintin about 200 miles south. Thinking that 200 miles in a day was just fine we didn’t opt for an early start and that was a bad decision. After the first 125 miles we came upon road construction that would make a Mexican truck driver cringe !!! For 6 to10 long miles through the mountains we bounced and twisted over the deep ruts and hung on while the edges came awfully close to allowing us to fall into the canyons below. It was quite a ride and for Bob and Evie it turned out to be trouble. They have a travel trailer that they pull and unfortunately they blew out one of the 4 tires and damaged the rim beyond repair.
The fortunate side of this was that they had a spare and a pull out was close by so that the spare could be put on. Another good thing happened too, we had no sooner pulled over when a small pickup slid between Bob’s trailer and our coach and stopped to help. A middle aged Mexican man jumped out of his truck with a jack in hand even before the truck stopped. He was there to give as much help as needed and fortunately he was a take charge kind of guy…in no time the old shred of a tire was off and the spare was on.
A quick Gracias, a well deserved tip, and we were back on the road again. Now we were going to have to drive in the dark, which is something we really didn’t want to do but there are times when you do what you have to do. We pulled into our campground well after dark and it wasn’t one of those things I want to do on a regular basis or ever again so keep your fingers crossed for us. Our second day started much earlier and it would turn out better but still not great. First we all stopped alongside of a tire shop so that Bob could see if he could find another tire and wheel.
A well used tire was found and a wheel that could "possibily" be used if a little filing around the center of the hub would work. Well this is Mexico and if filing could work, they could do it...it worked just fine. Bob and Evie had a spare to continue the trip with. Our destination today was Bahia de los Angeles another beach village that we had visited 5 years ago, which was again about 200+ miles away. To our surprise we encountered another 6+ miles of road construction but in this case it was not near as bad with the ruts, but dust…I’m still spitting clods of brown stuff. It was bad, fine, dust that would get into the tiniest of cracks and stick to everything. We were far less than half way down to Cabo San Lucas and I was about fit to be tied…not fun at all. Fortunately Bahia de los Angeles was a special spot and it did make up for some of the discomfort we had been put through the last two days.
Then on the other side of the coin, the weather, the BAJA weather, had turned COLD and WINDY and the prediction was that it was going to be with us for some time to come. We opted to stay two days in Bahia as it was a place we could just kick back, rest, and do a little beach walking.
We did drive into the “village” (consisting of one small grocery store, 2 gas stations, a very nice museum,
and a dock for the fishing boats to come and go from…not much else except for a garbage receptacle.
After a few walks along the beach collecting sea shells we decided to search out a local "resort" that we had visited last time. Unfortunately we didn't find the one that we were looking for but we did find another. On the way in we came upon one of their signs pointing out what to do before arriving...
after doing ALL of that we were back on the road for another destination further south.