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Tuesday, 11 March 2008 – Cataviña to Bahia de Los Angeles

‘Just’ 10 stops today (S871 – S880), and what stops! The field flowers were out in full force and competed with the Chilean Atacama Desert in flower in 2004. The Internet connection at Raquel & Larry’s is playing up, or is it Cliff downloading the BBC News items about the storms in the UK that was causing the problem?

So, I’m well behind with Diary pages, although they have been written and will get send tomorrow, each as a separate mail. So, what were the highlights today?

Ian found a rattle snake, or rather, a  couple of ratters, right in the middle of their courting ritual. We showed this to Larry who has been living among the snakes for years but had never seen this before. Where is your camcorder when you need it? In the car, but Cliff used the movie function on his camera so we’ll see later how that went. The stills are great!

Then, we had received details by email of where to find the very rare cactus Echinocereus lindsayi. Last night, I wanted to down load these details, but the email at Cataviña was down, so back to MY memory. Yes, we were in trouble!  I resigned myself to checking the email before the return trip, but as we approached the area, I had a mental flash back to the email and suggested the km marker near where we should stop. We found a place to pull over and using our common cactus sense went into the rocky hillside to the left of the road. We spread out to cover as large an area as possible. The report said there were only 10 plants here! Needle in a hay stack? After a while I thought we had wasted enough time, and still had taken lots of useful pictures. Then Eunice Dudleya spotter, called me over. Yes, there it was! One plant, in bud. We took its GPS location and will come back on the return journey to take its picture again. We spread out from the single plant but found no more. We managed to download the email and it seems that in addition to the 10 plants reported, Eunice had found an 11th.

We made a series of short stops, found Ferocactus cylindraceus ssp. tortulispina flowering in yellow, turned east to Bahia de Los Angeles an stopped at the first pull over along the road and found the red flowered F. gracilis ssp gracilis. Echinocereus engelmanniiwas in advanced bud, 1 or two days would do it.

Alain, the tree with the white pealing bark is not a Bursera, it’s Pachycormus discolor(followed by me asking ‘This colour? What colour?, I’m colour blind!’).

And yes, Eunice did find her Dudleya, yet to be identified, 20 km west of Bahia de Los Angeles.

We have to  be up at 6 in the morning, when a fisherman is going to take us to some of the islands off the coast which are famous for their  endemic cacti (i.e. they occur there, but nowhere else).

Category:

2008 Baja California

Monday 10 March 2008 – San Quintín to Cataviña

Yes, the overnight accommodation so far reads the same as for the February trip, but this time we arrived at around 4 p.m. and made our last stop (S870) the extensive boulder fields behind the Desert Inn / La Pinta Motel. Nobody says that sunset shots have to be taken in the middle of the wilderness.

But that was the last of today’s six stops, so let’s start at the beginning: S865, along MEX1, south of San Quintín, sandy hills with the Pacific Ocean just visible in the distance. The different types of desert flowers were some 10 times more abundant than in February, when it was already amazing. We saw Dudleya sp. (2, mainly green plants but also one possible D. brittonii), an Asclepiad that leaked latex all over my hand, Stenocereus gummosus, including a plant with cristate heads, Echinocereus maritimus and Mammillaria dioica. The name ‘dioica’ refers to the botanical term indicating that this cactus has male and female flowers, rather than the usual set up (for the Cactaceae) of both parts in the same flower. Last time the flowers were often not wide open, but this time just about every plant had a turret of flowers round the top of the stem and it was easy to photograph the phenomenon.

E. maritimus in flower confirmed our tentative ID in February: yellow flowers and its general appearance = E maritimus.

We stopped in El Rosario for some shopping: fresh fruit, Negra Modela and other essentials, but the next cactus stop (S866) was a bit further south, prompted by the first Boojums (Fouqueria columnaris) appearing on the scene. My GPS suggested that we were near ‘Cactus Maximus’ of the February trip. At least the north reading was spot on, but the West reading was still a degree or so out. The road turned east at Rosario, so that got us closer. The other give away that we still had to go further east was that there were no Cardon (Pachycereus pringlei) in the field yet.

S868 was ‘Cactus Maximus’, with more of the characters joining the list of plants photographed. Myrtillocactus cochal was in flower, but the flowers are minute for such a large plant. The P. pringlei was now in bud, and again, the flowers look like being much smaller than the size of the plant (to 4 meters tall is not unusual) would suggest. I found another (different) Euphorbia bush, yet to be identified. And the Ferocacti started to appear in numbers, hiding between blue white and yellow mats of flowers. I didn’t take many pictures this time, but did get the camcorder and hope to have a decent film of this amazing stop. 

A little later, we pulled over to Rancho El Descanso, one of the one house settlements that function as cafeterias when it suits them to be open. It also boasted 4 new(ish) toilets. But you had to pay 5 pesos and, as the lady was suspicious that all 4 of us would try to use the facilities once she had unlocked the door for Eunice, she sat on guard outside.

We spent the night at the Desert Inn / La Pinta Motel (again) where this time the restaurant was chock a block with RV holiday makers from the US & Canada, who were staying in cheap accommodation across the road (didn’t know there was any). Cliff was accosted by 60 year + Connie from Texas who had been drinking Bloody Mary’s all night. Due to the crowded restaurant, we ordered Margaritas while collecting the set that was ready. Perhaps as a result, our bar + food bill that night was an amazing US$240!!! I think they saw us coming. Still, it taught us a lesson to be more careful in future.

Cliff can’t remember how he got to our room, but I was fine and woke up at 6, ready for breakfast at 7.

Category:

2008 Baja California

Sunday 9 March 2008 – San Diego to San Quintín

Greetings from Motel Marie Celeste in San Quintin (my 3rd visit).

I have been writing daily Diary reports, as and when time permits, since leaving the UK on 1 February, and Eunice has asked me to include her friend Gloriana in the audience, consisting of my partner Angie, my sons Anton & Christiaan, my sister Margot, my good friend Alain, who made this trip with me in February, and Cliff, Ian and Eunice, the 3 Amigos who are accompanying me this time. The Diaries will help us once we get home to sort our pictures.

So, people were afraid that seeing Baja the second time, so soon after the first, would be boring. Day 1 of Trip 2 confirmed to me that this is not the case. Last time was very much ‘driving into the unknown’. As a result we arrived in San Quintín in the dark and then, on top of everything else, we got stuck in the sand. This time, Eunice and I were well rested instead of Alain & I coping with jet lag. Eunice was on familiar home territory, leaving San Diego, so that we even had time to pop by a Frye’s (like a massive PC World in the UK). She had managed to fry (excuse pun) her USB port on the laptop the night before, so popped in to get a replacement. Cliff made use of the stop to get a Laplink cable.

From the Computer shop, straight on to I-5, to the border, where I was now very familiar with the procedure of getting a Mexican Visitors Visa. Last time we missed the turn to MEX1D and as a result went the hard way through Tijuana, Mexico’s 4th largest city. This time I knew where to go and saved a good hour by using MEX1D, the scenic toll version of MEX1.

Eunice was getting excited and frustrated as we passed rock face after rock face covered in Dudleya. These were D. brittonii, the most desirable of the genus, covered in white farina (a white waxy powder). It was impossible to stop to take their picture. So I pulled over on to MEX1, which here runs parallel to the toll road, soon found a stop (S860) and photographed: Mammillaria dioica, Dudleya hintonii, D. sp. (green), Bergerocactus emoryi, Cylindropuntia sp., and Agave shawii (some plants in flower). The location enabled us to look down a beach, with Mexicans riding their horses along the surf on this wonderful sunny, yet hazy, Sunday afternoon.

The next stop, S861, was Puente El Mirador, where Alain and I had also stopped on our first Baja Day in February. Amazing how much more you notice on a subsequent visit. In addition to Bergerocactus emoryi, Agave shawii and an Opuntia sp., this time we also found Ferocactus viridescens, Mammillaria dioica and a Dudleya sp. How come we missed these a month earlier? Unbelievable!

Another stop, S862, was again prompted by our Dudleya spotter, Eunice, but also revealed Ferocactus viridescens, Agave shawii and an unidentified Cucurbit (member of the Cucumber Plant Family).

S863, again along MEX1, was for a green Dudleya sp., while S864, farther along also had Mammillaria dioica on the scene. The difference was mainly that we had more time and I guess it was easier to park along the road with the higher clearance of the Jeep Grand Cherokee 4×4.

Overall, the rains of last January, that had already created a super green scenery when Alain and I drove through it, had developed further. There were fields and hillsides covered in yellow, purple and mauve flowers and the grass was now so tall that it would hide many of the smaller cacti from the eye.

We arrived at Motel Marie Celeste, this time in daylight and enjoyed a few Margaritas over dinner, looking back over yet another fabulous day. There were a few moans when I suggested it was time for a rest, but Cliff was snoring his head off within minutes of his head touching the pillow. I’m sure that the fresh air and new sights will make us sleep like lambs, as tomorrow we want to be up & ready for breakfast at 8 a.m. at the latest.

Category:

2008 Baja California

Sunday, 17 February 2008 – San Felipe to Yuma, AZ, USA

I have already expressed my disappointment with San Felipe in yesterday’s Diary.  Fortunately, Sunday morning was a very civilised affair, being woken by sunshine and the gentle sounds of Mexican music from the streets below. We took a stroll to the Malecón (remember yesterday’s Spanish lessons?)  had breakfast in view of the Sea of Cortez and bought ourselves some souvenirs. As one of the store owners said: ‘ We have everything that you’ve never needed or will never want, at 10% off our best prices!’ He was right!!

I had hoped that things would get better after we had retraced our tracks to the junction of MEX5 (The San Felipe to Mexicali road) and MEX3 (the Ensenada to MEX5 road). I had hoped that (a) there would be accommodation close to and north of the junction and (b) there would be lots of interesting cacti on the way to Mexicali.

We drove the full 194 km from San Felipe to Mexicali and made 4 stops and saw no cacti apart from a couple of grotty looking Lophocereus schottii, Cylindropuntia felipensis and C. munzi. I’ll need to replan the end of the March trip so that we can at least see the fantastic Feros around Valle de Trinidad, about halfway along MEX3. Alain believes there is a hotel in the village.

Our car was only able (and very well too) to glide on tarmac, and we had just about done all the tarmac that Baja had to offer.

So, at around 14:00 we started queuing for the border crossing to the USA between the towns of Mexicali and Calexico (Get it?). Alain had never been in the USA, apart from some 12 hours after arriving on 1 February and thought it would be good to spend some time in San Diego. By the time that we finally entered the USA, it was 16:45 with all the hold up caused by US immigration. We witnessed a few guys climb across the fence to the USA – no doubt they are  already back in Mexico. It was no option for us – the car would be too heavy to lift over the 4 meter high fence!

During our wait, we had plenty of opportunity to revise our schedule, as almost a week in San Diego was quite a lot, especially as I have to spend 2 weeks in the area before Cliff & Ian arrive. So instead, after crossing the border, we turned right on California 8 and arrived in Yuma, Arizona at around 7 p.m. Arizona time which is 1 hour ahead of California and Baja. We soon found a Motel 6 but were disappointed to find that unlike the one in San Diego, this one has no wifii connection, just a cable to modem link for which we did not bring cables.

Alain’s disappointment was doubled when he discovered that all the junk food places around the motel serve junk food (surprise surprise) but do not have a license to serve beer or wine. Outrage springs to mind.

Tomorrow we plan to drive the 245 miles to Tucson where on Tuesday we hope to visit the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (Anton & Christiaan may remember visiting this in 1997) and if time permits, a visit to one of the nurseries – Dan Bach or Miles to Go.

Wednesday we’ll drive from Tucson in the direction of San Diego and we’ll see when we get there, in any case, Alain leaves at 7:45 a.m. on Saturday 23rd. We’ve bought overview maps of Arizona & California but have no cactus data of what we might see on the way. Never mind, the final destination in Tucson is enough.

Category:

2008 Baja California

Saturday, 16 February 2008 – San Quintin to San Felipe

Perhaps I should have said: ‘Greetings from a 1 star hotel in Blackpool on the Sea of Cortez.’ You may remember my stories from a week ago in Loreto where the whole world seemed to have to drive past our hotel with their stereos blasting as their main entertainment for Friday and Saturday night. Well, here they go by the seafront (known everywhere in any seaside town in Mexico as ‘El Malecon’ or, less romantic, ‘De Zeedijk’ in Dutch) and come back on the road past our motel.

I have to say that San Felipe is a huge disappointment and that I’d like to give it a miss in March. It is already building up with ‘white thrash USA’ in a build up to the Easter Holidays.

Having said that, it was a very interesting drive down. From our first day, we noted that we had only made one cactus stop between the US border and San Quintin, but this time, obviously with eyes more in tune with the flora alongside the road, we did see some cacti and even took a couple of stops for scenic pictures of a different Agave to the ones we had seen before. It was a long drive and a slow one as north of San Quintin, MEX1 goes through numerous villages each with their own array of ‘topes’ (drempels in Dutch, Sleeping Policemen in the UK) to slow down the traffic. And very affective they are too! as they ground our car on some 25% of the passes! It’s built up or agriculturally developed land, or passes through twisty mountain areas with no cacti visible from the road, all the way up to Ensenada. You then have to spent at least 30 minutes going through an ‘anything goes’ town, with cross roads where ‘Alto’ replaces the Chilean ‘Pare’ stop signs, but here the stop signs appear on all four entrances to the junction, so everybody sits there and it seems to be a ‘first come, first served’ system.

At Ensenada, we switched to MEX3, a bit of a misnomer as there already is a MEX3 on ‘main land Mexico’; so it’s a bit like having two M25s in the UK, one around London and the other on the Isle of Wight, except there is no ferry!

Once you leave Ensenada, MEX3 twists itself through a very scenic hilly area, a joy to see, except if you are stuck behind a truck belching out diesel fumes. Photos were made of the scenery.

Next we spotted a cactus, pulled over – not easy when your car grounds itself on a topes and the edge of the highway is as high as the average topes! – and found Mammillaria (I still think they are variations on a Mam. dioica theme) and Echinocereus engelmannii and a range of Opuntiods – one Platyopunia and a range of Cholla or Cylindropuntia.

The next moment we had left the hills and were on a plain. No cacti here we thought, but stopped anyway, to be pleasantly surprised. As we drove on, with John Pillbeam’s Fero book on Alain’s lap, we were amazed to find another Fero Maximus stop, this time with F. cylindraceus covering hillside after hillside! Plants ranging from small (and then reddish spined) seedlings to 5 ft + golden spined monsters! By the thousand! So it’s ‘the return of Golden Balls’ (for the non cactus readers, we found a population of very golden yellow spined cacti in Chile which we nicknamed ‘Golden Balls’, ’cause that’s what they were). So Ian and Cliff will want to see this, especially as it also has teddy bear Chola, at least 2 more Opuntiods a Mam. and Echinocereus engelmannii growing along MEX3.

Eventually, we hit MEX5, the San Felipe to Mexicali coast road, which has TWO military checkpoints on the junction. We played along as usual, being very polite and respectful of teenagers with large machine guns; we even called them ‘Sir’.

From the junction, it is some 50 km south to San Felipe, which is just brash, noisy and too full of American teenagers there to get drunk and laid and full of very pushy Mexicans who want the Yanks to spend their dollars. It is said to get very busy over Easter and I’m keen to avoid it. There are no cacti from the MEX 3 – 5 junction south, so I’ll be looking out for accommodation when we head north past the junction, most likely tomorrow (although Alain wants to see what is south of SF – just dirt roads that our car can’t take, according to the guide books!

I think we should do MEX3 in March, but we do need to find somewhere to stay near the junction as today’s 435 km was a hard drive.

I have been meaning to pass on the following tip to Cliff & Ian for a long time: I bought a very small rucksack at Tesco’s for next to nothing and following my experience in Rio, when I put my back out lifting a piece of toast during breakfast, I was keen not to lug my luggage (17 kg plus hand luggage plus shopping) each night from the car to the hotel and back again the next morning. I now use this small rucksack as my overnight bag, refreshed each morning from my main bag in the car when we head off again, and of course also take my main rucksack with cameras and laptop in. Poor Alain has to strap on his back-packer’s rucksack and nearly falls over under the weight. Worth considering, guys!

Finally, as most of you have guessed, I usually type up these notes half asleep and half pissed, without the benefit of spell check. Later, I copy them into a website that I am preparing for this trip, and find all the typos and garbage highlighted by the spell check function. I’m embarrassed, especially as Cliff is sensitive to spelling matters, but it is ‘warts & all’ or nothing in practical terms.

That’s all for tonight, from the tiny reception lobby of this 1 star motel, as the wifii signal does not reach the second floor, where our room is.

Category:

2008 Baja California

Friday, 15 February 2008 – Bahia de Los Angeles to San Quintin

Yes folks, we’re back to where we started on our first night in Mexico, 13 nights ago. We skipped the getting stuck in the sand this time. Our laptops even remembered the key to the wifii link!

Why so fast? Well, we hung about at Bahia de Los Angeles but the people who Ruth (the manageress) had tried arrange to take us to the islands all said that it was too windy and dangerous. So, disappointed, we left around 9:30 and headed north, making 9 fairly brief stops in all, but what stops!! and skipped lunch and drove until the sun was about to set. This way we may have more time around San Felipe on the east coast later or at San Diego, before Alain flies home.

The ‘many brief stops’ strategy is right for our first time and ‘tarmac only’ transport. We do not know of any ‘San Ramon equivalent’ 1 day hikes. We got the impression that what you see between Mex 1 and 500 meters away from it is roughly the same as if you walked 10 km away from the road, so nothing to be gained. Instead, we are filling in the gaps from the journey down and allowing ourselves to be distracted by obvious things that we simply missed or that weren’t there – such as Yucca, 2 species now coming in flower that were not even in bud 2 weeks ago.

Things look even greener now, so we also include stops to record that fact. And, because we are making different over night stops, we are now passing things at noon that on the way down we passed too early in the morning or too late at night.

Today included a stop we called Fero Maximus, as the plants here were so abundant that it started to look like a field of C. columna-alba. They can get up to 2 m tall and just like columna-alba, they lean to the ‘sun at noon’ (here the south) and eventually fall over when they  become top-heavy. Unlike Copiapoa, they are extremely dark in spine (deep red, I’m told) and epidermis – no white wax here!!!!

Not too long afterwards, we saw some Platyopuntia that looked nice as the sun was getting low in the sky. We had only gone 3 miles from ‘Fero Maximus’. As we started lining up the first shot, it became clear that we had arrived at ‘Cactus Maximus’ as I could count 9 different species in a single shot! That count increased dramatically when we started to walk around, falling over Mams in flower, Echinocereus clumps (possibly E. engelmannii) and, according to Alain, up to 8 different species of Opuntia! And we didn’t even bother counting the ‘other succulents’ – Agave (2), Yucca (2), Euphorbia (1 – E. misera) and a Dudleya. As a result, today is the first time that I managed to fill a 2 Gig card! (that’s 459 images – and I have not added the pictures from my Coolpix yet!)

The temperature has been in the high 50’s but that’s ideal for walking in the field. It was very sunny so I’m glowing and my deep tan looks reddish again (but no pain).

Well, dinner calls and then I’ll fall into bed.

Category:

2008 Baja California

Thursday, 14 February 2008 – Guerrero Negro to Bahia de Los Angeles

Greetings from Raquel & Larry’s at Bahia de Los Angeles (again).

This was one of our favourite stops on the way down, so it made sense to stay another day or two on the way back.

Last night in Guerrero Negro was cold,  54F and today has started off overcast but it turned sunny and very windy now, back at the (warmer) Sea of Cortez.

We took another side road (tarmac) that we did not spot last time round, back to the Pacific Coast at Santa Rosalillita. Only 14 km but well worth it, with lots of Feros and impressive clumps of Echinocereus maritimus and – near the coast – some with extremely long spines that may be var. hancockii.

The Feros here, at Bahia de Los Angeles, is F. garcilis ssp. coloratus, has been the only one we have seen in flower. It’s still only flowering sporadically, but full of buds, so if the cold weather persists, it may be in flower next time I’m here in March. The Opuntia too (I have lost count of how many distinct species we have seen) are in bud.

We are due to see a local boat’s man this p.m. and find out the cost of going to the islands where on some island sonly Feros and Mams have been reported.

Lunch & beers have just arrived, must go!

Category:

2008 Baja California

Wednesday, 13 February, 2008 – Loreto to Guerrero Negro

Happy Birthday Ian!!

We have surprised ourselves by having a great day, with 7 brief but excellent cactus stops and yet have come much further north than planned. The stops included one along the Sea of Cortez where a group (pod?) of dolphins noisily swam by. Angie knows how tricky it is to click the camera just right to get a good picture of a wave breaking over rocks – well imagine trying to get the rhythm of the beasts swimming so that you get at least a head or a tail as they come up or go down. I took some 20 pictures and managed to get one snout but lots of fins.

We recognised and avoided many places we had stopped before so that we would add new ones to the list. I’ll probably do the same in March as it is much more fun to explore than just to be shown spots. If we have a disappointing run down to the cape in terms of cactus spots, we can always do the best ones already visited on the way home.

Today’s stop included ‘The Dead Horse Stop’ where we saw 3 species of Mams (yet to be IDed), a grey spined form of Echinocereus brandegeei, 3 species of Opuntia, one of which should be in full flower next time we pass, lots of Feros etc.

We also ventured down a dirt track just south of Mulege, to one of the many idyllic coves and sandy beaches and believe I have found the ideal camping spot. They also have bungalows for USD 30, so if there is space, that may be the more comfortable option. Just along the road are the much more impressive yellow spined E. brandegeei in large numbers – great plants!

So we’re back in Guerrero Negro and the temperature dropped dramatically to 70 F – I know, a heat wave compared to where you are.

The planed program from here is now

bullet Thursday 14 Feb- back to Bahia de Los Angeles so that we can book a boat for the next day and for March
bullet Friday 15 Feb  to get to one of the islands with endemic Feros, Mams and Echinocereus and another night at Bahia de Los Angeles
bullet Saturday 16 Feb drive back to Catavina
bullet Sunday 17 to San Quintin
bullet Monday 18 to Ensenada
bullet Tuesday 19 to San Felipe a bit south but again on the Sea of Cortez
bullet Wednesday 20 to Mexicali and the border to Calimexi in the USA
bullet Thursday 21 Drive along Interstate Highway 8 back to San Diego
bullet Friday 22 San Diego – a spare day in case we need it
bullet Saturday 23 Alain leaves at 7:45 a.m. and I start to make my way to Long Beach, Los Angeles in time for
bullet Sunday 24 do my talk to Long Beach Cactus Society
bullet Monday 25 take a look around – perhaps visit the Huntingdon Botanic Gardens or allow myself to be persuaded by members to see a collection or two.

After that we’ll see. I might just hang out along the Ocean front at San Diego until 8 March when at noon I do my presentation to the San Diego Cactus Society and then go to the airport to pick up Cliff & Ian. Anybody else fancy coming along?

Better get back to the Motel before Alain has dropped off (I’m in the internet cafe around the corner)

Category:

2008 Baja California

Tuesday, 12 February 2008 – Buena Vista to Loreto

Today the thought of being on the way back really hit home – we completed the loop of the southern cape and started recognising places we had stopped before. The feeling was not helped by the fact that we got roaring drunk last night, including a ‘call to God on the big white telephone’. While doing our emails at the bar in Buena Vista (the Good Life) – honest, it was the only wifii spot in the complex – we were joined by James from Oregon, or was it Alaska? Anyway, he was already half way down a bottle of Tequila and insisted on pouring his heart out as his girlfriend seemed to have dumped him. She had millions of dollars (a bit like Chilean pesos in value, we joked) from a previous divorce and he had US$285 dollars to his name and called himself a poet in search of the truth, on the strength of a poem called ‘When’ (a copy of Rudyard Kippling’s ‘If’).

Things could have been worse, she had left money for him to stay another week and cover food & drink, so he was trying to spend the drink budget that night! And we, his new found buddies had to help him, ’cause you could not let a man drown his sorrows on his own. So
Margaritas were poured over and over again, and then we had to do the shots of Tequila thing. Result – we surfaced for breakfast at about 9:30 and I drank a couple of litres of water before noon. My camera refused to focus, and then I realised it was my eyes and not the camera that was to blame.

Ayway, we managed 5 short stops, but did not see anything new. On the way down I had taken pictures of every cactus taxon at each stop, so I have some 60 pictures of the butt ugly Stenocereus gummosus, just so that I know its distribution. Today, it’s just a case of taking pictures of things that are new or different, such as today seeing Pachycereus pecten-arboriginum in fruit and flower.

Another reason for the short stops was the weather: 93 F (whatever that is in decimal money) is no joke when all the plants have spines and the boots have been exchanged for sandals.

Anyway, today we covered 347 km of the journey back and are ahead of schedule – but as the way back had not been planned, that wasn’t too difficult. We have decided to take a look in the north east of Baja on the way back and cross back into the USA at Mexicali / Calmexi and then drive on a US highway back along the border to San Diego.

Opinion of car for March: A 4×4 would give us more options. The Nissan Altima gets grounded on 20% of the sleeping policemen in the villages. Off road is no fun either which means that the sandy coves and beaches are out of our reach. That means no camping, as the official campsites are stuffed with huge RVs (Camping busses to Europeans).

The other concern is that most rooms have been 2 beds only. I have noted those with 3 beds to a room, but we may struggle and we have been warned that things get crazy over Easter, which is a week long holiday here.

Well, despite only drinking water and lemonade today, that’s it – eyes refuse to stay open. Good night!

Category:

2008 Baja California

Monday, 11 February, 2008 – Todos Santos to Buena Vista

We made the usual number of cactus stops as we headed south from Todos Santos towards the Cape – our final (but disappointing) end goal. It is just like ‘Any Street, Benidorm etc’ and we could not wait to get out. Unfortunately the whole stretch of some 100 km is like this, with the Mexicans using it as the place to fleece tourists (= Americans). We drove out of town in the hope of finding a cheap hotel. No chance, and with day light failing shortly after 6, and me not liking driving in the dark on roads with plenty of dead (black) cows along the side, eventually took a turn to the Buena Vista Beach Resort which, at US$135 for two, is the most expensive we have had by some 50 dollars. But breakfast and a free Margarita are included and they have wifii, so what the hell.

I have Plan B for March to learn from today’s lessons.

So, technically, we have reached the ‘end of Baja’, turned around and are some 100 km on our way back.  The exciting thing is that more plants are coming into flower, including Pachycereus.

Finally, as a special for Angie & Margot, the picture they requested of me touching a whale. I’m the one with the Concha Y Toro (Chilean Wine) cap, throwing the shadow over my face – the whale is the one in the water!

Category:

2008 Baja California