Baja California - beautiful but a bit brrrrr! - La Paz, Mexico
La Paz, Mexico
LA PAZ, BAJA
CALIFORNIA SUR, MEXICO
26th
February 2013
N24° 09.546' W110° 19.101’
Rosscos Hostel in San Cristobal de las Casas was inclined to be noisy at night due to them having no rules concerning noise from inmates after say 10pm. We were also kept awake till late there because of inconsiderate other dorm occupants banging the door or not closing it every time they went out. Never mind the mess they left the place in, especially the shared bathroom. In spite of this
it was a nice hostel with friendly, helpful staff, it had a spotless kitchen and good wifi. And most importantly as usual, we could park Jambo in their yard safely off the street.
From San Cristobal we headed back west through the dreaded city of Tuxtla Guttierez where we had previously got snarled up in the traffic jams caused by protesters. But apart from taking a few wrong turns within the city thanks to the GPS getting its knickers in a twist this time we escaped
unscathed and were soon bombing along the toll free MEX190 to San Blas Atempa about 330 kms to the south west on the Pacific coast. Here we first checked out a RV site listed by Church & Church, the doyens of US style RV camping in Mexico. But as so often happens the listed details about Santa Teresa RV Park were entirely wrong – it had closed down seemingly some time ago, and not surprisingly judging by its location and the state of its facilities.
Nevertheless, the Church’s Mexican camping guide book turned out to be often helpful in finding places to stop overnight. But the north American take on "camping" is rather different to ours. The guide book talks about sewer hook-ups, cement patios, pull through sites and 50 Amp breakers – all squarely aimed at those with monstrous great RVs whose idea of camping has absolutely
nothing to do with tents and cooking outdoors but more to do with “can I get a satellite signal for the TV”! The people who travel in these huge rigs (often just a couple in a vehicle over 40 feet long with slide out bedroom compartments) might be able to travel with the same comforts they have back
home, but their sheer size, lack of ground clearance and manoeverability prevents them from getting anywhere near the wild and interesting places we can access with a well kitted 4x4. In fact, generally these big RVs are stuck with only being able to use tar roads which down here in countries like Mexico, and even more so further south, can be somewhat restrictive in where one can go. Another factor which would terrify me is the gas mileage that these big rigs must have. Many still are powered by gasoline rather than diesel engines. Combine a big petrol V8 with automatic transmission and a large unaerodynamic body maybe weighing in at around 7 tonnes or more and you’re looking at fearsome fuel consumption. If, as many RV owners do, you add a small towed car on the back for getting around town to do shopping and sightseeing etc the fuel consumption go up again….Horses for courses I guess.
After checking out a posh hotel near Santa Teresa with rooms at prices way out of our budget we ended up in the town of San Blas Atempa not far away to spend one night in the Donaji Hotel (N16 19.830 W95 13.924) which had good parking, wifi and an en suite room for 410 Pesos. We had supper there but couldn’t get breakfast next morning as the restaurant only opened at 10 am!
On the weather front we were still seeing big variances in temperatures. Below 1000m ASL it was often hitting the mid 30s by midday, but once up in the mountains this could drop substantially and at night was becoming decidedly chilly. We are going to have to get used to lowering temperatures now as we continue northwards and be careful that we don’t move too fast in that direction. There have already been reports in the US media of severe snow storms in the southern states when at this time of year one would think it would be starting to warm up a little.
We are seeing lots of VW Beetles on the Mexican roads and noticeably more and more US sourced vehicles, especially big engined pick ups like Dodge, GMC, Ford and Chevrolet. Some Toyota Hi Luxes and VWs Amaroks too but they are very much in the minority as it seems Mexicans, like the Americans, don’t do “small”!
Also Mexicans like to chuck rubbish on the sides of the road much like some countries to the south. This habit is really very sad, very unsightly and a big turn off to visitors or those thinking of settling here. What is it that makes them do it? Is there a complete lack of reliable and frequent rubbish removal services, no places to get rid of old metal, plastic bags, building rubble and worn
out cars, no industry dealing with recycling or reuse of materials like aluminium, steel, paper etc? Or is just plain laziness….. Seems that no one here much cares which is not helping the country’s image one bit.
My “Bush Lover” cap has been causing consternation amongst a few of the Americans we have met when I have been wearing it. “Do you really support our previous President?” they ask when seeing it on my head, not realizing that the “Bush Lover” logo on the cap is a copy of the famous Land Rover logo….
Mexico is in love with topes. Topes are speed humps sometimes also signposted (but not always) as a “Reductor de Velocidad” which are placed on almost every category of road except the fast toll roads and almost always at the entry and exit to every village and every 50 metres or so through the built up area. Some are marked with approach signs others often not. They can be graded
in terms of their contour between one that can be driven over at maybe 30 kms/hr to one that requires an almost a complete stop and on which many normal cars at least will bottom. If one hits one of these unseen horrors at night (a real possibility) the chances of one’s vehicle being damaged are high. In extreme cases I am certain the outcome could be a loss of vehicle control and a big accident. Whether they achieve a reduction in pedestrian related accidents or not is unknown. But they for sure have to significantly add to vehicle repair and running costs as well as adding to the strain on drivers losing any sort of rhythm on a long trip. I personally hate the bloody things! We read on Chris & Janet’s blog that their Hi Lux is now suffering from distorted wheel rims as a result of having run into too many unseen topes at speed.
We have been using more of the toll roads in Mexico to enable us to cover bigger daily distances to catch up on our schedule. The tolls are quite expensive, sometimes well over 100 Pesos for a car like ours for around 100 kms. But if taking into account wear and tear on the vehicle and driver and
probably better fuel consumption from steadier speeds on the toll roads they are fair value for money. However, the filling stations on them are sometimes very far apart and exit/entry points not frequent so care is needed if planning to use them.
One night was spent next to the Manialtepic Lagoon at a so called RV park listed by Church and Church called El Paraiso (N15 56.430 W97 10.010). The grass we parked on was OK so long as one kept well away from the possibility of falling coconuts from the palm trees but at 150 Pesos for the night it was overpriced offering very rudimentary cold showers in which bats were inclined
to roost at night, loos that didn’t flush, lots of bugs, the whole place sadly very run down and its owner Ignacio obviously lacking in capital to tidy it up. It was also very hot there at night.
We had expected to be the victims of the much talked about filling station scams that were supposed to be the scourge of overlanders like us. Giving wrong change, not zeroing the pump or even tampering with the pump to make it deliver less than indicated were all pitfalls we had heard about. But so far we had experienced none of this on the occasions we visited the usually well maintained and well run Pemex filling stations for diesel. We hope it continues.
A feature of much of the Mexican landscape are black vulture like birds which can often be seen circling over the road ahead where some unfortunate animal or bird has been hit by a passing vehicle. Dogs are frequent victims and seem not to display the road savvy up here in Mexico that their cousins further south appear to be endowed with.
On the way to Acapulco we pulled off the road for a comida tipica for lunch along with a cold Corona Extra beer all for 120 Pesos for the two of us – about $10 US.
We had not originally been planning on visiting Acapulco, the most famous of Mexico’s beach resort cities, but the guide books more or less said that to miss it would be a great pity, and the city has one rather special drawcard that sucked us in once reminded about it – Acapulco’s famous
Clavadistas or Cliff Divers. But even before we got to our camp site or had a chance to see the Clavadistas in action we became the prey of the city’s crooked cops as we battled our way through its hectic traffic. As we crawled along its congested streets heading to the north west coastline and our camp site a cop on the pavement, right at the extremity of my peripheral vision, flapped his hand in a somewhat desultory manner. I just saw it but chose to ignore his pathetic signalling which could have been intended for any one of the dozens of vehicles around us. As it was he was directing us to stop. But we didn’t, until we came to an intersection manned by more cops who on seeing us immediately waved us over to the side. Our earlier cop with the moffie signalling had obviously radioed his mates ahead to pull us over. So this municipal cop comes to the window and after establishing that we cannot understand Spanish (we can, a bit, but in these situations
always play totally dumb) tells us we have committed a major offence by refusing to heed the stop signal of another policeman. He speaks a little English so we ask him what did the cop down the road think we had done wrong. He didn’t know. So now what? We must pay a fine he says (read, here comes the roundabout demand for a “mordita” or little bite which translates to a bribe). OK, he says, you must go the police station TOMORROW, note NOT today which for us would be more convenient but tomorrow, which he thinks is so inconvenient that we will give in to his ruse, and pay the fine/bribe directly to him. How much is the fine? No response. OK, give me the ticket detailing the offense and we will go RIGHT NOW TO THE COP SHOP TODAY. Blank look. So then we challenge him direct. “You looking for a bribe, a mordita?” Of course, no reply with two of us present (one as witness). His face tells us we have the psychological upper hand and with a resigned look he waves us on. I’m sorry, we are not in the business of subsidizing poorly paid cops with outrageous bribes because the government of a country can or will not pay decent salaries. Paying bribes just exacerbates the problem and ultimately helps no one. We have only ever once paid a bribe in over 100,000 kms of overland travel (to get us let out of the port at Aswan in Egypt) and we are not about to do it now.
We chose the Acapulco Trailer Park (N16 54.193 W99 58.572) as our overnight stop – another listed in the Church & Church Mexican camping guide. It was sort of OK, 200 Pesos per night, weak wifi which didn’t work at all at our chosen site, but it had reasonable showers, a pool and a small shop and was quiet and seemingly safe. You could definitely not swim off the beach though due to the dumper waves and obvious undertow. The thump of the dumpers hitting the beach would have affected a light sleeper on one of the more costly sites nearest the beach. It was also hot at night and the onset of flu or something similar didn’t help me sleep that well either.
Later on in the day we hailed a taxi to town whose driver stopped en route for an ice cream which he licked casually whilst tearing around the twisty road back to the city centre. We wanted to see the famous cliff divers or Clavadistas jumping off their their 100 ft plus cliff perch into the sea
below. One of the best spots to see this is from the terraces at the Miramar Hotel. The hotel has latched onto this tourist drawcard in no mean fashion and offers a package which includes dinner, two drinks per person and the otherwise normal fee everyone who wants to see the divers must pay anyway. At 440 Pesos per person it’s not exactly cheap but then it’s a rather special sight and we had just enough cash on us at the time. So it was splurge time, what the heck. The meal was OK if not exceptional, but the young divers who performed twice whilst we were there displayed their fearlessness and great skill in a stunning display. They first jumped into the sea which surges in and out of the narrow rock gully into which they dive and then scrambled up the almost sheer wall of the cliff without any outside assistance such as ropes to their launch point some 32 metres above the water. It being night time the gully is floodlit adding to the drama. At the top of the cliff there is a small shrine at which the divers pray for divine protection on their leap into the sea. Then they take it in turns, sometimes singly, sometimes two at a time, to stand poised on the cliff edge before leaping out and down in a long, graceful swallow dive to hit the water hopefully clear of the ugly rocks far below. The water depth in the gully varies with the tide and the surge of the ocean but is usually no more than 3 metres. If the diver gets it wrong in judging the incoming surge he can and
will hit the bottom of the gully, yet they seemed to have no waiting paramedics or medical help standing by in the case of a misjudgement. The clavadistas who are professionals getting paid for their diving have been jumping off the cliffs since the 1930s and many famous personages have witnessed this special event over the years including JFK who spent his honeymoon with Jackie in
Acapulco, Frank Sinatra, Greta Garbo and dozens of others whose photographs and autographs adorn the walls of the hotel. Elvis was supposed to have starred in the film “Fun in Acapulco” made here and which featured him apparently participating in the cliff diving. But in fact a double was used, not only for obvious personal safety reasons. Apparently, prior to Elvis’ visit to the city to star in the film he said something deemed to be insulting about the then Mexican President’s wife who promptly banned him from visiting Mexico! We tried to film the divers doing their thing but it being floodlit and us being positioned about 80 metres from the cliff proved impossible to get decent video
and only a couple of poor quality stills of the divers before they took flight. Even so, and in spite of my flu like symptoms, it was a rather special experience which we enjoyed before taking another taxi home to our campsite at the Trailer Park. The only dampener was our waiter who came looking for and virtually demanding a tip after we had left our table.
From Acapulco it was a short drive of just over 200 kms to Zihuatanejo along a nice coastal road with little traffic. We stopped briefly en route at the remains of maybe a restaurant or hotel which looked as if it had been hit by a tsunami. We drank a beer, skinny dipped in the sea and said hello to a Canadian couple who live 6 months here and 6 months home but oddly want to sell up their
house here and buy an RV. Cannot work out why.
We stopped for one night at El Manglar restaurant and RV site at Zihuatanejo (N17 37.573 W101 32.665). Not a bad spot but filled with huge Canadian or US rigs, one with a washing machine and dish washer parked next to it! The place used to be known as La Ropa restaurant which is known for being one of the best eateries in town. Sadly the day we were there was the one day a week when it’s closed. There was a really nice beach next to the restaurant, with lots of “oldies” of every shape and size, some corpulent some anorexic, and all apparently from the US or Canada. What the locals must think of these people invading their towns and beaches. The restaurant menu looked very tempting but we came the wrong day….
The US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) guys were still playing hard to get asking for all 3
pages of their Memorandum returned in the same format. We will get it right eventually, it’s just irritating they’re being so pedantic about it. And trying to get the forms off to them isn’t helped by the Internet still being slow here.
Next stop was one night at Villa Patzcuaro (N19 32.047 W101 36.601) on the edge of the attractive town of Patzcuaro about 280 kms to the north and inland from Zihuatanejo. There we found a lovely green campsite with a pool, good wifi and nice hot showers. There were a few other RVs there including Aussies and Americans. We left Jambo on the site and took a collectivo (small taxi bus) to the town centre and wandered around soaking up the relaxed and friendly atmosphere of the place. Back at the campsite the MSR stove again had a tantrum and refused to function till I had disassembled it and cleaned every orifice. What a pain in the butt but I have to assume it is because of impurities being formed by the additives in the fuel after igniting it as I take great care to filter the fuel into the stove’s bottle before filling it.
We were still convinced we needed to keep pushing up through this giant country of Mexico so as to have enough time before the onset of the northern winter months in America, Canada and most importantly Alaska. So we were mostly doing one night stops at this juncture.
Next was the weird town of Guanajuato where we first tried to find Hostel La Casa de Diego y Frida listed on the Hostel World website. But the position they had was wrong so we never found it using both GPS units. It was also not helped by the fact that the town set deep in a sort of gorge is
criss-crossed by many road tunnels in which of course the GPS cannot function, not being able to receive signals from the GPS satellites. One of the bigger tunnels now used by vehicles used to be an underground river! We then had a look at Morrill Camping site in town but it looked scruffy and totally unappealing so that was given a miss. We ended up, after getting lost more than once in the road tunnels at Bugamville RV Park (N20 56.735 W101 15.506) outside town right opposite a construction camp! It was somewhat noisy with a mechanical digger on the site falling into a hole and a very large and noisy Caterpillar tractor having to come and pull it out. We shared the site with two other big RVs, one containing an Aussie couple(with other camper vans on 3 continents!), the
other belonging to a couple of lay preachers who we didn’t get to meet. That night we were treated to a glorious sunset which would have been even more spectacular had we not been looking at it through the site’s security fence….
Meantime I was battling a bit to get rid of the remains of the flu which was proving to be hard to shift. One thing it isn’t is malaria – it’s too chilly at night now for malaria carrying mozzies.
Hooray – we finally got our EPA Exemption letter by e-mail for the LR to enter the US. Sure took its
time and even more frustrating is the possibility that after all this we may not in fact need such a document. Other overlanders we are meeting are telling us they didn’t need it when entering the US. Who has been misleading who????
Mexico is famous for tacos, chillies, big moustaches and of course tequila. And it has a town of that name which heavily trades on this fact being smack in the centre of the area where tequila is produced and where the blue agave plant from which it is derived is grown. So not being ones to miss a chance to sample another strain of alcoholic beverage we aimed Jambo’s nose at Tequila in
the state of Jalisco and the famous Jose Cuervo tequila distillery in the town. We joined a tour conducted by an English speaking guide and learnt about the history of this, the largest producer of tequila in the world and a family business that holds close to 20% in sales of the global market of this famous drink. The Cuervo family were first granted a licence to commercially produce tequila by King Carlos IV of Spain in 1795. Today the distillery occupies a large area of the town and incorporates both traditional and modern techniques in producing several different grades and quality of tequila. Its most exotic and refined versions can sell for up to 2000 Pesos a bottle. The end product is made from the sugary juice squeezed from the boiled pineapple like bloom that
grows within the agave plant and which is then allowed to ferment and is distilled. The more expensive and usually smoother tequilas are derived from pure agave juice and are aged for varying periods, the better ones in wooden barrels from the USA; the more affordable ones come from a mix of agave juice and other sources of alcohol. Young varieties spend no time improving in wooden barrels.
We ended up sampling not one but several different grades of the fiery liquid and to cap it all were handed a margarita before staggering out of the door to climb into Jambo to go find our campsite for the night. Needless to say we took the wrong turnings out of town, got lost amongst the farm tracks, did lots of shouting at one another, the stupid GPSs and the crazy Mexicans and their lack of road signs and anyone else who would (but didn’t) listen…..
But eventually we got back on the right track and found Delia’s RV park (N20 46.381 W104 03.883) just outside the little town of Etzatlan. What a great find it was too. Run by Bonnie, Mexican by birth but with strong links to the US and speaking perfect English we felt immediately at home there, sheltered under her huge trees and on nice green grass. Bonnie’s place is one of the fincas owned originally by her parents and features a sort of time share hotel in one corner, her house in another and lots of open farmland around the site. After a hiccup with the gas (which resulted in Bonnie giving us a Strelitzia cutting as a peace offering!) we had nice hot showers and surprisingly quick
wifi internet. Bonnie kindly took us to town in her Jeep so that we could shop for blood pressure tablets for me and get some documents printed. But again, the tabs were horrendously expensive as we had found before in Mexico so only bought one box. No need to show a scrip though – very casual over scheduled drugs. But don’t get caught with antibiotics unless you have the official scrip
for them. For reasons unknown the Mexican authorities have a problem over antibiotics apart from drug smugglers in general! We bought some rib eye steaks from a butcher recommended by Bonnie and wandered around the town which was fun. It helps so much having a fluent Spanish speaker in tow. Thanks Bonnie for all your help. Sadly, she lost one of her chickens and a duck during the night to some form of marauding animal, maybe a coyote, even though she had three alert dogs on her premises. The surviving duck was also injured and we had to fetch it out of the time share swimming pool where it had taken refuge but could not get out of with its injured leg. I helped Bonnie retrieve and revive it and get it back in its pen. Shame, she obviously loved her animals and was distraught about the losses and unnecessary killings as neither bird was eaten.
We took the toll roads next to the town of Tepic on our way towards Mazatlan and the ferry over to La Paz on the Baja California peninsula, our next major objective. In Tepic we got Jambo a well deserved and much needed wash for 60 Pesos and after shopping at the rather nice Chedraui supermarket there we then scooted off to slot ourselves into the unusually located Los Pinos RV park (N21 28.901 W104 53.550) – another of Church & Church’s listings – which one finds immediately behind a small shopping centre. But it was pleasantly quiet there, good value, with hot showers and wifi, our only neighbours being an American couple in their mid sized RV. They were travelling on to Mazatlan next morning like us, but in their case for him to commence the dental treatment for which he had come especially from the US. Due to its much lower costs as compared to the US yet very high medical and dental standards many Americans come over to Mexico for elective surgery.
Meantime, I almost needed medical intervention with a horribly stiff and painful neck which during that night gave me hell and had me shouting in agony every time I tried to move in bed. It eventually cleared up on its own accord but I attribute the cause to too much slumping over the laptop combined with the cold draft coming through Jambo’s side window which we must open when sleeping inside. After more shopping in Tepic we headed out of town to continue down the toll roads but stupidly without drawing more cash before leaving the town and its ATMs. As it turned out on the long run towards Mazatlan we nearly didn’t have enough cash after buying diesel to pay the tolls all the way to the end of the tolled section. Quite what the toll booth people would have done if this had happened I don’t know……
We booked the ferry across from Mazatlan to La Paz by e-mail before leaving Tepic. Normally they wouldn’t accept a booking without advance payment in full, but they did this time so long as we paid up immediately on arrival in Mazatlan which we promised we would. My credit card was again refused by their machine, yet it works OK in ATMs. Weird. So had to cough up in US dollars which
they accepted as we didn’t have enough in Pesos at the booking office. All in all it came to just over 3900 Pesos or 312 USD, a hell of a lot as it turned out for what turned out to be a mediocre service.
The Funky Monkey Hostel in Mazatlan (N23 14.912 W106 26.714) and run by Salem, a likeable young American was our port of call in Mazatlan. A lovely hostel and newly established plus a very competitive price of P380 for our own en suite room which included its own kitchenette and free drinking water. We had excellent wifi and a pool too. The only drawback was having to park Jambo outside the door, but it being a quiet and neat residential area we reckoned it was safe enough. We even had a nice view from our room upstairs overlooking the park behind the hostel. One guy from the US staying there had a really neat, small (by US standards!)Dodge based camper which cost him just USD 25000! A bargain except no ground clearance and too “smart” for bush camping!
We tried to Skype call our bank to check on my credit card status but Nedbank closed at 4pm SA time. They need to adopt Mexican and south American banking hours. It’s VERY expensive drawing cash from ATMs all over south, central and north America. The ATM company deduct a handling charge from what you’ve asked for, then one’s own bank levies more charges or commission PLUS VAT! As usual, a rip off and probably more expensive than using a local bank
teller who would only charge one lot of commission I think. But then ATMs are way quicker and more convenient than standing in bank queues.
We shopped at the big Mega supermarket in town and parked on the nice beachfront to walk along the beach to stretch our legs. There were lots of Americans there (Mazatlan is quite close to the US and offers warm winter weather). Many of the US expats there appeared seriously overweight. Why do they let themselves turn into fatties like this? It’s sad and they are downright ugly as a result.
We headed down to the ferry after eating our lunch rolls on the beach and drawing more cash as we were not sure where we can get Pesos on the Baja. We filled the car’s tanks as diesel over there was likely to be more than on mainland.
Arriving at the ferry terminal at what we thought was 2 hours ahead of 4pm sailing time we discovered that our watches were on the wrong time zone and had been for weeks! Goes to show though that time is not that critical on one of these trips – unless you have to catch a ferry etc….
Diana had to board the ferry with other foot passengers whilst I drove the car on board. The car was searched prior to boarding quite thoroughly by the military at the port including using a sniffer dog (presumably for the usual drugs). I hoped they didn’t nick anything in front whilst I was busy opening up the rear for them. The ferry seemed very full of vehicles including lots of 18 wheeler trucks and maybe 90% full with passengers.
Once on board we chatted with Canadian overland bikers Dwight, Wilf and Rudi, nice guys and so much more fun and outgoing than the Americans we have met generally.
It wasn’t a great night on the ferry for the 16 hour crossing to La Paz, trying to sleep with screaming children and parents refusing to move out of the reclining seats area with their badly behaved offspring until I and others made a fuss. They should have been in cabins, but at over 700 Pesos the cabins are quite pricey and beyond the means of locals maybe. The food on board was pretty poor, dinner and breakfast being included in the ticket price. We smuggled our own rum and coke on for our evening shot and some granolas etc.
We started sleeping in the standard reclining seats but the armrests wouldn’t fold up where we were, the noisy kids kept up the screaming till late and it got colder as the night progressed. Diana moved to the dining saloon and I joined her there later to sleep stretched out on padded chairs. It was a mite better and warmer and quieter. Many others slept outside on deck on top of lifejacket
storage bins.
We crossed the Tropic of Cancer at 23 degrees and some minutes North during the night on the ferry and it’s now noticeably much colder at night and cooler during the day too. Have to think about slowing down a bit especially as the international news media are talking of snow storms in the US southern states.
It was light by 7am and the Baja in sight by breakfast time. The passage was smooth apart from sleeping arrangements. Then we realized we had the wrong time – Baja is 1 hour behind, same as California! And yes we navigate like this all over the Americas…..
There was a huge holdup after disembarking from the ferry whilst the military conducted searches of some of the vehicles in port. One red Mexican BMW SUV off the ferry was being taken apart by suspicious soldiers removing inside trim from the doors, boot area etc. The rest of us were being held up as a result. Diana waited at the other end of the road for me for 2 hours as passengers in cars embark and disembark separately from their vehicles and drivers. A big cock up and something that makes tourists like us wonder if the authorities really know what they are doing.
Once reunited again we drove out of the port north of La Paz to Playa Tecolote as it was recommended as a bush camping spot there on beach. But it was chock a block too full of Yankee RVs and windy. So we tried Playa Balandra instead just around the corner but it also was not much to get excited about. We ended up bush camped on the beach within view of the ferry terminal and got charged a hefty 20 Pesos by the greedy owner of a nearby restaurant for a bucketful of water that wasn’t even drinkable. Having told them beforehand we might come for breakfast next morning told him we wouldn’t be and didn’t like being ripped off. Too bad.
We stopped in La Paz for supermarket shopping at a Chedraui then it was onto the MEX 1 southwards followed by the Carretera Transpeninsular for La Ribera on the coast of the Sea of Cortes or Golfo California to look for a bush camp spot on the beach. We found it at our 23rd bush camp (N23 30.684 W109 28.512) after going further south to start with after the tar ended and had by then turned into horrible corrugated gravel. A sand track lead right to the beach, past the airstrip and down the only public access to the coast. It was a grand spot, there being no one around, but the sea was not OK for swimming due to dumpers and a bad undertow. We spent one night there.
Then it was back north again onto the tar road to Los Barriles – much developed like the rest of the coast round there with real estate offices at every turn, houses for ex pat Americans and maybe Canadians going up all over plus loads of RVs that seem to have been sold by their original gringo owners sitting in disrepair on scruffy rural lots that probably belong to locals who cannot afford to build a house. So a 2nd hand RV will do as an alternative home till it inevitably rots in the harsh Mexican sunlight.
We had read in Church & Church about a so called “dangerous” coastal track only fit for hi clearance 4x4 vehicles that ran around the coast north from Los Barriles, and then inland to join up with the tarred road from La Paz to the point at Ensenada de los Muertos. So we headed along the coast firstly on rough corrugated gravel and sand, past endless housing developments with real estate signs everywhere. We doggedly kept going for about 25 kms of slow going until the electricity power lines finally came to an end. Then we knew we were getting close to what we wanted – a nice quiet, remote spot on the beach away from buildings, trucks and people. We finally found it at our 24th bush camp (N23 54.392 W109 49.133) tucked into the bush out of the northerly wind that blows much of the time in these parts. It seemed that maybe a hobo had at one time made his “home” right there too as he had created little alcoves in the bush out of the wind, had strung up some wire to delineate “his” patch, and even gone to the lengths of erecting his own rudimentary long drop toilet complete with plastic loo seat tucked back into the dense bush! We had about a km of lovely sandy beach all to ourselves where we could skinny dip. In spite of a still leaking water jerry on the roof we still had enough water for a shower that evening as usual with hot water heated in our black kettle and then poured into our bush shower hanging from a tree branch. We both walked the beach in both directions and apart from a handful of quad and scrambler bilkers
who tore past once each we never saw a soul. We slept well there and next morning whilst having breakfast a lone hummingbird of all things made an appearance and without any fear at our presence flitted and hovered around us, at one point making to drink from my coffee mug. He even got into the car through an open door. We tried to entice him back with some sugared water in a dish laid on a rock and sadly didn’t have the camera in hand at the time to get a picture. We left the sugar water when we departed in the two halves of a beautiful oyster shell: we hope he found it in that otherwise arid spot there being no ground water or streams anywhere.
Then we took to the so called “dangerous” coastal track that hugged the coastline for a while before heading back inland. It was certainly rough and steep in places with nasty drop offs to the sea below. The loose rock surface needed Jambo’s outstanding off road traction and low down grunt to negotiate. But as usual the Landie just growled over it all with no drama at all. We later heard from Rick the owner of the Baja Backpackers in La Paz that he had tried the route in the opposite direction in his US built 4x4 truck some time before and had given up on it due to the terrible surface and its steepness. But then Defenders and US styled 4x4s are not really comparable, are they….
We got back to La Paz in fine form looking forward to a comfy hostel bed, a hot shower and a chance to catch up on e-mails and the blog. It took a while driving around the town looking for a place to stay. La Paz is decidedly short on hostel style accommodation. We eventually settled on the Hotel Lorimar (N24 09.490 W110 19.092) not far back from La Paz’s attractive malacon or sea
front drive. Having settled in there where there was no restaurant or communal kitchen for us to use we walked around the corner and found the Baja Backpackers (N24 09.546 W110 19.101), a brand new place just opened by Rick and Eva, a charming and interesting couple, he from the States she from Mexico. We elected to move there the next day even though it cost more than the Lorimar.
But it DID have the all important kitchen for us to use AND it had good, secure off street parking neither of which the Lorimar could supply.
To really make our stay in La Paz somewhat special we met our first South African overlanders there since encountering Kobus from Life Remotely way back in Ecuador. We were parked at the big Walmart on the edge of town when we spotted a purposeful looking Toyota Landcruiser kitted out for overlanding sporting SA flags and a Gauteng number plate. So we pulled alongside the
Cruiser to await its occupants. Sure enough a few minutes later Marius de Clercq and Debbie Bolton emerged and we spent the next half an hour or so comparing notes and enjoying one another’s company. They were headed south into south America so we gave them some info on the shipping across from Panama to Cartagena in Colombia and a few other titbits. We exchanged contact details and hope to remain in touch as we finish our respective trips. It was quite a sad
moment saying goodbye and we both I think realized for a moment just how far from home we were just then….
So it’s from here in La Paz, the weather getting decidedly cooler now that we have crossed the Tropic of Cancer at 23 and some degree North, that for the time being we say hasta luego.