1-30-05
The sun is just rising over the islands in the bay of Las Angles. It is still a little windy and I have put on my long pants and sweater. I am camped up on a hill above the bay that seems to be a favorite place to dump garbage.
I had a hard time with the Internet place yesterday. I went in and checked out the place and found out that it would be 250 peso’s per hour. I went out and burned the CD with my road log on it with and without photos. When I went in to use the computer, the power was off and it was unavailable.
I took a cruise around town and checked out the beach at a couple of hotels. I stopped at a restaurant and ordered the enchilada de pollo, or something like that. Chicken enchilada’s and a Corona beer. It was very good but was surprised by the bill for 775peso’s. I think the food was 500 so the beer must have been 275 or about $2.75. I have found that the prices down here are very similar to the prices in the US. one guy I talked with said as much when he said that the deals in Mexico are over.
I took a short nap and when I got up I could see that the store was open again. The power is generated in a local building that serves the town. I went in and got on my yahoo mail site. I was able to put in my CD with the road log and paste it into an email. I went through my address book and selected my road log list and hit send. I got back a message that there were too many addresses and I needed to go to the yahoo groups page and ??? I haven’t the time to go there and figure that out, so I pasted a partial list of names in a new email and sent that. I actually don’t know if I got everybody or not as I had to send out four different emails and got back notices of too many names again on one of them. So, if you didn’t get the 1-29-05 log, let me know and I can try to get it to you. This working with Internet café and other people’s computers isn’t very friendly for this type of thing. Maybe I will find a wireless site where I can hook this laptop up direct, that is nice.
In my looking around I ran across a guy in a sharp little Toyota pickup. It turns out that he is a botanist and he is working on the islands off shore. He said that he has kayaked around the big island and all the little ones. He is retired school teacher and just got interested in botany in later life. He has found plants that nobody else had found on the big island. He says that there are plants there that are nowhere else in the world. The big island looks to be about 60 miles long. it is some kind of nature preserve now and you need a permit to go there. He finally got a permit to collect plants out there after much hoop jumping. He was interesting to talk to but after a while his attitude was all how great he was and how much money he had and how much more he knew about what was growing around here. I figure he is just a poor little dirt bag doing the work for the scientists who publish and get all the glory. I am sure he felt superior to little ole me in my Subaru. I had to look up at him as we talked along the road.
He did say that he had one of his Toyota pickups stolen while eating at a restaurant. He said they are very professional and even though the restaurant owner took him around to three different police departments to stand in line and fill out papers, he knew he would never get it back. He said that the police were in on it and how can you win that way? I hope nobody wants to steal lil red.
On my way up this little road to my present camp I hit a rock with the sidewall of my front tire and killed it. I was heading into the sun and the windshield of the Subaru has a nice frosted surface from countless dust storms in a former life. I couldn’t see shit and must have nicked a rock. I now need to find a new tire and hope that I can find my size. There are a lot of tire fix-it places around but the sidewall has a bad break and it is not fixable. I did stop at Sam’s and was going to get a spare from one of his old Subaru’s but they were wider rims and I didn’t think they would work on this car as I have only about 3/8” clearance. I should have gotten a spare tire before I left and just carried the tire and could have had it mounted on my rim if needed. Oh well, that is the way I learn. The spare is good but I will have to keep on paved roads until I find a new tire. Today is Sunday and I wont be able to do much today I suspect. I was going to take the back road out to the highway that goes by a mission (San Boria) that evidently has a hot spring up the hill above it. The mission is supposed to be worth a tour and the hot spring does sound good, maybe next time.
I looked all over in the little store for milk but found none. I did find something called Nutri Leche in a box on the shelf. I have seen these boxes on the beach and in several places thrown away and figured they must be milk. I opened it up this morning and it tastes sort of like milk. It says it is ultra pasteurized so I think it must be irradiated milk that they don’t have to refrigerate. I hope it isn’t baby formula, although the gal that checked it out to me didn’t seem surprised.
As I was leaving Las Angeles I stopped a motor home and asked where the nearest bank was. The said Guerrero Negro which is I figure 80 miles or so. The road is good, actually very good and I think there were only a few small potholes along the way. I did stop in Villa Jesus Maria where I got some gas. Did I mention that the gas smells terrible? I don’t notice it at the pump but all the cars and mine now smell bad exhaust. I remember when Susan and I went to Del Rio on the Texas border, the car exhaust smelled bad. They must put something in it or don’t take something out.
It seems like about every 50 miles or so is a military check point. There are at least a half dozen guys guarding the road check points and often they have some of those nail strips that they can pull across the road if someone were foolish to try to run the check point. They are all carrying rifles and they always want to know where you have been and where you are going. Today a guy asked me to open the back of the car which is the first time I have been looked at other than looking in the windows. He found my knife and flashlight and thought it was amusing. I’m glad it wasn’t against the law or something.
I am camped out on the point of Morro Santa Domingo just outside of Villa Jesus Maria. there are several campers out here and I talked with one group that said it was an old British site but they moved their operation. There are several big buildings tucked back in against the hill. There are several outfits camped around there as well as up a little road that you have to drive through a sand trap to get up to. I looked the situation over VERY closely as I have been stuck in beach sand before and you are really stuck when you are stuck in beach sand. I figured Lil’ Red could make it, so I put her in four-wheel drive and made a run at it. No problemo!!! I am the highest camp and almost to the end of this little road where there is a small rock wall with a Jesus statue in it. I took a walk up the main road that goes past my camp and met a young couple who were coming back from fishing one of the beaches. They said the surf was too rough and scary and the fish weren’t biting so they came back. These beaches are in direct access to the breakers coming in and the girl had a bag of ‘sand’ that consisted of nothing but broken shells. I guess the ocean brings up the shells and the surf pounds them into small pieces like sand. I walked up to the lighthouse and beyond a mile or so and could see down into the beach where they were fishing. The surf did look rough.
The bay is somewhat protected by the outcrop I am camped on and there is a nice beach below. I took a short walk on the beach when I first got here and found some nice shells. One shell had a dying hermit crab in it. The shells are different on the Pacific side and some of the shells are like the ones Megan has her crabs in. I will take a long walk on the beach tomorrow and see what I can find. I could see the whales blowing out in the bay. I was told that the whales don’t come down and mate until March, but I guess these got here early for the party. The main whale watching bay is south of here by Guerrero Negro. I think I saw a couple of dolphins tooling around as well. The wind is blowing and I have an idea that is the normal situation around here. The campers down at the base of the hill are much more protected than up here, but I have a better view.J If the wind goes down I will get the camera out and snap a photo of the beach. I don’t dare get it out in this sand unless it is calm.
1-31-05
The wind continued to blow so you don’t get a photo, you will just have to come down and see it yourself. I had a nice walk on the beach in the morning and met a guy that was also walking. He had his dog and two others that came along for the exercise. One of the dogs came up to my camp last night. They were all friendly and the guys dog was a golden retriever that doesn’t retrieve. (I know a golden that doesn’t retrieve either, eh Joe?) After the walk I took off for Guerrero Negro. On the way into this place I passed a stretch of fish heads drying out in the sand. I have no idea how they got there or why they are there. They almost look like they were placed out there as they are all spread out and not piled up as if they had drifted in. they seemed to be sharks heads and I rolled down the window and snaped this shot.
I had to go through a agricultural inspection station and pay the inspector 10 pesos to spray the outside of my car. A kid in protective gear (full body suit and face mask with respirator filters) sprayed something around the perimeter of lil red. It must be pretty nasty stuff if a Mexican has to protect themselves from it. Actually I have no idea if he even sprayed it as I had the windows rolled up for the occasion. It could be he just went through the motions, but the ten pesos was real.
I went into town and it sure is different than a regular usa town. It had four lanes with divider and parking all along the side. They keep the speed down by speed bumps all along the street. These are major speed bunps and if you should hit one fast, you go flying. The people are really poor and the town is dirty. I couldn’t identify most of the businesses. I did spot a Michelin tire store on the way through. I found the bank at the end of town and got a parking place in their lot. There was a long line of people waiting to use the atm machine and as I watched I could tell I was going to have trouble using it. I only used an ATM twice in the usa just to see if I could make it work. This machine was all in Spanish so I asked a guy that looked like he might speak English if he would help me. The first time through I only got a bank balance, but we finally figured out how to get money out of it. With warm cash in hand, I headed back to the tire store and with a lot of gesturing and the help of numbers I wrote down of my tire size, I was able to buy a new B F Goodrich tire for lil red. It took a lot of figuring and a phone call but the price was finally determined to be 440 pesos or about forth bucks, not tax or charge for new valve stem and balance job. The kid that did the tire work was so fast and efficient it was really nice to see him work. I have been watching the guys at the Miles City tire shops slowly going through the motions of work and this kid could do two or three tires in the time it takes one of our guys to do one. I am sure he gets paid squat too. they had a new computerized balancing machine and he made quick work out of it. He was just so nice too. They had some really loud Mexican music on in the tire shop and I came in dancing which really got a laugh.
While I was waiting for the price to be determined on the tire I saw on the shelf small cans of Freon 12 for 75 pesos or $7.50. Isn’t that the stuff that is bringing $50 bucks a can in the US now? I know that they can still sell it and use it, but just cant make it any more. They must be able to make it down here.
With the new tire I drove out north of town to the lighthouse, which turned out to be rather uninteresting other than it was some sort of old whaling station I think. There are large structures that must have been where the ships tied up and unloaded their cargo. There were the remains of large concrete building and foundations of the processing system. It must have been quite a facility when it was in operation. The wind was howling out there and there were a few guys fishing with line and sinkers off the structures. They didn’t even have a pole, they just swung the sinker and let it fly. Cheap and effective I guess. There were several small boats out there as well and I guess it is where the fisherman take off from and keep their boats. It appears that there is a guy that lives in an old pickup camper that watches the place.
I cruised town a couple of times and finally asked if there was a internet place. I found it next to a grocery store. They charge 250 pesos/hr so that isn’t bad. That is what it cost at the little store I sent the last log from. They must have a satellite setup as it is a fairly fast connection. I sure wish I could get a wifi connection but I think that will have to wait until I get back to the states or possibly in Cabal san Lucas, which is supposed to be high end deal down there.
Oh, as I stopped at the agriculture inspection station, the guy handed me a brochure of a restaurant and whale-watching place. The brochure is a scream. It reads like Chinese directions to assemble something. It is too bad they didn’t have an English as a first language person proof read the thing. It is really funny. On the way south I saw the sign for the place and decided to go on out and see what the place was like. I met four ladies on the way into the place that said that it was amazing and wonderful experience. It cost 30 pesos to get in which is good for camping the day/night but the boats ride out to be with the whales is $350 US dollars or 385 pesos.
I made it to the place and it is very nice and seems like fairly new or recent remodel. I parked at the first camp place near the restaurant and bar. I wandered on up to check out the place and bought a Corona beer. I am getting to be a real beer hound now, I have had a beer almost every day for a week now. Beer aint cheap in Mexico and here it is 250 pesos. The place is very nice inside and the Bano or bathrooms are way out back in two, two story outhouses. I had to check them out and found that they have a camper/trailer type toilet with a 50-gallon drum of flushing solution with a cup to dip out of. I guess that there must be a holding tank and they come by and pump it out or something. At fist I thought it was a composting toilet.
To get out here I drove 27 kilometers, some of which is through a federal salt operation. It reminds me of the process in Silver Peak Nevada. They pump sea water into large evaporation ponds and when it is concentrated and dry, they scrape it up with large earthmovers and load it on trucks and I think they process it in the town of Guerrero Negro. This is where Natural sea salt comes from. they have small packages of it at the restaurant gift shop and the ladies I talked with on the way in were buying some raw rock salt from the guard. There are guards and checkpoints it seems everywhere. It doesn’t seem like there could be that high a need for them, but maybe that is the way that they spend the drug dollars that the US government gives them. You can see your tax dollars at work, right here in Mexico.
From the patio of the restaurant and bar I could see quitet a few whales blowing far out. I guess I will have to pay the bucks and see then up close. One lady said that later in the season (March) the whales like to be petted. Humm. Evidently the whale season is from December to March, so I am right in the middle of prime time.
I moved my camp down to the extreme end of the campground, that way I wont be tempted to walk back and get another beer. The first boat leaves the dock at 8 am but they take out a boat if there are at least two to go.
2-1-05
It was a beautiful calm morning. I ate a quick breakfast and a cup of tea and hopped in lil red and drove down to the headquarters. There were a crowd of `people all in life jackets milling around waiting to go out and see the whales. I almost turned around right there and left. I got to talking with a guy that was not in a life jacket who I had met the day before on the road in. he was hanging around helping his friend who had the muffler fall off his RV. It seemed like we had a natural attraction somehow. He was telling me about getting up early that morning and standing on the dock when a magic moment happened with two groups of birds. He was really touched by it. It happened at that special time of day when your sight turns from black and white to color. The ‘Kill’ time as an old hunter friend of mine told me. This is the critical time when predators and prey get together, so to speak.
The crowd that showed up filled the boats available so we just hung out and I had a good chance to visit with this guy who’s name is Barry. I decided to stay around and go out on the second shift. We could see lots of whales blowing out in the bay.
We finally got out on the water. I decided to take the front or I guess bow seat, which I figured might be the best viewing spot. We went probably a mile and a half out from the lodge where the deep water started and the whales were showing and blowing. Our boatman tried to get as close as he could to the whales but they kept moving off. The size of them is amazing up close. We scouted around several whales that had young, and I am guessing that they were yearling calves with them since the young ones had barnacles growing on them. The cows had lots of barnacles on them and they appeared almost white from barnacles and other growth on them. It was fun to see them but after awhile I got sort of disgusted with us always chasing them and you could tell that they did not want us near their calf and finally would just sound and take off. There was a real asshole in the boat that was hard to take along with all this. He was a big shot know it all and he spoke Spanish so he had a leg up on everybody for sure. Nobody was talking except this jerk and he carried on a running commentary of what the whales were doing. It was so irritating I think we were all wishing he would fall overboard and I don’t think anyone would want to fish him out.
I had finally sulked up in the front of the boat and just wished we would go back in and leave these whales alone. I could just tell that they wanted us to get the hell out of there. We chased a group of three whales and ended up in the middle of them. That is when something very special happened. I looked down and could see this huge whale that was almost white looking at me from maybe five feet down. He then came up and stuck his nose out of the water right at me. I reached down and stroked his nose and he slowly sank back into the water. WOW!!!! That was something special for sure. I think it was an old male whale or a cow without a calf. It had lots of scars and barnacles on it. He hung around out boat and would come up and scratch himself and allowed people to pet him on the back. I think most of the people got a chance to touch him. Im not sure if I can describe the feel other than maybe wet leather. He wasn’t slimy as I thought he might be and was firm and not spongy. Yes folks, it was magic time for sure. I still don’t like chasing the cows and calves but I can say that the big guy liked or at least didn’t mind the attention. That was about the end of our trip that lasted around two hours.
After we got back I went down to Barry’s camp where he was going to show me a stove he made. Barry had seen me making a cup of tea on my stove and told me that he made his own out of aluminum cans. He has been know as ‘Tin Can Barry’. This guy is 65 years young and is a retired home builder. He loves to ride bicycles and paddle his kayak. He also does long distance backpack treks. He lives in Oregon and has to deal with rain most of the time. he has worked out a system for himself that is (fly weight) minimalist. It is a great system and he put on a show and tell of what he has made for his travels. He says that as he gets older he can’t carry the weight that he used to, so now travels light. He had a very interesting comment on getting older and doing things. He said that what stops you is the weakest link. His wife piped up and said her weakest link was her knee, which now keeps her from going cycle riding with him. The idea is that every body has a weak link like a chain, and when that breaks your life changes and you cant do what ya used to. Humm, what is my weak link? I’ll never know until it breaks.
He first got out a ground sheet that he sleeps on. It is made from siliconized nylon sheeting. It is about three feet wide and a little over six feet long. it has loops attached at the corners for pinning it down. Along one long edge he has a draw string so he can wrap it around himself as a skirt and that is his ‘rain skirt’ he says. This siliconeized nylon is super lightweight. He next got out a roll of the same material that is his tent he made. He didn’t unroll it but it is a roll about an inch and a half in diameter and a foot long. The tent doesn’t come to the ground but is six inches or so off the deck, which allows good ventilation in his moist climate. He uses trees or finds tent poles along his route for the ends. The next item was his poncho out of the same material and about the same size as the tent home made too. the next item was his backpack made out of the same material with some shoulder straps that looked like they came off a day pack or could have been homemade too. the pack has an extender sleeve that he uses when he packs his sleeping bag. There are a couple of mesh pockets on the outside.
The most amazing thing I found about this is that nothing he has made out of this material is sewn, but is just glued together with silicone. I have tried to glue with silicone before but it has never worked, but I guess using it to bond silicone to silicone it works great.
The next item was his stove, which was the original item I was at his camp to see. It is going to be hard to explain but here goes.
It consists of two cans put on inside the other. This is a little tricky but he says that it just takes a little time and patience. The top can has the bottom center cut out. this is the can bottom that you see that has small holes drilled in it. Also inside the is a strip of aluminum can that forms a small airspace. This strip is held in place between the two can halves.
He pours a small amount of denatured alcohol in the bottom of this, maybe an eighth of an inch above the bottom. When it is lit, the fire burns in the middle as well as jets of fire that come out the little holes. He carries the alcohol in a little plastic bottle.
This stove goes inside a wind screen that he made of light weight aluminum sheet that he clips together with large paper clips.
He has a small stainless pan that he uses for his soup or warms up his water for his cereal. (his cereal is a mixture of granola, flax seed, oats, powdered mild, etc which he adds to the hot water for a warm get go in the morning.) He has glued on a couple of ears with JB weld and with the handle of the pan, makes a very efficient LIGHT weight cooking device.
He next got out his sleeping bag and pad for a demonstration. He buys the nylon material, the insulating synthetic fibers and zipper. He has a sleeping pad that he has cut so that it folds up into a pad that fits in his backpack that doubles as the padding to his back and I suppose holds its shape somewhat while loading the pack. He fluffed out his sleeping bag and zipped it up about three feet from the bottom. He says that that is all that is necessary to zipper with this system. It helps to open it up to air it out, dry it out if it should get wet. Inside the opening of the sleeping bag he puts the ground mat that has Velcro strips attaced that match the Velcro that he has attached to the sleeping bag.
He then turned this over and wormed his way into the bag. When he had the bag up to his armpits he says that he usually then does his cooking chores. He says that he is cold blooded and using this system he is able to keep warm while cooking. This step is usually done with the tent over his head and he cooks just outside of the tent and the edge of the ground cloth.
When he is ready to go to sleep he just worms his way all the way into the bag. I wondered about mosquitoes and he pulled out a head net he uses either just over his hat or attached to the peak of his tent to sleep under. This is a system that he has been perfecting for his style of camping but there is a guy that evidently has written a book on light weight camping. The guy that wrote the book has his pack weight down to eight and a half pounds I think he said. That probably doesn’t include food, just his camp. Wow. I didn’t ask Barry what his outfit weighed. We sat around his camp and visited quite a while and we seemed to be on the same page on most subjects. After getting most of the world problems discussed I decided to head out and find a nice nap spot. I found just the right one on the turnoff to the whale spot. (Barry, give me an email so I can contact you)
it is an eight in thick slab of concrete and it made perfect shade for my nap. I headed south again and stopped at the next town and got gas. I saw what I thought was a grocery store and went in and found it to be stocked with huge size boxes and packages of mostly candy. I found a one-pound sack of Japanese peanuts, I had a small package that I bought in a gas station back in Arizona I think it was. I had seen a small Mexican boy beg his dad to get him some, so after they left I strolled over and picked up a package for myself. They are really good and have no idea what they do to them but it must be bad, because they taste so good. I am headed out to the large peninsula that juts out in the Pacific that some guy told me is/was the primo beach-combing place. Evidently the Japanese current comes down the coast of California and runs headlong into this north-facing coast. It is a long way out there and I will have to see how the road is further out. I am in a farming district now and I saw some orange trees and as it was getting dark, I saw several groves of these trees. I have no idea what they are, but the shape is so grotesque I had to try to get a photo.
2-2-05
I camped not too far out side of Vizcaino in a nice patch of cholla and saguaro cactus. It is too bad that the dezert has to be so full of garbage that people have dumped. It seems like no one wants to dump their garbage next to anyone elses or they just find a nice new place to dump.
In the morning two ton trucks with huge high loads of sticks (grape vine supports) came by with usually a couple of guys on top. It was a little chilly and I imaging it was damn cold up on top of that load flying down the highway. Everyone seems to drive like the devil down here. I poke along in lil red and I think I saved myself a ticket by going about 45mph in a 80kph zone. I was on the pave highway and I came up out of a little dip and met a polizia car coming the other way. I could see him pointing his radar gun first at me and then at the guy behind me. every one goes faster than the speed limit so I think they must just look for tourists to catch so they can get the bribe. That is just a guess as they certainly didn’t stop any of the Mexican cars that flew past me. on the main paved highways there is absolutely no shoulder to the road. the pavement stops and it is a drop of anywhere from 6 to 12 inches to dirt. If you go off the side of the road and try to get back on by turning the wheel to the left, you will roll it almost certainly. There are hundreds of car hulks along the side of the road. Almost without exception, they have been rolled, burned and stripped.
The road from Vizcanio to the west is paved and it is a great road, but you still have to watch like a hawk or those unexpected large pot holes will get ya.
this pot hole had some warning around it on my return trip. The hole is bigger than my tire and I think it would have been Lil’ Reds last hole.
I don’t know how far it is out to Bhia Tortugas but it took me all day. The about a third of the way out the road changes to gravel and the guy that maintains it ought to be hanged by his thumbs. Road maintenance is not a secret art and it has been practiced for thousands of years starting with the Romans? The basic principle is to crown the road and let the water escape the side whenever you can. The guy that maintains this road let the center of the road get to be the low spot. When it rains the water all runs down the center of the road and pools up at the dips where it washes out the bottom of the road. I should have counted, but there has to be at least fifty bad washouts and more minor ones on the way out here. The road is very washboard and it was a 5-15mph trip out here. The Mexicans fly past at 50-60 in everything from pickups with fenders flapping to new large trucks. I was about two thirds of the way here when I noticed I had a flat. Jeez, another one killed? I had been very careful and found when I removed it that it had picked up a killer nail in the tread. That is good news as it can be repaired and not have to be pitched as with a side wall break. I finally made it into town and got gas first thing. There were two guys at the station and they really liked lil red. I think one of the guys has or had one like her only it was a 77 model. He kept hitting on lil red and saying ‘bueno’ and smiling like crazy. I took a cruise around town looking for the llantara as that is what the tire shops seem to be called, but couldn’t find one. I stopped at the Polizia station and asked there. There was one guy in a spotless uniform sitting at a desk behind an old Royal standard typewriter doing nothing and another uniformed guy trying to make a coffee machine work. it was a bare little cement block room about 12 X16 and they had a pickup with light on top and two broke down out side on blocks. I asked about the llantara but they didn’t recognize what that could be form my pronunciation, so I let one out side and pointed to a tire and went “sssssssssss”. He got it right away and much arm waving and pointing up the street. I still couldn’t see anything but would ask and point to the tire and say “ssssss” and they would wave me on up the road. I finally found it but it had a sign in the door that said abrito or closed. I went up the road and ate lunch and took a nap (dang, why didn’t I buy some mosquito net) the best I could with the damn flies.
I headed back down and the place was still open but a guy was just getting in a pickup across the way and he saw me motioning and went in the house and brought another guy out that opened the shop. He was really nice and these guys are fast at tires. He had it done in no time. While I was watching him I happened to look down and see this nice big pickup tire with a patch on the sidewall!!! I asked about it and he made the motion of sewing it up and pointed to a large C clamp thing with heating elements on the clamping ends that he used to vulcanize on a patch. Forty years ago we put sections on tires and vulcanized them, but I didn’t think it was done anymore. These Mexicans, on these roads, have never let go of this great way to save a tire. Humm, that kid was sure happy to get the nearly new tire I threw away the other day at the tire store. It probably has been sewn together and vulcanized and sold to some happy dude by now. I love this way of doing with as little as possible and using it up. When I was talking with Barry the other day I mentioned how I really liked the people living on the beach down below San Felipe as they use solar power and seem to make do with very little. He said that it is a different mindset where people use as little energy and water as possible as they know how precious it is. I thought that was well said. I think Pat said that there was a lot of solar being used in Chile and they are probably the same mindset down there.
After I got my tire fixed I went back to a little place where I saw an internet/ telephone/ fax place. I went in and found that both of the computers were being used and the gal said wait or something. It wasn’t too long before a couple came out and stopped to visit. They are from England and had gone to Oxnard, California and bought a 32’ sailboat. They were sailing it down the coast and then across the Pacific to Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, maybe Africa, and home eventually. They were really nice and I would guess about 50 years old. They had been there since Sunday and were just resting up after quite a run in front of a storm. I think they were following the coast but had to go about 80 miles out and then make a wild run with the wind at their backs in to this port. They said it was like surfing all the way in. They said it was very dangerous but exhilarating just the same. I asked the guy if his gal was scared and he said ‘no, she is the fast one.’ It was hard to understand their accent and I first thought they might be German or something but after I listened some I started hearing them. They had come in and used the internet to do bank business. They have a FM radio that they use on the boat that they can do email with. I had never heard of this before, but I guess it is very common for boat people. They can send text only messages and depending on the signal it isn’t terribly slow. He said it would take may be a minute or two to send a two page A4 email. I asked the cost and he said about $250 /year. He said that it could be used anywhere in the world, on land or sea. Maybe Robert my short wave friend will help out with more info for me on that. It might be nice to have in South America next year on the motorcycle. I will have to find out about size and power requirements and the antenna could be a problem. They had a interesting comment about not being able to find an internet café in San Diego or other big towns but in this little poor town there are three of them they said. I think in the usa people have the money to buy computers and are able to pay to have them hooked up, as for here, it is much cheaper to ‘rent’ one for a few pesos.
They mentioned that they were doing their laundry and I asked where the Laundromat was. They just laughed and said you take your laundry to Dolores behind the Yellow restaurant near the dock. They said they had two large bags of laundry done for five bucks. The joke is that they don’t have them back yet. She said they had a list of all their clothes. Sounds like a good idea. They also mentioned that they had used an atm machine along a road in Ensanada and when they did the transaction no money came out or receipt. They had to call their bank right away and cancel and change pin number or something. I heard about this before where someone will set up a machine and collect numbers and you are in BIG trouble. The policy is to only use atm machines at bank buildings. I asked if they had seen any whales on the way down and they said that they traveled down with them. They said at night when they were on watch one would blow next to them and scare them good. They said that they didn’t get too close to them as the whales kept their distance.
They tried to get me to go eat at the little plywood shack across the street. They had just been there and said it was wonderful. Some sort of crab, grated carrot, lettuce, onion and cilantro rolled up in a tortilla. I had just eaten my lunch of bean burrito’s and corn chips and still don’t want to chance getting Montezuma’s revenge.
I took the road out to the very tip of land where there is a town called Eugena. This is a fishing village but has a lighthouse out on a point of land. The road continues on and I followed that road out around the point for several miles before it dead-ended at a cliff with a shack built out of pallets. I can’t imagine what it is for unless it is for watching or signaling fishermen. There was a pile of burned tires pieces so that might be what was happening. On my way back from the dead-end I met a couple of guys that stopped me and told me that he was a “vigilante”. Oh no, now what? He pointed to his eye and I finally understood that he was some sort of watchmen and I was not allowed out there. I told him I was ‘vacacion’ and ‘campo’. He said campo in Eugena. So I went back into town and stopped and asked him to take me to the campo. He motioned to camp anywhere in town. Just look around and make campo. So I looked around and didn’t want to stay in amongst the houses although there are a lot of them that seem to be empty. I finally found the road out to the lighthouse and am camped on a very windy ridge looking out across the bay to a small community on the island of Isla Credos.
Light house built in 1931
I can see Santa Rosalitia in the distance.
I cranked up my little radio around dark thirty and caught the State of the Union message. If it wasn’t the only thing on that was in English I wouldn’t have listened to it. We are screwed.
1-3-05
First light the fishermen were getting their boats in order and now it is light but the sun is still not up. The fishermen have gone out in their little boats for the day. It is going to be a rough day out there and I am pleased to be high and dry in lil red with a cup of tea brewing next to me. I tried to take a little walk this morning, but I screwed up my knee again (the one the sheep popped in Missouri) jumping down from some rocks to run across a little beach before the next wave came in. I made it, but just barely hopping on one leg. The breakers really come smashing in on this coast and you don’t want to be caught between them and the rocks when they come in.
I have been surprised at how few birds and other wild life I have seen down here. I thought that a lot of wild life came down to Mexico to winter, but maybe that is on the mainland side. I went through several salt marsh refuges and there were very few there. I guess they must use them as a resting spot on their way south and north.
I see a couple of guys headed out now at sunrise, they must have gotten a late start somehow. It looks so dangerous to be out there in that little boat in that BIG water. They just go pounding through those swells. I suppose those motors that they have now are more reliable than that damn Evinrude that dad had. A person was lucky to get back with that outboard motor. The boat we went out to watch the whales had a 50 horse Mercury and it was surprisingly quiet and could really make that boat move.
On my way out I could see a couple of the boats not too far off shore and I think they were checking their crab pots. There are quite a few trashed crab pots along the shore, so this must be one of their main businesses around here.
1-4-05
In the morning I could see lots of whales blowing off the
coast, so I guess they are going much further down the coast to another party. I
left my camp at the lighthouse and headed back into town were I picked up the
road to the lighthouse at El Chebo which is a fish camp on the Bahia de
Sebastian Vizcaino. This maybe 25 miles or so from the point where I was camped
last night. This beach is where the Japan current deadheads. Well, I can tell
you that there is a whole bunch of plastic here and very few shells of any kind.
I grabbed a quick nap in the shade of the light house and made it back into
town. I stopped in at one of the internet places and it was busy, so I didn’t
have much time. I saw that the puter had Front Page and
I could have used it but I didn’t want to wait another day to use the
computer.
I went to the water station where
they advertise osmosis and got my five gallon jug filled. I saw there the little
pickup I have seen around town blowing his horn constantly. He has the bed
filled with five-gallon jugs of water that he delivers around town this way. The
horn blowing alerts the people that the water man is coming. Sort of like the
ice cream man did with the little bell. Gosh, I can remember straining my ears
for that sound when I stayed with my grandma. There was no such thing where I
lived with my parents. I am not sure how it works but a lot or maybe most of the
people have what looks like a 50-100 gallon black plastic jug that sits on the
roof of their house or some sort of support near the house. It has plastic pipes
going up to the top and out of the bottom so there must be some way of pumping
the water up there. I think there must be a truck with a large tank and pump
that services these places. At a lot of the houses along the coast below San
Felipe they had the same arrangement. I am not sure if this is the purified
water and may be just water that is used for washing.
I gassed up lil red and headed back that dreaded road to Vizcaino. I have been dirt road-ed enough for a while I think. These terrible roads do keep the tourists away so I get to see the real outback of Baja Mexico but I need a different outfit with bigger tires for traveling these washboard roads. Lil red does great especially when the going gets rough but is better suited to snow or maybe mud than these roads were everyone goes so fast and make the washboards. It is interesting that I don’t see any VW’s down here. I know they made the beetle until a few years ago and they made the Thing (type 181) here. they must have been sold to the mainland folks. The vehicle of choice around these parts is the Toyota pickup and mostly in 4x4.
I camped at a really nice gravel pit. It started to get on toward sundown and I didn’t want to be out on that road, or ANY road down here at night. I started a little fire with one of those funny looking fat little tree wood. There are several around the gravel pit that were pushed over when they made the pit. It is surprising in that the wood is very light and didn’t burn worth a shit. It mostly smoked and I finally quit it and moved camp up wind and let it smoke itself to death. This morning has been bright and beautiful. A couple of ravens found me and came down to check everything out. One found my old tea bag and had a heck of a fight with it trying to get a piece off of it to taste. He finally gave up. the orange peal didn’t interest them much either but they looked at it. now they are sitting on a gravel pile watching and waiting for me to what? Feed them? leave? OK I will leave them their nice little camp and head out on that dreaded road.
On the way out I met and stopped to talk with a hue Ford ‘Excretion’ or that is what my friend Ken calls them. They were from Montana. One of the ladies in the back asked how long I had been out there, ‘three days” I said. “oh, only three days?” ‘yup’. I could tell after three hours out there she was going to tell her hubbie that she needed to get back to the motel and take a shower as she felt So dirty. The guy wanted to know how the road was on ahead. I told him “it’s like this for a while but it finally turns into pavement”, Ha, ha, ha, after about fifty miles and then there is five miles of good pavement. There is a short stretch that has the most amazing washboard I have ever seen, and I saw some good ones on my way to Alaska on my motorcycle years ago. This stretch has washboard that is at least 8 inches high and the most unusual is that it is on a diagonal. When I went over it, it was like being in a boat across the swells. It almost made me sick and I wonder how those ladies will do on that stretch. I hope some one pukes! On the way back I snapped a photo of some of the little shacks that are often inhabited but these were not. I didn’t want to take photos of peoples residences but since these are not in use I took it. They are very good at making a home out of almost nothing. I think they are better than the miners in Nevada in the old days. Everything is recycled and you can see one of these is partly out of cardboard. In this climate I would imagine it is better than the rusted tin one on a hot day. I cant imagine how hard it is to make a living out here with nothing around for miles. I guess they work the big farms if possible and go to the usa and send money back to keep their families alive.
Here ya go Carla, the desert is a carpet of flowers among the desert bushes and cactus and it goes on for miles and miles.
I stopped in Vizcaino to pick up some more of those Japanese peanuts, which I find addictive. I met the guy that owns the store and he said that it was stuff for birthday parties, weddings and fiesta’s. Those nuts are a real winner.
I went south to San Ignacio. Along the way I stopped at a trash barrel and took a picture of this shrine. There are a lot of them along the road and this one is one of the nicer ones. It had candles lit inside.
some of these I think must be where people have died but in this case I think it must be a place of religious significance. Some of these are very crude affairs but it appears everyone respects them.
I saw the most amazing thing along the highway. There were two guys that must have been highway maintance and one guy was mowing the side of the road with a hand push mower and the other was hoeing out big plants. They had done about a mile and this was out in the middle of nowhere. They had done a very nice job and picked up the trash as well. I think they must have people picking up the road trash as on a whole the roadsides look good. Maybe that is what you do if you get caught speeding and cant pay.
I had to drive a mile or so off the highway to the little town of San Ignacio. As you come into town there is a huge palm tree forest that you drive through. It is so stunning after driving through miles and miles of desert. There is a small square in the middle of town with stores all around. The place is very clean and you can tell they favor tourists. There are whale watching tours as well as cave painting tours. The cave painting tours sounds interesting and I went into one shop that advertises these tours. You have to make a reservation in advance and they need a minimum of three at $75 or six or more for $50. She said that it took about 5 or 7 hours for the tour. I think the whale one was the 7 hours. I saw a sign along the road a few miles back that had cave paintings on it. I think that it might have been San Francisco de la Sierra. I have marked on the map that that is the place one guy told me he went to see the place. It was supposed to be a place where there were 10,000 goats. He said that there was more like 100,000 goats up there. It is in the mountains and looks like a peak very close to there is 5,216 ft. I liked the looks of the road that goes up the mountains like that but right now I couldn’t look at another 50 miles of dirt road. maybe on the way back (if I come back and not ferry across) I will go up and see what is going on up there. It will be colder up there for sure.
I am sitting in the town square writing this and a tourist guy just let his little rat shit dog take a crap in the square. All along the edge is finally groomed dirt and he just kicked the little turd (not the dog u understand, which I would have done) over next to a tree. It is too bad people have to let those little string dogs shit and piss in such a nice place. I doubt if they would like it if my dog shit in their yard. There is a mission here that is called San Lino. It is really nice rock church and it must have six foot think walls at the base. I went inside (yes Roger I took off my cap) and sat down and just was amazed at the quiet and strength those walls gave the place. it is done very nice inside with vaulted ceilings and the usual small statues. I didn’t go up front and I didn’t think photos were appropriate in there. I was the only one in there at the time. I see quite a few tourists around the square here, in fact there are three huge Airstream trailers parked on the square. I did take a photo of the outside of the church. I probably could have but didn’t take a photo of the really nice garden to the side of the church. Some of the tomatoes were ripe and the beets and greens were being harvested probably for the table. The garden was a really nice touch and really seemed to bond the church to the people and earth, or at least that was my take.
on the other side of the church is a yard for sitting and hanging laundry and probably working in the old days. There is a set of grinding stones that are about three feet in diameter and two feet thick. They used them to grind grain of some sort but I have not seen any corn grown anywhere down here. it could be in the old days that they did. I have seen lots of huge green houses on the way down and figure that they may grow tomatoes or flowers in them.
It is really nice hanging around the square in the shade of these huge trees. Theer have been several very young ladies with their babies in strollers come by and kids horsing around with soccer balls.
I am sitting on the bench in the photo as I write this. This sure is the place to hang out. cars come by with the radio blasting but mostly it is just gentle conversation from old folks sitting on the benches or families hanging around their cars. I think this kind of place is the kind that Mike Cox told me about. When Mike graduated from High School he went to Mexico for a while with his uncle. He said that Saturday night the girls paraded around the square and they were so beautiful to watch. He said that there were three types of women there; virgins, married, and whores.
There is a internet café on the square. When I got here I went in and checked it out. The cost is 20 pesos or two bucks an hour. I told her I would be back with a cd and could I put it in the computer to send email. She nodded yes, but I have no idea if she understood. Well here I am writing this and I look up and see that the place is closed. Humm. I have arrived at the gas station and found it closed around noon, so I guess they must siesta but now it is almost three o’clock so have no idea what is going on.
I walked over to check out a sign that is at the side of the Mission and found it had info in English as to the necessity of getting a permit to go look at the paintings. It said at the office to the side of the mission and down the block through a little hole in the wall was a cave like room with a guy sitting in it reading a book. The up shot of it is that it is 77 kilometers and you need a 4x4 with high clearance and the road is rough. You need a $30 permit and need to pay a guide $75 plus there was another fee I don’t remember what it is called or what it cost. while I was there I asked the guy since he spoke some English, where I could campo. He finally said, I think, around the side of the church. I looked that deal over but it is right on this main street that gets lots of traffic. I happened to head up that street and saw a sign for Motel 24 hours HOT water. I guess that is something to consider when getting a motel I had never even considered that the hot water would only be on for a certain time. I was sandy and dirty from head to foot and that sounded really good, so I pulled in. nobody was around but a helpful guy walking past went an found the owner and he came out and showed me a room. It is plain with two beds, one small and the other standard size. At first he wanted 250 pesos and I said I would look around. We were writing in the dust on the side window of lil red and he quickly changed it to 200 pesos. well, what the hell, why not get cleaned up and maybe by that time the internet café would be open. So off I go to see, a changed man. I should see if I can find a laundry gal but I guess that would involve another day so I will hold off for a while. I have still have socks and a couple of clean tee-shirts.
Hey Sonny. I checked the end table here in the motel and it doesn’t have a Gideon Bible in it. You need to get your butt down here right away, you have work to do!!!!