1998/9 Baja, Mexico / California Trip

Left the motel at 6:30 and drove around Ensenada. Stopped at the Plaza Civica, a park near the marina that has three 12-foot high sculptures of famous figures in Mexican history (Benito Juarez, Miguel Hidalgo & Venustiano Carranza). After leaving the park it was time for McDonald's for breakfast informing the kids that this would probably be their last American food for about a week. They weren't real thrilled about that. After eating we drove south and turned right on highway 23 near Maneadero and drove 14 miles past farms, olive orchards, campgrounds and residences until we came to the La Bufadora. This place is also known as the Blow Hole. We've heard that this is quite a tourist attraction, luckily we got there early and hardly anyone was there. The Blow Hole is partially surrounded by concrete and brick and the water will come up thru a hole in the rock and splash water into the air. The Blow Hole was kind of disappointing, but the drive out there made it worthwhile. There were many small shops along the the walkway leading to the Blow Hole, parking also costs $1. We drove back on highway 23 and stopped at La Jolla Beach Camp, where Cindy's dad used to go diving about 30 years ago. The same owner still owns the land and it looks the same. We took some pictures and Cindy went into the office for a couple minutes.

Drove thru the town of Colonet next and then took a gravel road that was suppose to take us to the ocean. We drove about five miles before we came to some water that I wasn't going to cross. We turned around and decided to try the other fork in the road, stopping for cattle to cross the road. We stopped a truck coming our way. He told us that we had been going the right way but we told him about the water. He couldn't recall the water being unpassable. We drove back and followed him and he finally stopped to tell us "Oh yeah I'd forgotten about the water" and then told us the route to get to what he called Malibu Beach. We got there after going over some rough hills and one gully filled in with sand. No one was at the beach. We walked along a narrow beach and let the kids run around in the sand dunes and beach. The beach had many plastic containers which had either been left or brought in by the tide. It didn't look like many people come to this beach as we did not see any footprints around..

We went back to the highway and drove south until coming to Camalu where we saw a bank. We realized we were going to need more Pesos for the trip so Cindy used the ATM machine to get out 2000 Pesos in twenty 100 peso bills. She said that the bank itself reminded her of the DMV office back home as there were about 20 chairs arranged in rows with many people waiting to be assisted. We went to the town of Colonia Guerrero where we stopped at a store, bought a few snacks and then ate lunch at a restaurant where no one spoke English. This would be the beginning of many experiences like this. We asked for the 'bano' & it took them awhile to understand us. The service was slow for being the only customers in the restaurant but the food was OK. What was good about it is that they had American food that the kids would eat. We started to leave town when I saw a lot of people going down a gravel road. to a public market. This was a large market with many buyers and sellers at mid-afternoon on a week day. There were new and used clothes, along with fruits, vegetables, toys, and appliances. It took us 90 minutes to go through it all. Jacob bought a baseball cap for $5 and we finally left around 3:00.

It was getting warmer, maybe 70 degrees but still was breezy with a few clouds. We stopped for gas in San Quentin where there were long lines and took about 15 minutes . The only gas stations down here are PEMAX stations which are run by the government. They sell gas by the liter and only accept cash. A rule of thumb is to always have half a tank of gas and make sure you have a full tank at night as you never know when the stations in the small towns will open up. Overall we did not have problems getting gas and the larger towns always had at least one station open. Just past San Quentin there was a military check point. I took a couple pictures as we were waiting in line. They asked us where we were going, wanted to see the trunk and then said everything was OK. I have not had any problems at these check points yet. Just be courteous and realize that they are just doing their job. We didn't stop at San Quentin because I wanted to make sure we were in El Rosario before dark.

We got into El Rosario at about 4:30 and drove around the village for a little while. This is where the paved road ended many years ago before the highway was completed. After here you would have to drive over 400 miles of gravel road thru the desert before reaching pavement again. There are also ruins of two missions in town that we wanted to see. We followed signs that came to what looked like a riverbed with running water. Saw a compact car drive thru the water and asked him where the ruins were. He pointed to a grassy area about twenty yards away from us. We were confused because we expected a little bit of ruins or something. In Spanish though he was telling us that it was right in from of us. We replied 'gracias' and then turned around and went back to El Rosario. We spent the night at the Motel Sinai. For $26 we had a rather large room with a TV, table and bathroom with lukewarm water. These are considered luxury items for this type of hotel. We ate leftover KFC for dinner in the hotel. Shawna also had fun as she had to take a cold shower tonight. One thing she will not forget about Mexico is their cold showers. We listened to her whine for the rest of the night about how we better not get anymore hotels with cold showers. Only one channel came in on the TV, in Spanish of course. We watched it for about an hour and then went to bed around 8:30. Tomorrow would be a long day as we had to drive thru 400 miles of desert country.

We drove 200 miles today and 1750 total