1998/9 Baja, Mexico / California Trip

We left Mulege at 6:30 and our destination by the end of the night would be Cabos San Lucas. We drove over a long bridge on our way out of town which crossed the Mulege River and then past the Mission Santa Rosalia de Mulege. The Highway passes several beaches with campsites that had their own palapa. This being a sheltered area with poles and grass nested roof. We passed a few wild horses running across the highway around 7:00. It was another hour of driving before reaching the town of Loreto This reminded us of some California communities that are along the water. There was a wall of concrete with a sidewalk and benches overlooking the beach. These sidewalks, called a malecon, were common in towns along the ocean. There were also lots of tourist shops with grass roofs and an old Mission in the center of town. We ate breakfast at the Cafe' Ole which was Mex-American. The cook asked if we were from Washington because he had seen Jacob's WSU sweatshirt. He said that his son worked at the White House as a cook. We informed him we were not from the same Washington. The food was OK but it did seem to be more Americanized. We dickered with a shop owner over the price of a large blanket that had a mission woven in it and finally settled for $15. This is a nice quiet town that is just waiting to be Americanized with tourism and hotels.

We left around 9:30 am and was near the ocean for about 20 miles before we turned inland and wouldn't see water again for about 200 miles. I don't remember much of the next hour other than that we got into Ciudad Insurgentes around 11:30 am. We got some gas at a station that had long lines and had to wait for 20-25 minutes. It was also starting to get hot as it was between 75-80 degrees. We were in farm land but it was still pretty dry. We did see one dead horse and another dead cow along the side of the road. People had warned us about not driving at night. The roads are rather narrow, with practically no shoulder, the cattle think nothing of walking down the middle of the road and many of them are black so you can not see them at night, and it's generally discouraged due to a relatively few bad incidents the press as covered regarding tourists. So we stop driving around dusk. We drove for another two hours before being stopped again for a fruit inspection. We were just fifteen miles north of La Paz and we had no problems.

As we came closer to La Paz and the water, it became foggy and much colder than earlier in the day. La Paz is a much larger town and is considered a working class town with little tourism. We started drive into town and then decided we had to get going if we wanted to get to Cabo tonight. We got lost on our way out as they have many one way streets in town and only a couple signs showing how to get out of town. We finally got directions and continued south towards Todos Santos on highway 19. There are many small farms in this area as there is also a lot more natural vegetation being closer to the ocean. It was getting warm again as we were back on the west side of the peninsula. We got into Todos Santos around 3:00 as it was muggy. This is a nice little village that had lots of dirt roads that would go to the Pacific Ocean. Todo Santos also had several small hotels and restaurants, including Hotel California, made famous by the Eagles who wrote a song about it. I went into Hotel California and of course the Eagles music was playing. Jacob and I walked around the hotel and took a couple pictures before leaving.

We left around 4:00 and continued, as the highway followed the ocean with cactus along the side of the road. It was a nice night for a sunset and I was able to get a couple good pictures. We finally got into Cabo San Lucas around 5:30 pm and the first thing we did was get gas as we were not sure if there would be gas stations open tomorrow or not on Christmas day. This town is very Americanized as it is the place to party if you want to get away for a week in nice weather. The next thing we had to do is look for a hotel. We found one for $50 that was a couple blocks off the main street in a quiet area. It was called the Hotel Melida and we couldn't ask for a better place to stay. Each room was named after a different native flower. We parked next to a truck that also had a Washington license. We walked around town and showed the kids the area as there were many bars, restaurants and giftshops. The Hard Rock Cafe is near the water and we took the kids there to eat. The waiter seemed friendly as he was surprised that we had driven all the way down. He gave us some advice on what to do around town and to be careful while driving. We went back to the hotel around 9:30 and put the kids to bed for Christmas Eve. They were both asleep by ten and Cindy and I took a walk outside as we were hearing fireworks go off. There were still a lot of people out on the main strip and we went to a courtyard and had a couple drinks before finally going back to the room about 11:30

400 miles today and 2600 total