1998/9 Baja, Mexico / California Trip

I could tell this would be an interesting day. I realized just before I went to bed last night that I had not packed enough medication for my epilepsy and only had enough medication for one more day. I had never done this before and I had many concerns since my doctor was on vacation. We got up at 6:30 and decided to find the hospital and figured that would be the quickest way to get some Tegretol. When we got there the pharmacy was not open and did not have a time when it would open. I explained to some employees in the hospital what had happened but they just said to wait for the pharmacist. We started walking around outside a couple blocks and finally stopped at a 24 hour pharmacia. I told them I needed Tegretol for seizures and they were able to sell it to me without a prescription. They gave me the choice of two different brands and I bought both packages for $17 and that would be enough for three weeks. I couldn't believe it was that easy to get medication but then the cost was more expensive since I did not have insurance coverage but the didn't matter right now. I was just glad I didn't have to wait the whole day to get medication.

With that emergency out of the way we could now start worrying about breakfast. We went down to the waterfront first and let the kids play in the park as they were good while Cindy and I were trying to find my medication. We next ate breakfast at Hotel Plaza Real's restaurant by the waterfront. We thought the omelets and eggs and bacon would be American food, instead they served them with lots of beans and tortillas or toast. A room for four at this hotel would have only cost $36. We then walked around the main part of town where they had the day after Christmas sales going on. This is a nice working town that doesn't have much tourism. I would like to spend some more time here for a weekend and see what life is like in this town. I did buy a tee-shirt from last year's Baja 1000 in one of the tourist shops. After window shopping for an hour we decided we better get going. It took us some time to find our way out of town as there are lots of one way streets.

We finally got back on Highway 1 north. We started to take the dirt road toward the San Juan de la Costa but didn't find a quick turnoff to the beach so we turned around It would of been 23 miles to an old mining area. We didn't know how bad the gravel road would be and it was already 12:00. So we started north again on highway 1 for about 40 miles and then took another gravel road west that was going to take us to Punta Conejo on the Pacific Ocean. We turned off one gravel road too soon and ended up in a small fishing village called La Aguja. There were several cinder block buildings and a church near by. We took a picture of a girl next to the church and continued on. There was also a agricultural project funded by the government here as there were many plants being grown . We started driving back and it was now about 80 degrees out and a clear day. We got back on the highway and stayed on it as we passed Ciudad Constitucion which seems to be a long strip of small businesses. We stopped at Ciudad Insurgentes for gas which was the next town. I decided here that we would leave highway 1 and go north on to La Purisima.

It was getting late as it was now 3:30 and we needed to get to a town before dusk if we were going to be on backraods. I wanted to get to La Purisma tonight and that meant not stopping anywhere along the way.. The road was straight and paved until just before getting to La Purisma and San Isidro where we went up a mountain and then back down into a valley that was full of palm trees. We got in around 4:30 just as the sun was setting with a nice sunset against the mountains. There were several small business and residents in both small villages. The total population together for both communities is 1300. Many children looked at our vehicle as we drove around. No one seemed to know English here. We had to ask several people where a motel was in San Isidro. A Police officer at a store walked us over to a motel because we could not understand the directions. We rented a room with 1and 1/2 beds and one lightbulb for $6. The bathroom in another building outside was quite small and had no sink. It was actually kind of nice to see what real life is like down here in the farming villages.

Before going for dinner we let the kids play at the park with some other kids. It was dark out but there were still families with kids playing as everybody knew everybody. We started looking for a restaurant and finally had to ask a women who ran a hot dog stand where there was one. She spoke in Spanish and pointed to someone's house. We looked at her kind of confused as we didn't see anything that looked like a restaurant. She left her hot dog stand and walked with us over to the house and knocked on the door. A older lady opened the door and after talking to each other she invited us in. In the dining area of the house there were three tables set up. We sat at one of these tables, while the family sat in their front room watching TV. The older woman asked us what we wanted to eat. We didn't care we were just hungry and would take whatever they had. She offered us huevos (eggs scrambled with chiles and tomatoes). As we were waiting a teenage girl started playing the guitar near us. I recognized the song as 'Hotel California.' I complimented her on her guitar playing and she got embarrassed after that and stopped playing. The older woman brought us out dinner which came with plates of tortillas, refried beans and a bowl of avocados. With four bottles of pop the bill came to only $8. The dinner was good and filling. It did take some time to pay for the bill as they don't just bring the bill to you, You have to ask for it. They were very nice people and it was nice to eat in this type of setting. We left a tip and went to go back to the motel. We went to bed early around 8:00, as we would be driving gravel roads tomorrow in the mountains.

We drove 300 miles today and 3100 total