Baja 2019 Tour summary

At our farewell dinner the final night of the tour, our Wagon Masters read a Farewell summary of our tour. Had I blogged during the trip, I couldn’t have said it better, so I decided not to try. Here it is.

Baja Farewell

We’re happy to have had you travel with us on this journey through the Baja. Everyone did an exceptional job of maneuvering their vehicles over the various terrain (AKA – roads and potholes) that the Baja challenged us with.

Tom and Darlene almost didn’t make the trip!! When they pulled into Potrero Campground there was a loud noise from one of the belts in the coach’s engine compartment. Turned out the serpentine belt was installed incorrectly. Duane and Erich were able to reroute the belt to its proper placement and Tom and Darlene were happy campers!! We were pleased that Ole and Lena were along for the ride too! Yah – you betcha!!

We all got through the border at Tecate – after successfully getting everyone’s FMM stamped and legal. Well, everyone but Walt! It seems like the Mexican authorities are trying to keep him out but he finally got his paperwork cleared! Thank Goodness!!

Our first break was a couple of miles out of Tecate to regroup. It was the usual Baja type pulloff – a drop off of six+ inches. After our break, we went to Ensenada. We arrived successfully in Ensenada without losing any of our group!!! The staff was very impressed with our Newbie capabilities!!! (We learned that we hadn't brought the right equipment - highway 1 in the Baja meant you needed an extreme RV!)

We have a “Welcome to Mexico” dinner at Las Terrazas Restaurant that begins with this dry stuff the waiters place in a bowl in front of us – we order soup and we get this instead. Ahh – but wait – now they come and pour a steaming red broth over the dried substance and vamoose – a luscious tortilla soup appears!! Will miracles never cease!! 

The next day we had a city tour and a visit to the old Casino, downtown shopping area, Hussong’s Cantina (the oldest cantina on the California's opened in 1891) and La Bufadora (we visited here with Nick and Karen 10 years ago) with our guide Larissa. Lots of shopping and food!!

At travel briefing the following morning we are greeted with the information that now, today, we will be introduced to the true Baja roads!! Oh goody, just what we want to hear. Sure enough as we are heading over our first mountain - lo and behold highway construction!! Oh, what a mess that was!! After a wait of what seemed forever but only about 10 minutes, we were led through the one direction traffic detour!! We then traverse narrow, hilly, curvy, pot holy roads in addition to some fairly nice roads on our trek to Catavina. As we are nearing our destination word travels through the caravan that there has been a mishap. John Varner’s Jeep has flipped a couple of times and is totaled out!! The tires on his motorhome went over the edge of the pavement and it flipped his Jeep. (We were directly behind them and saw it launch into midair - scary!) He and Therese handled the whole situation like a pair of troopers. We were all very pleased to hear they decided to continue with the tour. The Jeep was hauled off to a wrecking yard for a suitable end of journey!

 Located in the high desert terrain of the Baja we are welcomed by the usual cold windy weather of Catavina. Once all of the RV’s are all somewhat situated, we have our first meal prepared by staff.  John, Therese, Mike, Vicki and our tail gunners arrive before dinner. Halleluiah!! Chili and cornbread to warm us up then a yummy dessert. We planned to have a campfire but after a very long hard day of driving, mishaps and the cold weather we decided to save our firewood for a future fire on the beach. Ed Hill volunteered to haul the firewood for us.  It was early to bed for the majority of the group. 

Next morning off we go again. We get to Mario’s RV Park midafternoon. Marjorie & Dorothy present each rig with a scallop shell memento at our Happy Hour in Mario’s Restaurant. Some of the group had dinner there. Great food!! 

Our sixth day of the tour finds us arriving at our first beach – Buenaventura Hotel and RV parking. We had a Spaghetti dinner at Buenaventura Restaurant. Next day Mike took his Kayak out for a ride in the calm waters of Concepcion Bay. 

On we go to Puerto Escondido – full hookups – Mexico style. A nice surprise for all of us was plenty of power after being at Mario’s. Next morning we carpool on a jaunt up into the hills to visit San Javier Mission and a visit to a 300 year old olive tree that is located behind the mission. The mission is amazing as is the olive tree. 

There’s a visit to Loreto for sightseeing and visiting Our Lady of Loreto Mission (the oldest mission on the Baja) and exploring the town. 

Off we go to La Paz. Ed Hill and Mike Long met a local policeman – supposedly for speeding! Ed managed to get off without paying anything by showing him that his wallet was empty. Mike wasn’t so lucky though - $1000. Pesos (down from $5,000. ) and he was on the road again. Speaking of which, Thank you Robin for Willie’s “On The Road Again” on the radios!!  

All parked at Marantha RV Park and Eduardo stopped by to tell our group about the Whale Shark tours his company offered during our Happy Hour get together. Next day, a city tour led by Isaac (a very passionate young man who enjoyed his job) included a visit to Ibarra Pottery, the Cathedral and Cultural Center, Regional Museum and followed by lunch at El Serape. They had a nice buffet and entertainment for us!! 

The following day a number of our group took Eduardo’s tour and went swimming with the Whale Sharks. It was excellent weather and the whale sharks didn’t disappoint them. (They had us jump from the boat right in front of the Whale Sharks, so they always bumped into us and brushed us as they went by - very rough skin!) Nancy and Vicki mentioned later that the whale shark they were swimming along with got a little too close so they started back paddling to get away from him!! 

Another nice dinner on the waterfront on our last night in La Paz. A local street musician caught the attention of Brenda & Sheila so he made out pretty good tip wise.

Next stop Los Barriles - a small village that has Canadians and Americans swarming here in the winter – a very laid-back Mexico style of living.  A very tough little town to maneuver the RV’s through!! Ed & Pat’s antenna got ripped off by a low hanging cable but otherwise everyone made it to the park.

A majority of our group had an amazing ATV experience into the countryside with Jimmy from Can Doo ATV’s. We went to San Bartolo through the hills, stockyards, farms and what they refer to as plantations before heading back after lunch through what could best be described as part jungle. We were led through bushes; down slanted trails just barely wide enough for the vehicles; over boulders and through streams we went – it was great!! Mike & Vicki had a flat tire and had to wait for a repair. Somehow, amazingly, they managed to meet up with the group in San Bartolo!! Even more amazing was receiving a cell phone call from them when we were in the middle of nowhere!!! 

Cabo here we come – we stopped at the Tropic of Cancer for a group picture minus 4 members of our group who stayed behind at Playa Norte. Activities in Cabo included a visit to the Glass Factory where Paul, Sheila and Glenn tried their skill at glass blowing.  

Downtown everyone went to enjoy their choice of lunch and shopping. John Varner completed a dare by getting hung upside down at the Giggling Marlin!!!

A Sunset dinner cruise aboard the Sunrider past Lovers Beach and Land’s End Arch and into the Pacific to see whales. What a fabulous show the whales put on for us! Sunrider glides back into the calm waters of the bay for dancing on the deck and watching the sunset before calling it a night. A trip back to Los Barriles and a goodnight’s sleep ended a great day for us!

No planned activities for our last day in Los Barriles except for a fabulous dinner at Tio Pablos!! It was difficult deciding which entre was best – all three were great! From Fajita’s to Ribs to Lobster Tail!!! Everyone went home bursting at the seams!!

Our next stop was Playa Tecolote – true beachfront camping!! The next day we have a Beach Party with a hamburger cookout by the Fantasy Staff and Margaritas “Burden Style”. Everyone had a great day relaxing. Walt & June and a few others hiked up the hill and over toward Bandera Beach. Sheila slipped and fell while hiking but nothing too bad. 

A one night stopover in Puerto Escondido then on to Santispac Beach. This is truly a place you could just stay and vegetate for weeks or months. Staff prepared BBQ pork sandwiches for us followed by a campfire. 

Some of our group went on a tour to the cave paintings with their guide Salvador. Mike & Vickie’s kayaks were used by a few of our group. Carol & I thought about it but that’s as far as we got with the idea!! “Almost Free” (one of the local beach vendors) was lots of fun to bargain with!! He sold lots of tee shirts and other items to our group! 

The two restaurants and bakery at the beach got lots of use. We had pineapple empanadas and cinnamon rolls that were delicious!! 

Mike & Marjorie, with help from George & Dorothy, set up their Karaoke equipment at Armando’s and a lot of singing and singing attempts were made! Lots of fun!! 

We did a trip into Mulege for a festive dinner at Los Equipales on our last night at Santispac.  Francisco, the owner, always treats our group well and everyone had a good time. Lots of talking, laughing and dancing.

Next day a few of our group made a stop at Santa Rosalia on route to San Ignacio to see the metal church designed by Eifel and some sightseeing. We made a trip into San Ignacio for ice cream and saw Sheila, Mike and Paul in town as well as Mike & Marjorie. The mission in San Ignacio is one of my favorites. 

The local school children’s dance club performed for our group after dinner at Rice N Beans. For the finale - the dancers got a number of us up to dance with them!! It was enjoyable entertainment. 

Guerrero Negro was our next stop. Two Whale Watching tours to see the gray whales was a once in a lifetime experience. The babies and mamas interact with us as though they want to check us out too. 

The ATM machines were a real challenge for John Jason – we lost count of how many times we tried to get pesos from an ATM for him - without success!!! John Varner was able to get $10,000 pesos but John Jason - NADA

Another nice dinner at Malarrimo’s ended our stay there.

In Bahia de Las Angles a visit to the museum and beach time was enjoyed. 16 of our group took the boat tour that was offered by Joel’s Eco Tours. The group on the second day’s tour got to ride in the boat as it was hauled through the street to the boat launch!! We got as much of a kick from that as we did the nice tour of the islands.

Some of our adventurous folks, Mike & Marjorie, George, Mike Long, John Jason & Sheila went for a bouncy, dusty 22-mile drive to the San Borja Mission. They were very pleased with the sites and stories they heard from the owner of the ranch there. It was funny and entertaining when - after trying to communicate in Spanish for an hour - to learn that the guy spoke perfect English!!!

The school supplies you donated were taken to the local elementary school. The kids and teachers were very happy to receive the donations. – A buffet dinner at Villa Vitta and the “Last Supper” prepared by staff. We celebrated Mardi Gras with “King Cake” and beads! Ed Hill was the King for the evening and Vicki Long the Queen!! A joyous conga line to the tune of “When the Saints Go Marching In” was a blast!!

A stopover in Vicente Guerrero and a wonderful dinner at Posada Don Diego’s and we return to Ensenada. 

Tonight a “Gotta Go” meal to get rid of all of the things we can’t take back to the states. Our Wine Country Tour is tomorrow and was lots of fun and lunch was very tasty last year. There’s a nice collection of wines and gifts available too. Our Farewell dinner is Sunday night! 

(When we reached the border in Tecate, the Wagon Masters had contacted US customs, and they cleared a lane for us - instead of 3 hours, it was only an hour to get checked through!) It’s been an amazing experience! Thank you all. Adios Baja!!

Talk to you soon!

Bonus!

The Woman was ecstatic! Our starting point for our Baja trip was only a 20-minute drive from the southern terminus of the Pacific Crest Trail! We had found our way to the northern terminus which is actually in Canada – the southern terminus is literally feet from the border wall at the Mexican border. We drove in as far as we could, and then hiked our way to the official marker, which looked eerily like the official marker at the northern terminus. While she hasn’t walked the entire trail, she has now been at both ends, as well as hiking hundreds of miles of the PCT at various points where the trail is reasonably accessible.

Talk to you soon.

Driving to Cabos San Lucas

When we first moved to Vegas back in 1995, we began camping just south of the Border in Ensenada, Baja California Mexico. We enjoyed it thoroughly, and felt relatively comfortable driving there, even if it was only 70 miles south of San Diego. We often said that we should just take the Mallard camper trailer and head to Cabos San Lucas, but with all that was going on in Mexico in those days, our dreams never came to fruition.

Well, check one more item off the Bucket List! We finally decided to allow Fantasy RV Tours to escort us all the way to Cabos San Lucas. Fantasy had previously taken us to see Polar Bears in their annual migration near Churchill Manitoba, and also helped us build a dragon float for the Rose Bowl Parade and escorted us to reserved seats right on the Parade route to see the dragon float we had helped build.

We were lucky to have made the decision when we did. It turns out that Fantasy Tours executives decided to discontinue the tour going all the way to Cabos. Had we not booked it when we did, we would not have had the opportunity to check this off the Bucket list. It was sad to overhear some of the discussions that the Wagon Masters had with some of the RV park owners that they had been visiting a few times a year for a long time that they would not ever be back. There were some hugs and a few sad faces, as these folks appreciated the revenue that Fantasy consistently brought them.

I couldn’t blog while here – there was essentially no internet for a month and a half – actually didn’t miss it! But on the final night of the tour, one of the Wagon Masters provided us with a wrap up of the tour. I will put that summary in my next blog.

Talk to you soon.

San Diego final - signing off for a bit

Our last sunset on the Silver Strand before we head back to Vegas. How could we pass up on the last opportunity for a campfire as well! We couldn’t. The ocean, the sunset, the crackling of the logs on the fire, it was a night made in heaven.

For her birthday, Karen gave the Woman some special packets that when you put them in a campfire, they cause the flames to turn electric colors – lots of bright yellows, blues, greens and purples. We got all the colors of the rainbow in our last fire.

We have to sign off for a bit, until 2019 when we plan to head toward Cabo San Lucas in Mexico. However, we can’t sign off without finding one more new bird to identify. We spotted this lone Western Grebe defending his space on the Silver Strand State Beach, fending off seagulls twice his size!

Talk to you soon – in 2019!

San Diego VII

Well we are bringing our summer travels to a close and heading back to Vegas. However, before we headed out, we needed to try to identify a couple of birds we’ve been seeing. While snooping around in the Tijuana River Preserve near the Mexican border south of Imperial Beach, we spotted these pretty yellow-bellied birds all over the place. Based on a distant blurred siting and a good description of its habitat and behaviors, we are pretty certain that we spotted Orange-Crowned Warblers, another first for us!

We also have seen these before, but just assumed they were some kind of Snipe or Dowitcher, which we have seen in Alaska and along the West Coast. However, based again on a combination of the visual siting along with a detailed description of the kind of habitat it likes, and how it feeds, particularly by the water, we are pretty sure this is a Least Sandpiper, another first identification for us.

Talk to you soon!

San Diego VI

We set out on an adventure to see how folk live and survive in California. We hopped the Coaster, the commuter railroad that brings folk from the coastal cities where they can more afford to live to San Diego where they need to go to get meaningful employment. Just for giggles we headed for Solana Beach, only because we hadn’t been there before.

It was fun to be on a train again, even if only a commuter. We sat in the vista dome car and watched as the coastal views whisked by. We steamed by the horse racing track at Del Mar that Nick and I visited a decade or so ago. It was just a quick out and back, with a nice lunch in the Naked Café beachside at Fletcher Cove.

We strolled a bit in downtown San Diego before and after the Coaster ride. We had forgotten just how many glass curtain wall buildings there are in central San Diego. Everywhere we looked we not only saw sky scrapers, we saw the reflections of other sky scrapers blazoning the sides of each building.

Colectiva is parked between a public marina and a commercial marina. The commercial marina has impressive equipment, and seem to be in the process of removing huge ships used in the summer for dinner cruises, bay cruises or whale watching. We watch daily as the ships being plucked from the water get bigger and bigger. 

We are blessed to get several dog walks along the shore each day. Marina Park is a hopping place and is always crowded with people, enjoying the expanses along the bay. Only in California would you find this. Separate facilities for those with multiple personalities. They are free to belly up here and have a rousing game of chess with themselves!

Talk to you soon!

San Diego V

We’ve been really pleased with all the water birds we stumble on daily. We have been seeing many of the birds we were used to seeing on the Texas gulf coast. We have seen Snowy Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Green Herons, Curlews, Snowy Plovers and Sandpipers. We may have spotted a few more, but they were far away and we couldn’t be certain. The Woman spotted her favorite bird nearly daily for the last week on the shores of Mission Bay – a beautiful Little Blue Heron.

So, it’s not just the traffic that is horrendous in California. The crowds, the lack of parking, the general congestion, the crowded restaurants – everything is just so busy that it really dampens the nice parts – the water, the weather, the wildlife, the restaurants and the views. However, what might be the worst of all is trying to get diesel fuel in California, especially in the urban areas. You can find diesel fuel pumps, you just can’t find any that will accommodate a 40-foot motorhome towing a car!

This Curlew was outside our motorhome on Silver Strand State Beach pretty much every morning when we went on our beach patrol. Teresa and the Woman would grab a trash bag and pick up general beach trash, which was everywhere. Since I didn’t have any antibacterial gloves, I just checked out the Curlew and the hundreds of Snowy Plovers.

Talk to you soon!