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Published: January 5th 2018
US-Mexico border
And Trump needs to build more wall?!!We're still alive in Mexico! The first couple of weeks have been pretty fun, and crossing the border was far quicker and easier than we'd anticipated. We'd already bought our Mexican car insurance in San Diego (if you have a car accident in Mexico where someone is hurt and you don't have insurance, we are assured that you go straight to jail until things are eventually sorted out), so at the border we just had to get our tourist visas (good for 6 months) and a temporary import permit for Tortuga. We also had to drive Tortuga through a high-powered X-Ray machine, which checked for weapons and drugs I think, but that didn't take long and we were quickly out onto the highway to Ensenada. It's definitely a big contrast from the US side to the Mexican one, and it's the first time either of us has driven from a developed to a developing country like that. The road itself was a toll road and was in excellent condition with very little traffic, so we were able to blast through the sprawl of Tijuana quickly and arrived in Ensenada just a couple of hours later. We'd read about a campground south
of town on the iOverlander app, and were pleased to find a lovely little place by an estuary, just $8 a night, with rustic palapas (shelter made from palm fronds) and friendly owners, as well as the usual plethora of stray dogs!
We'd only intended to stay for a night, but we quickly met some other overland travelers and decided to settle in for Christmas and adjust slowly to Mexico. It turned out to be a really enjoyable experience, especially as we were invited by the Mexican owners to join them for a delicious banquet on Christmas Eve - roast turkey, ham, stuffing, potatoes, veggies and all the trimmings...totally unexpected and so welcome! Don Alfredo, the owner, and his son Luis made us feel so at home, and we really appreciated being welcomed into their family at such short notice. The funny thing was that we found out the turkey had been bought at a Walmart in San Diego - but everything else was authentically Mexican!! We went to bed pretty early that night, but had no sleep at all as the small town around the corner had some kind of celebration that went on until 6am, and included
fire crackers being let off about every 20 mins throughout the night! I don't know what kind of explosives they put in those things, but they're pretty darn loud and sound more like bomb blasts than fire crackers!
Christmas day was also very lovely, starting off with breakfast at our German neighbours' motorhome - quite a spread, in true German fashion! Manfred and Herma are travelling from Nova Scotia down to the tip of Argentina, and we enjoyed spending time with them and taking them to the beach in our truck a couple of times. The rest of the day was spent lounging around beneath the palm trees, and in the evening we invited our British friend, Felix, to join us for a homemade chicken curry. Felix is a great young guy from the UK, riding his motorbike through Central America, and his natural charm has ensured, I think, that he's rarely had to make a meal for himself during his trip! We've crossed paths with him often since then, and always enjoy his company - and for me it's nice to have a fellow tea drinker at last!
Anyway, after 5 days we were ready to leave
Don Alfredo's so loaded up on gas and food and headed south towards El Rosario. The road stayed decent, passing through some pretty scrubby desert and bleak little towns strung out along the highway, and at a small village called Camilu we took a dirt road for a few km to a little bay called Cueva del Pirata. The beach itself was nothing special, but we were able to park outside a motel on a small bluff overlooking the ocean, and had pretty good views of the fishermen heading out to work in their battered little boats (no pirates though). We were also given the key to a motel room so we could take showers, which was a nice luxury and something we only get to do about every 4 or 5 days typically. Yes, this kind of travel can be dirty and smelly! From Cueva del Pirata we continued south to El Rosario, a slightly nicer town and again parked behind a motel for the night. After this the road really deteriorated and was full of huge potholes, which had Ken cursing frequently but he soon developed a good eye for spotting them early and swerving to avoid the
biggest ones! It was a long, fairly uninspiring drive but we eventually made it to Bahia de los Angeles, which we'd been recommended to visit by several people.
The town itself was pretty derelict from a recent hurricane, but the beach was beautiful and it was our first taste of the beautiful Sea of Cortez. It's quite a sight to suddenly see sparkling blue water when you've driven for days through the desert, and we enjoyed a couple of nights at Daggetts beach camp, where we parked right on the beach and hung out with lots of other overlanders. Felix was there too, with his little tent dwarfed by various campervans and motorhomes and surrounded by a gaggle of frisky dogs! Goldie really enjoyed being a free range Mexican dog, scampering along the beach, eating rotten fish and making friends with her Mexican counterparts. In fact, ever since we arrived in Mexico we've been able to let her roam around freely, no longer constrained by the strict leash laws in the US...very liberating for her and us! Her tumour continues to grow bigger by the day, and smells awful, but we think she is still enjoying life and won't
take any action until we feel otherwise (for those of you who don't know, she has a huge cancerous tumour on her mouth, that is inoperable and will eventually be her demise, sadly).
There wasn't much of interest after we left Bahia de LA, so we continued south along Highway 1 and eventually wound up in a tiny town called San Ignacio - a real oasis of date palms and a river in the middle of the barren desert. We were delighted to find a real Mexican town, with a gorgeous plaza and a 17th century Jesuit church - the first town we'd found in Baja that wasn't just a depressing little place on the side of a busy highway. Camping options were limited but we stayed at a little place within walking distance of the plaza, which was essentially just the backyard of a local guy called Oscar. It was a bit scruffy and full of sandflies, but we had access to a clean toilet (something of a luxury in Baja, we're finding!) and it was really nice to be able to walk into the town and have lunch at a café on the plaza. Eating out here
is so cheap that we regularly have lunch or breakfast at a café, something we were never able to afford to do in the US. And of course the food is fresher and tastier too! You can get amazing fresh fish tacos for just over a dollar each, and a full meal for 2 with beers at a decent restaurant for less than $20. It's really great to be spending less money but living better than we were in the US. The only downside is that the food shops - or minimarkets - are really basic and have very few provisions, so we find we're eating a lot of the same foods, but at least it's cheap and fairly healthy, and the avocadoes are always delicious.
We decided to spend New Year's Eve in San Ignacio, which was a pretty muted affair - playing cards and drinking whisky in Tortuga until midnight and then straight to bed! The following day we celebrated the beginning of 2018 by strolling up to the plaza and buying some delicious slices of homemade date pie, the local delicacy. In the evening we met up with a French Canadian overlander couple, Gaetan and Helene,
with whom we'd crossed paths a few days before, and enjoyed a beer with them on the plaza in the evening. The sandflies and mosquitoes were tenacious and chased us out of town pretty quickly the following day (my ankles are still itching 5 days later!). We're now in the wonderful oasis of Mulege, on the Sea of Cortez side of the peninsula. The town is another real town with plazas and restaurants, quite a lot of American and Canadian expat residents, and a lovely hot and sunny climate. We found a campground by the river that actually has green grass and loads of fruit trees, and haven't been able to tear ourselves away yet! Every day the locals come by selling freshly made fruit pies, fish, drinking water, tamales and all sorts of other goods. We can pick oranges from the trees right outside Tortuga, and walk down the road to a restaurant by the sea which serves up great huevos rancheros for breakfast. We may never leave this place! Our friend Felix is also here, and we've met a few long-haul cyclists too, such as Alain: an affable and engaging guy from Belgium who's riding from the southern
tip of Argentina to Vancouver, BC!. It always makes us a little nostalgic but we enjoy re-engaging with that community even though we're not on bikes ourselves this time. We've also met Dallas and Kaveri from Nova Scotia: a very down-to-earth and fun couple who are motocross enthusiasts, spending a month or two here before relocating to British Columbia for a new work opportunity. All in all, life is good and we've loved Mexico so far. Happy New Year to you all and we hope 2018 is a healthy and happy one for you. We'll post another blog in a couple of weeks ~ Fi
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