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Published: January 25th 2008
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We stepped off the bus at 7.30pm on Saturday 27 October at Customs & Immigration for getting into Mexico. After collecting our bags from the bus, we literally just walked to the border gates and through the turnstile where we had arranged to meet Ian at the McDonalds across the street. Ian arrived from LA 15 minutes later and the three of us took a taxi to our hotel. After quick showers, we went to the first bar of the night where we had a few $1 Corona’s. Then we spent the next 6 hours in a bar that had an $18 cover with free drinks all night. When I did eventually get home, Steve left us to return to London and Ian and I slept until 6pm. We went for ‘dinner’ at an Italian restaurant and then walked around for a bit before returning to the room and going to sleep at 10pm. On Monday morning, we spent a while on the internet before having lunch in a café next to our hotel. At 2.30pm, we got a taxi to the bus terminal for our 4pm bus to Mulege. Although the coach was very comfortable, we did not sleep much
on the 16 hour trip because it was freezing cold during the night and we were dressed in shorts and t-shirt. We were dropped off in the small town of Mulege at 9am on Tuesday morning and we found a nice hotel for our stay. After a tasty breakfast, we went back to our room for a 3 hour siesta. Then we took the 3.5km walk to the beach where we were the only people laying out soaking up the hot sun. As sun set, we had dinner and a beer at the restaurant on the beach before getting a taxi back to our hotel. That evening, we stayed in our room and started watching season 3 of 24 on DVD. After breakfast on Wednesday, we walked to the beach again but this time we spent the afternoon sitting up at the lighthouse admiring the views and observing the different birds circling overhead. We had a late lunch in a nice little café where we sat outside upstairs with a view of the Sea of Cortez. As the sun began to set, we strolled back to our hotel. Once again in the evening, we stayed in our room and watched
24 on DVD. On Thursday morning, we had breakfast and then went to Cortez Explorers Scuba Diving School to begin our Open Water course. We were actually one hour late as we never changed our clocks when we passed into South Baja (over 2 days before we even realised). We met Mick (our English instructor) and he told us that it was only Ian and I doing the course and so we could complete it in only 3 days. The morning was spent watching sessions 1 and 2 on DVD, some theory class work and then a couple of quizzes. After lunch, we went to a hotel swimming pool where we went through a few exercises with our scuba gear on. In the evening, we had dinner and then stayed in our room to watch more 24. On Friday morning, we watched sessions 3 and 4 on DVD followed by theory work and a quiz. After lunch, we went to the beach and completed a 40 minute open water dive where we saw lots of sting rays and an octopus amongst other things. Another tasty dinner that evening was followed once again by watching more 24. We met Mick at
8.30am on Saturday and went straight to the beach. We had to fit in a lot of diving and demonstrate lots of skills in the water. By the time I was on my final open water dive of the day, I was really tired and hungry and could feel myself cramping up. Relief set in once we made it back to the shore only for Mick to tell us that we still had to do a swim test that included swimming 200 metre’s and then treading water for 10 minutes. It was 3.30pm before we left the beach and lunch never tasted so good when we sat outside Melly’s and had a steak and cheese sandwich. When we went back to the dive shop, we watched session 5 on DVD and then completed the exam after which Mick informed us that we were now certified open water divers. That evening, I was sitting on the internet in the hotel reception when the whole building started shaking with a loud rumble (found out the next morning that it was an earthquake). We finished watching season 3 of 24 on Saturday night and then had an early night. On Sunday, we met
Mick and he took us to his home where we picked up his partner Maria and then we set off on our 2 day road trip to San Diego. We were originally going to take the bus but Mick and Maria were going to San Diego and offered us a ride. It was nice seeing the desert land of Baja during the day; even with Mick’s rally car style driving. We arrived at our overnight accommodation and checked into a lovely room where we had a king size bed each and so much space. The four of us went for dinner at Mama Espanola’s and Mick presented us with our diving certificates over our tasty food and a couple of beers. We returned to the room to watch TV and have an early night. In the morning, we woke up an hour early (didn’t change our clocks again) and went for breakfast at Mama Espanola’s before setting off for San Diego. Early afternoon, we got a puncture and luckily we were not doing 90mph on a mountainside corner. With team effort, we changed the tyre at the side of the road and continued our journey. A couple of hours later, we were near the border in Tijuana when a policeman on a motorcycle pulled us over. He demanded $160 which went straight into an envelope and into his pocket and we were not even issued a ticket or receipt. He sent us on our way and within half a mile we had seen another four of the same incidents where a policeman had pulled over a car with American plates. After eventually getting through the border, it was a short drive to downtown San Diego where we said goodbye to Mick and Maria and we found a hostel for the night. Ian was returning to London the following day so I went online and booked a flight to Portland for the next morning. We then went out for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant and talked about our 11 months of traveling together.
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