Turkey Day at San Lucas Cove

Our travel day took us through San Ignacio ( a date palm oasis town). We stopped for lunch at Loncheria Esmerelda, before the engine was off there was a fellow at the window selling dates. Of course we took him up on his offer - about $4.50 for 2 kg of fresh dates - I have stocked up for a while. Lunch was prepared by an old Mexican woman in an even older building, but she can make a mean carne asada burrito!

We settled into San Lucas Cove campground - $10/night, $1400/year, water, a dump & hot showers, all on the beach. We were here last year, very friendly & welcoming folks, a mix of Canadians & Americans. We also met a 25 year old girl from Camrose who has bicycled here from Kelowna, which has taken 2 months. She entertained us with stories of her travels - she bikes 60-150 km per day, often alone, sleeping in her tent in peoples yards. She seems to be enjoying her rest here as the group has been very hospitable.
Had to throw in a bird picture - a vermilion flycatcher, flourescent orange!

We were all set to head out in the kayak early in the morning when "Captain Eric" (a neighbor) was banging on our door. "Do you want to go fishing?, be ready in 5 min." Of course we jumped at the chance to get out in a bigger boat with a real fisherman. We headed out of the cove & were trolling for "whatever is biting". I caught the first fish, a nice Bonito. We proceeded to catch another bonito, 2 sea bass, several skinny, small barracuda plus a sierra that I almost got into the boat. We kept everything but the barracudas. This took 3 hours, apparently this was a slow day!

We were very fortunate to be invited to a Thanksgiving dinner at the campground. This is an annual tradition organized by a woman from the NWT. They cook a turkey & a ham (we pitched in the requested $1.20 for the cost of the turkey) & everyone brought potluck. There were 30 people there, all of the campground & a few folks from town. The meal was fantastic - countless dishes, all delicious, complete with pumpkin pie & several other desserts. It pretty much outdid most Ukaranian wedding dinners!

Today we headed out in the kayak to wear off some turkey, unfortunately no Black Friday sales around here. We spent 5 hours away & they almost came searching for us, good people that they are. We had a nice day, tried fishing - me trolling & Robin providing the power, but all we caught were 3 puffer fish. We had a picnic on the far shore & poked around in the rocks & shells.
Tomorrow we head to Santispac beach on Bahia de Conception for a prolonged stay.
Living the Dream!

Fishing in Bahia de Los Angeles

We are back to civilization & the internet, did not miss it at all!
We spent a night at Catavina amongst the huge boulders, cacti & boojum (cirio cactus - fluffy orange tops) at  remote Rancho St Inez. You camp in a big open area, no service except garbage cans & pay 100 pesos ($8), here we saw our first other Canadian license plate.

From there we traveled on rough hiway, having to pass 3 semis stopped on the road, up a hill, just before a blind corner - this is Baja!

We crested the hill to a beautiful sight of blue-green water dotted with islands - we had reached Bahia de Los Angeles. We set up in an abandoned old government campsite (built in the 70's when the hiway was built but not maintained), right on the water & free. Robin did some landscaping, put up our solar lights, filled the hummingbird feeder, sprinkled the ant powder & we sat down with  cervesas! This small fishing village only received power in 2007, until then they relied on a generator that was turned off at night - you can still see advertising for 24 hr electricity! We had a long stretch of beach, almost deserted, sea shells all to ourselves. We finally put the line in our new fishing gear that we bought last spring & started fishing from shore - but nada the first day. Our Quebecois friends arrived the next day & we had a good 3 day visit, tried out 2 restaurants in town & shared a few drinks.
We went out in the kayak every day - so peaceful & relaxing except for a few wavy days. We managed to catch only 3 halibut 15 - 19" & good eating! We saved some in the freezer for later. We also caught lots of puffer fish (poisonous) & I snagged a couple baby rays. We almost caught a blue-footed booby bird, he kept diving after our hooks!
We thoroughly enjoyed relaxing on the beach, watching pelicans, boobies & gulls feeding, we even saw whales spouting in the distance.
We woke one morning to grey, overcast skies & soon the rain hit. It rained all day, at one point we were a little worried about the stability of the land we were parked on. The next day dawned clear & sunny again, temps in low 20's.
We caused quite the uproar with the birds as we cleaned our fish - at least 20 pelicans & many noisy gulls descended on us looking for scraps - all  much too close for comfort!

We did some rock-hounding & hiking in the area, more for the collection of course. We drove 16 km out of town at a max. speed of 20 km/hr (such a great road) hoping to find  an old abandoned silver  mine - Las Flores.  We were successful, but not much to see, just several tailings piles & falling down buildings - no treasure. We are still not sure what the silver looks like before it is crushed - the piles were all a rusty colored gravel, but we dug around in them anyway.

We actually started playing crib again, surprisingly the "how to" came back to us, along with some good memories of  Louis & Nancy.

We are now in Guerrero Negro for the night to stock up & do a pile of laundry, then off to San Lucas cove, another fishing spot. Hopefully our internet stick works there as well. We sent off our Christmas cards today, hopefully they arrive before New Years!

We are, as always, loving this lazy lifestyle! For the record I actually took the sunrise picture!

Clam digging in San Quintin

Decided to do another entry as we are heading off into the wilderness for several days. We are in San Quintin, Mexico at a nice RV park with 15 amp power, hookups & hot salty showers for approx $17 per night. Not quite on the Pacific but a short drive away. The drive down here was slow, many miles of detours where we drove along in the ditch, in places definitely not wide enough for 2 vehicles & all the while people were passing each other. We guessed wrong about being affected by the Baja 1000 traffic - we were passed many times by trucks hauling huge tires & large bottles of fuel. Couldn't see any of the race as it's all way off road. We did see valleys, not unlike the Okanagan with vineyards & farms & fields of squash, cactus, sunflower, groups picking potatoes & huge rows of strawberry plants. Everything here seems to be accomplished by manual labour.

We saw a truck slightly overloaded with mattresses & furniture -" Ikeas Start the Car"!commercial came to mind.

We got lazy yesterday & bought a fried chicken dinner, for which I am paying the price, not a great night, but better today - Robin seems to have an "iron stomach", he's fine.
Today we drove out to the ocean, as it's a full moon tomorrow, the tide is very low & there were many Mexican families digging for clams out in the rocks. Robin got down & helped a couple fellows for a bit - assorted clams but mainly big goeducks. We stopped & picked up a couple walking with a little boy, carrying their sack of clams & gave them a ride to town - they would have been walking for ages!

Our next stop will be Catavina, in the centre of the Baja at a small ranch in the middle of no where, then across to the Sea of Cortez side to Bahia de Los Angeles. This is a favored fishing area, but there is no cell service, no land lines & only 3 sat phones for use by the community at a local store. Needless to say there will be no blog or email contact for several days - will depend on how good the fishing is. This is where we caught halibut off the shore last year - imagine how good we might be now from the kayak!

Still loving it, especially after seeing the weather forecast for Edmonton! Stay warm out there!

Baja at Last

We spent our last couple of days in the US traveling back & forth to Algodones, Mexico. It is right across the border form Yuma, people park on the US side & walk across for cheap dental, eyeglasses & prescriptions. We crossed for tacos, beer, our Mexican immigration cards & the chiropractor. I have had a "crick" in my neck for over 3 wks, which was fixed in a jiffy by Dr Madrid!
We had a wonderful surprise as we were walking down the street in Algodones, we ran into Serge & Suzanne. This was the couple from Quebec that we spent time with along the Baja last winter - Robin & Serge hit it off splendidly & it was good to catch up & then to look forward to future meetings along the road.
Driving towards Tecate, Mexico (our crossing) we passed huge fields of lettuce, broccolli, cabbage - quite the sight. Another fairly common sight in the US are monstrous windmills.

Our crossing was largely uneventful, they did look at our vehicle registrations & checked inside both the car & RV but didn't care to see our passports or "visas". We drove thru wine country, lots of small wineries & a few big ones. We stopped for a tour & tasting at Encuentro Guadalupe & were amazed by the tiny hotel rooms perched on the side of the hill. We got a barrel sample & private tour, then went up for the standard tasting - they only sell one white & one red wine, but their samples were very generous & he included a taste pf grappa. This made the remaining few miles into Ensenada less stressful!

We settled into Corona Beach Resort facing the ocean, less than 20 ft from high tide. We enjoyed delicious carne asada tacos & beer for about $8 at a nearby taco stand.

We met the neighbor next to our site, a pleasant mix of Richard & Uncle Tom - he has been a wealth of information but initially he was upset with us for bringing cloudy, cool weather, but it resulted in an amazing sunset!

We ventured into Ensenada after watching the pelicans diving for breakfast & two dolphins swimming by our front window. The required stop at Costco for beer & some snacks & UHT boxes of milk, then on to the harbour for fish tacos & fresh halibut & shrimp for the freezer. We reactivated the internet stick that we bought last year - we should have service wherever there is cell service (not everywhere, unfortunately), so will be able to keep up with the world. We probably still won't have a clue of the day or date though! We have arrived at the same time, again, as the Baja 1000 race. Apparently this is to off-road racing as the Super Bowl is to football. There are crowds everywhere & noisy off-road trucks & dune buggies on the streets. The downside is that the "chase/support" vehicles travel on the highways which makes them even more hazardous - we hope to keep a day or two ahead of them.

Today is a quiet day, watched a cruise ship come in, cut Robin's hair, long walk on the beach to Big Burro for the largest burritos ever seen! On the way back I took a picture of a Mexican car wash. We were entertained by a fellow who comes regularly to feed squirrels right near our RV - they eat cheerios out of a dish! Soon after Robin had it eating peanuts from his hand. Many of the cottages in this park have been painted but none as elaborate as the one looking like an aquarium.

We are not quite as penny pinching as last year, we have already bought a lovely souvenir that sums it all up - Another Day in Paradise!

Thanks to everyone that is following our humble travels, we appreciate the comments & emails.