Feliz Navidad from Santispac 2016

Can hardly believe that it’s almost Christmas - obviously no snow, no continuous carols on the radio, very few decorations about and no scurrying about cleaning, preparing food and buying presents. In a way it is so much easier, but we definitely miss our family even more over the holidays!

We have been settled at Santispac beach on Bahia Conception since Dec. 7 and will be here until Christmas day. Life is easy, long, leisurely coffee watching pelicans, blue-footed boobies and gulls directly in front of us, fishing for their breakfast, maybe a walk, a kayak paddle most days and finally off to happy hour! We were lucky to secure a palapa (a palm frond roof with 4 posts) that we set up with a tarp and wind screens plus carpet for the sand. It keeps the wind out and provides some shade – Robin was quick to set up his outdoor kitchen where we do most of the cooking. It faces the bay and we are about 60 ft from the water. The beach averages 30-35 campers per night, some here briefly, others here for months. We pay 150 pesos per night, about $10. There are 2 restaurants right behind the row of RVs and we get vendors every day selling fish, seafood, veggies & fruit along with blankets, T-shirts, trinkets,  etc. We are particularly fond of the tamale lady who walks down the beach with her bucket full of hot chicken tamales for breakfast.

Santispac beach

full moon

the view from our chairs

We arrived on a Tuesday just after the weekly Happy Hour began at Armandos Restaurant that is the closest to us. We left the RV in the driveway and finally got it parked several cervesas later, after catching up with old friends.

 

Armandos Restaurant behind us

We laugh and say that “you know you are at Santispac ‘”when you hear the “jake” brakes on the semis as they go up and down the big hill behind us. We have decided that they do this and laugh as they wake us up. The weather was amazing for the first 10 days or so, lows of 14-18C and his of 24-30C but it has cooled off and gotten windy, even have to wear long pants for part of the day! (Even Robin a couple of times!)

view of the beach from the water

We have been out kayaking often, some days the water was like glass so great visibility for seeing fish. Dolphins come into the bay regularly; we have been pretty close with the kayak.

 

dolphins

more dolphins

 There is a group of whale sharks that hangs out around the bay but they are hard to spot. They can swim under the water with nothing visible but if you are lucky the small dorsal fin and the tail might be spotted moving slowly as they feed. We have spotted one and raced out with the kayak but failed to find it or unable to get very close – but one morning our luck changed. Robin had us out on the water before sunrise – 7:00 because he saw one. I grabbed the camera, but unfortunately it had the telephoto lens on it (and no time to waste), and off we paddled. This time it was in no hurry and was busy eating so we were able to get good and close – too close at one point as we miscalculated it’s direction, the head went under the kayak but the fin hit the underside of us and gave us quite the rocking! I got some photos of the tail & fin but nothing of its body as it was too close! We estimate it was at least 30 ft. long and its head about 3 ft. across! Quite the experience!

 

whale shark, head, tail & dorsal fin

We have tried fishing but only caught a nasty scorpionfish, not trying too hard as the freezer is full. We are enjoying birdwatching; finally saw the crests on the cormorants head, lots of pelicans and yellow crowned night herons.

 

yellow crowned night heron

double crested cormorant

The closest town is Mulege, 20 minutes away, with about 3000 people, a few small stores, a laundry, the purified water store, 2 gas stations and the only place that you can get WiFi or cell service. This is a bit of a pain but we manage. We finally gave up on the US cell phone and switched to a Mexican Sim card, cheap and fairly reliable – sometimes we have to dial a number 6 or 7 times before the call actually goes thru! We drove 120 km to Loreto to make the switch but we were lucky to get someone who spoke excellent English to get us set up.

We have driven towards the mountains hoping to find interesting rocks but all we found was a lot of dust, dirt and cacti. Beautiful drive though.

the cacti grow pretty big here!

We have several old friends and some new ones that we are spending our time with, hanging out, happy hours, meals at the restaurant – Robin has taken a liking to their “deadly” margaritas! Not a good thing on 2 for 1 nights! We know a good place to dig for baby butter clams so we have shared this with several folks and have enjoyed some delicious clam meals, plus froze some clams for later on. Robin has been showing off his” bird booze house “and sharing the Fireball with all the neighbors, quite the hit! Finally got around to doing some decorating for Christmas – looks pretty festive!

all decked out for Christmas

We always planned to continue down to Cabo but when we learned that the main campground closed this year we were a bit worried. The options were slim to none but we were lucky to catch a cancellation at one spot so we will spend January there. We plan to spend Christmas Eve with friends, enjoying a buffet supper at Anna’s restaurant at the end of the beach, then head south Christmas day.

We would like to send a big Thanks to all who read about our travels and especially those who are so kind to send us comments – we appreciate them greatly!

Anna's Resturant

our friend Serge and Robin's carving of him

a couple wind chimes I have made

suncatchers, earrings & bracelets, also made by me

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Our fishing adventures in San Lucas Cove

We continued trying our hand at fishing while at Bahia de Los Angeles, after watching 3 Mexicans catch a pail full in short order. They showed us where to go and even gave us their leftover octopus for bait but all we came home with was one good sized triggerfish, caught by Robin before the fisherman gave us advice. We were lucky enough to see dolphins and even a whale, plus frigate birds and blue footed boobies. We also found a lot of agates and a few more shells.

 

great little museum

Robin & his triggerfish

cleaning fish & feeding the pelicans

my first shell creation

our shell collection from one beach

We had a fire one evening and invited the “neighbors”, a Spanish couple, new Baja campers from Kelowna and a couple from Seba Beach, AB. Fun to swap stories and learn about the adventures of other campers. Needing socks and a jacket in the evening was too cold for us, so we decided to leave there after our week was up, hoping for less wind and warmer weather.

We were all set to call our kids and to wish Rosemary a Happy 1^st Birthday on Nov. 28, but it seems that there is a problem with our phone service. I spent an hour on the phone with AT&T trouble shooting and in the end I was told that it seems to be a frequent issue and they blame the Mexican cell network! We will have to wait until we get to a larger town where we may get someone who can speak English to sort it out, or we may get a Mexican Sim card. So far we are OK with the WiFi but it’s nice to hear your kid’s voices.

We continued south to Guerrero Negro, passed another military check-point and gave out another deck of cards to the soldier who checked our RV. This seems to be a welcome “gift”/good gesture.

The RV park there had full hook-ups so we took advantage and used our washer & dryer all afternoon, love them! Found the main grocery store in town, very busy, strangely staffed by the military, where we were a bit out of place, but we got stocked up for our next stop. I even remembered how to ask for chicken breasts without having to pantomime.

Onward thru San Ignacio where we stopped for a late breakfast at a roadside café, pretty primitive but good food. Nice drive through greener areas, past volcanoes and hills of lava, watching the Mexicans do grass cutting along the hiway with machetes. Not much machinery used here, but lots of manual labor.

closest thing we've got to snow drifts, sand drifts!

lunch stop

We arrived at San Lucas Cove RV Park and were warmly greeted by Eric and Vi, the couple from NWT that took us fishing 3 years ago. The campground is quieter, less regulars here, but still lots of friendly folks. We set up near some trees so our fridge has some shade, within view of the water. Nice place - bathrooms with hot showers, water taps and WiFi at the little beachside restaurant for $10/night. Signed up for a week, hoping to get out fishing and kayaking, along with some exploring. As usual we set up our hummingbird feeders, one was soon visited by a hooded oriole, along with the Costa hummers. The other fun bird that isn’t seen very many places but here is the Vermilion flycatcher, very colorful!

We were invited to a camp wide happy hour that included a lot of delicious smoked fish, as well as a vast array of appie s – we took my standby of stuffed jalapenos.

We have been out kayaking twice, did some fishing both times, mainly from shore out on a spit across the mouth of this bay – caught halibut – no scale but one was 20” long, the other 22” long and 9” wide. We also caught a small yellowtail and 3 sculpins (scorpionfish) that have poisonous spines – those we very carefully took off the hook and released. Seeing lots of birds and taking lots of photos.

view of the camp from the kayak

Robin working to clean up the place

reddish egret

hooded oriole

Costa hummingbird

Snowy egret

Vermilion flycatcher

Oystercatchers

big ugly turkey vultures

scorpionfish

osprey

It has been quite windy but we were able to get out fishing with Eric out of the bay and in open ocean, in a 14 ft. aluminum boat – a bit scary!  We trolled along these amazing rock cliffs, catching fish like crazy – I was actually apologizing for catching so often as he had to stop the boat each time! Robin and I brought in 9 fish and released at least 12 – in about an hour and a half! We caught flag cabrilla, triggerfish, spotted bay bass, leopard grouper, ribera cabrilla and sculpin. While we were out we saw a turtle, bat rays and a pod of dolphins, a wonderful day! We would have kept fishing but Eric said we had caught the boat limit. Somehow we managed to fit it all in our freezer.

trolling along these cliffs

dolphins

our catch!!

We spent the afternoon wandering around in Santa Rosalia, the small city nearby and got our car hand washed in the parking lot while we shopped in the grocery store – for about $3.50.

Apparently it doesn’t often rain here in the winter, maybe twice or not at all – but we got a downpour. Huge puddles everywhere and the dirt surface turned to slippery slime.

The small restaurant here in the park opens only on weekends, doesn’t look like much from the outside or inside but serves amazing food! Very decorative plating, worthy of a photo! We ate a shrimp meal, a scallop meal and had 6 beer, all for $33 Can. They even had live entertainment on Sunday, a singing duo, not my style of music but you can’t get too fussy here!

 

Delicious & looks great!

inside the beach resturant

after the rain

the beach resturant

We did a road trip up to a small village and beyond down a “goat trail” to arrive alongside the wide mainly dry river bed. Lots of cool rocks, had to cross the water on stepping stones (beyond my comfort zone) and got some exercise. Good view of the riverbed and out to the ocean on the way back. Also saw a small herd of burros.

view of the riverbed and out to sea

On to Santa Rosalia again after finding out that they have a black sand beach – fine black and red sand along with chunks of obsidian scattered about, something different. Of course we have “souvenirs” – lucky this motorhome can handle extra weight!

black sand beach

We are leaving this lovely place today, Dec. 7 and moving on to Bahia Concepcion and Santispac beach. We were lucky to get out fishing with Eric this morning, since the wind wasn’t howling, we can stuff a little more fish in our freezer. Good morning brought in 11 fish, 4 different kinds, lots of fun and we thank Eric immensely for his generosity & hospitality. It was 8C this morning, the high was 24 but kinda chilly for us, so we will continue south in search of heat. Still living the dream!