Before we left Cabo we headed out on one more fossil hunting
trip north of San Jose into the desert. We stopped at a place we hadn’t been
before and we got lucky – lots of sea shell fossils, fossilized bone and I
found the ultimate prize – a Megeladon tooth!! We were 300 metres above sea
level and far from the current coast. We truly are crazy because it was 32 C
with no shade and still we spent the day out there. Robin also found a stone
arrowhead in excellent condition, a good day all around.
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| Megeladon tooth! |
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| arrowhead |
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| Robin in the pool at Cabo Glorieta |
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| how we buy oranges |
We left Cabo on March 1 to begin our trek home. We like the
travel days – you can’t beat the view out of our huge windshield, being up
pretty high and the scenery changes constantly. We stopped at our favorite
beach – Playa Santispac and spent a week, kayaking, visiting with friends,
enjoying tamales for breakfast, clamming and my turn to over indulge on
margaritas. We stocked up on shrimp, scallops and crab – all bought fresh on
the beach from the vendors.
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| Santispac sunset |
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| rays |
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| kayaking |
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| can't beat an ice cream cart on the beach! |
We were taken to a “secret” swimming hole on the Magdalena
river, beautiful area, picnic lunch and fun watching the 7 dogs that our group
brought along. Nearby was the town of San Jose Magdalena, the garlic capital of
Baja. We stopped to ask an old fellow about buying some, he took us to a house
in town where the back area had a field of garlic growing, garlic drying and
piles of braided garlic. We all stocked up – a braid with 25 heads cost $4.
Unfortunately we are storing this in our car so I’m not sure if the smell will
ever leave! His front flower garden was quite unique – in among the flowers
were sticks with colorful lids from fabric softener, soap, etc. on them, very
pretty.
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| Magdelena swimming spot |
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| our garlic salesmen |
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| interesting garden "flowers" |
Continuing northward we stopped in San Ignacio for a whale
watching trip. The church there was built in 1786 of limestone and the walls
are 4 ft. thick. Our friends camped by the lagoon there, a marvelous spot, very
calm and relaxing.
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| San Ignacio church |
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| pretty fancy hardware store |
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| camping by the lagoon |
We were excited for another whale watching trip – this time
to see the gray whales and their calves. It was a magical time, our captain
found us several “friendly” whales that were willing to bring the calves up to
the boat so we could touch them – they actually push them up to us! Not sure if
being covered in whale snot/spray is lucky but we hope so!
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| sprayed with whale "snot" |
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| mama pushing baby up to us |
This year we decided to embark on a new adventure – taking
the unfinished road across to meet Hiway 5. Every year they pave a bit more,
this year there was still 38 kms of rough, rocky gravel road which crosses the
mountains. Yes we are crazy – it is not recommended for RV’s, only for trucks
and SUVs, but people had taken it and said we should make it! It was an
unpleasant 2 hrs and 40 min. of going an average of 15 km/hr. bumping along,
getting very dusty. In the middle of this lies Coco’s Corner – an icon in the
off road racing circuit. A fellow, Coco, arrived here 27 years ago, in the
middle of nowhere and greets travellers with cold beer and a very strange home.
There is race memorabilia all over in addition to a lot of women’s underwear
hanging from the ceiling.
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| the road across the mountains |
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| the car used to be blue/silver |
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| Coco's Corner |
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| spring flowers blooming everywhere |
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| boojum tree |
The road took us to Gonzaga Bay and for this it was
worth it! This may be our new favorite beach camp – huge palapas on the beach,
calm water perfect for kayaking and very peaceful. Great place to collect sand
dollars as long as you stay away from the rather large orange jellyfish. No
power, no cell phone, no Wi-Fi. We saw a Mexican fellow catch an octopus in his
hat – they planned to take it home for supper!
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| sunrise at Gonzaga Bay |
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| one of 3 different lizards we saw, the others were too quick! |
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| kayaking on water like glass |
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| octopus in a hat! |
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| our very spacious palapa |
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| jellyfish |
From there it was a short drive to San Felipe, a favorite
place for Californians to hit the beach – lots of Gringo owned houses and many,
many RV parks. We found a strange park a ways from town – it was the victim of
a storm in 2004 that damaged the infrastructure and the owner walked away after
he got his insurance money 3 years later. The caretaker mans a rope gate and
collects the fee – the brick paved roadways are the only thing in good shape –
the sites are filled with sand, the services long buried, the buildings stand
empty. A few folks spend the winter there and several trailers lie abandoned –
one has blue chairs and a quad covered in sand beside a decent looking trailer
(photo below, look closely). The beach is just below and the tide goes out a
long, long way, leaving warm pools of water for cooling off in.
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| almost abandoned RV park |
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| chairs and quad buried under the sand |
From there we continued north, thru Mexicali and to the
border. Our motorhome was X-rayed and we were sent on our way, lucky they
didn’t spot the boxes of rocks, driftwood and shells! We arrived in Yuma to a
balmy 38C or 100F, apparently the hottest temp. in the US that day! Thank
heaven for A/C!
We are still living the dream!
