Covered in whale snot & loving it!

We are now in Yuma, Arizona after squeeeezing, literally! through the San Luis border crossing on March 9.

sunrise at San Lucas

 Our last days in Mexico were spent first at San Lucas Cove where we dropped off about 4 loads of laundry with the lovely Mexican lady, picking it up the next day for the sum of $10 and spent time picking up more seaglass from the beach. We should have put the kayak in the water but got lazy. It was nice to just sit around enjoying the sun and the palm trees. We were encouraged to stay an extra night to hear a very good Mexican musical group at the restaurant on the beach – they did not disappoint. A mother, father and teenage daughter plus another guitarist, the young girl had an amazing voice.

Luna Sound

San Lucas Cove

As we were about to pull onto the hiway to leave, a caravan of 19 RV’s was driving by – a real hindrance on the road as no one can get around that many travelling together! We stopped in town to let them get ahead and we hit the beach in Santa Rosalia – where I found a very old fossilized shark tooth!

 Our next stop was San Ignacio, a town with a huge date palm oasis – we hoped to stay at a park made for big rigs but the caravan beat us to it & filled the place. We found a better place though, a small sandy spot right in the date palms on the edge of the lagoon. No services and we just fit but quite lovely and only about $7.

Don Chon park, San Ignacio

The town has a church built in the 1700’swith 4 ft. thick walls of limestone, a pretty square with huge trees and small outdoor restaurants around it where we enjoyed cervesas and tacos. There is also a funky little café with a “zoo” and a museum with reconstructed cave paintings. That night we put up our satellite dish and watched the Oscars! We did a bit of rockhounding north of town, as directed by our geology book; looking for 11 million year old agatized shell fossils (we did find some small ones).

cafe with a "zoo"

town square

San Ignacio church

cave paintings

Our main purpose for stopping at San Ignacio was for whale watching – the nearby lagoon is one of 3 on the Baja where gray whales come to calve and mate. The road out to the lagoon was rough but the whale watching was spectacular! It started out slow, not everyone was able to touch a whale, but near the end of our time in the boat we had 2 mamas pushing their babies up to the boat for us, magical! Strange to be happy being sprayed with whale snot but we were!

the size of boat we were in

mama

a baby

a spray of whale snot!

Heading north we crossed the mid point of the Baja in Guerrero Negro, stopping for shrimp omelettes for breakfast. We saw a flock of white pelicans migrating north above us, we will catch up with them near Edmonton at Black Nugget Park. We chose to take Hiway 5 across construction and rough rocky roads vs Hiway 1 with more potholes than you can imagine. We unhooked the car and drove separately, better able to miss the sharp rocks and holes, this route saves time and gets us to Gonzaga Bay.

Hiway 1 - the main hiway, just a few holes

boojum trees & cacti

on Hiway 5 - rocky, rough, dirt, gravel

Hiway 5

 We spent a couple nights there, camped right on the beach of the Sea of Cortez, listening to a sea lion bark and wading along picking up shells, very relaxing and our last beach stop. We were sad to leave as next winter we plan to stay in the US - Quartzite, Arizona area, so no beaches for us.

Gonzaga Bay, the view from the RV

Gonzaga Bay

I did my token share of driving in Mexico – about 1 ½ hour on the hiway north of San Felipe. Robin took over before the border, the border crossing from hell, where we were told we would be fine, but were not! There is a curve as you near the inspection booths; thanks to Robin’s skillful driving we squeaked through with the awning support a ¼ inch away from one post and the drivers mirror just connecting with another post (no damage done)! Then we had to listen to the US border guy give us hell for coming that way! The inspection was quick, a look in the fridge & freezer and we were on our way.

spring flowers blooming

travelling along the Mexican side of the wall

We are now set up in Sunridge RV park in  the Foothills of Yuma – a good suggestion for a park given to us as we stopped to stretch our legs a ways down the Baja. There is a pool, hot tub (Robin has checked it out a couple of times), good neighbors and quite a few activities. We are here for a week, will leave on Friday March 15 after we get our electrical transfer switch replaced (we fried it on our way south at a park with 220 power!) We have managed with our solar and an extension cord through the window when we have had power sites. We have done a bit of shopping here, getting a sunscreen for the awning and a few more LED lights. Of course we had to pig out at the Golden Corral buffet and Red Lobster and a Chinese buffet! Robin has been fasting one day a week (when it works out) and I am joining him now – but it may take more than that to rid us of our “winter weight”!

 We needed one more taco and cervesa, plus a dental check-up so we walked across to Algodones, Mexico yesterday. Can’t beat $25 US for a decent cleaning & check-up. And I got a very nice pedicure for $12!

We have spent time cleaning the rig, inside and out, catching up with laundry – this time I had to do it, but we do have a lovely washer & dryer in the RV and gearing up for the last push north. When we leave here we will stop in Bullhead City to catch up with old friends then a fairly direct route north to home. Once we get home the plan is to sell our townhouse and go full time RVing – a big decision, but we think a good one.

There may be a final installment once we are home, but no guarantees – we still are Living the Dream!