Thursday, October 29, 2015

BAJA – The parallel Universe part II


BAJA The parallel Universe part II


October 10th. We left Loreto after doing our routine like cleaning the camper, dumping black and grey water and flush the system. First stop was to get fresh water in the tank so we stopped at a place that sold purified water. Worked nicely, they handed me a hose which I put in the tank and after a few minutes the camper had another 200 liters of drinkable water.Afterwards we got some supplies and filled up with Diesel.
Sunset Loreto and the river we had to cross walking during night with water:
 



The drive to Ciudad Constitution along the coast is awesome. I had issues to concentrate on the road with all the beautiful things to see. We got waved down by a women and what appeared to be her daughter. They seemed to be in trouble but we found out quickly that it was a scam. First they wanted gas which we did not have so they would also take money. Well, here is a hint, what do you do with money in the middle of nowhere if you really are in an emergency situation. Later we found out that they went after other fellow travelers. In ciudad Constitution we stopped for lunch and continued south. In the afternoon the weather changed for the worse and we arrived at Punta Conejo after a 15 KM dirt road and could not cross a river that should not be there to get to our favorite beach. We called it a day and stayed on a cliff overlooking the pacific http://es.wannasurf.com/spot/Central_America/Mexico/Baja_Sur/Punta_Conejo/ .  

October 11th. Robert woke up and felt like shit. Robert had fewer and Steffi had to supply him with tea and soup J. The weather got worse so we decided to stay and ride it out. Robert slept the whole day and Steffi took a long walk. On the walk she met some fishermen who gave us a little lobster, they did not want any money just some beers in exchange. Someone came in the afternoon and wanted some money for camping, not sure if it was legit but I was too sick to argue. Some other travelers stopped by for the night so we had a little chat and we went to bed.

Impressions from Punta Conejo:
















October 12th. Weather was still bad but Robert felt a lot better. Unfortunately we were not able to cross the river to see our favorite beach, as it continued to rain on and off, so we had to return to the main road and drove to Todos Santos. Now, there we were surprised. Instead of coming to an art village with nice pubs and restaurants, we arrived to a construction zone. They are redoing all roads at the same time…. Guess what, none are finished. We went to a small RV place in town (only one) and stayed for 2 days http://www.todossantosguide.com/ellitrorvpark/ and talked to some strange and interesting people J . In town they had a little fiesta for their Virgin going on and the music played until 4am the first night. The next day we walked around and were surprised to realize that tourism did almost not exist anymore so the store and restaurant owners got rather annoying. I can see their point but we tourists can’t eat dinner at 3 places J. We did meet a group of tourists from the US that traveled for the first time outside the US. Now, that was an experience J We were not sure if that was seasonal, but a lot of people complained that tourism had gone down.
Todos Santos:










October 14th. We left Todos Santos and went south to Cabo San Lucas. Yes, the place of all places in Baja where you get everything you want or don’t want. It is a place where the rich and famous celebrate themselves, arriving with their yachts or private planes. We stayed at an RV park outside for only 25$ US per night and walked 2.5 KM into town
http://www.clubcaboinn.com/endorsement.htm
We had dinner and walked around at the harbor, had some drinks and got annoyed by the people trying to sell us a fishing trip. Only when they heard that we stayed at a RV place they let us go. I guess resort tourists were easier to convince to pay hundreds of dollars for a fishing trip.

We were disappointed to see that with all the construction the town has lost its charm. We did not even make the tourist trip to The lovers/divorced beach and the famous arch as we had done in the past.




October 16th. We had enough of this place and moved east. It was sad to see that almost all the access to the beaches was blocked by hotels. I guess it’s all about money. We went to San Jose de Cabo had lunch in a place we already had the pleasure to eat twice in the past, bought supplies and Diesel and continued to El Arbolito https://www.facebook.com/pages/Playa-Arbolito-Cabo-Pulmo/146690915464308, close to Cabo Pulmo. To road to get there follows the East Cape and the word bad does not really describe the condition. Actually leaving from Cabo surprised us with a new road which was nice but after 15 KM is was back to a dirt road which was washed out and went through the mountains. Often we had to put the truck in first gear and the wash board road shook us up pretty bad not to mention the astronomical fuel consumption. We stayed for 3 nights and enjoyed awesome snorkeling and just hanging out at the beach. It was nice.
Snorkling at Playa Arbolito/ Cabo Pulmo.





































October 19th. We continued north back to MEX1, than a little south to Santiago. We had lunch and went back on a dirt road to a Rancho called Santa Rita. That road was so bad that I even needed low gears to get up a hill and just 1 KM from our destination we had to make a call because there were trees in the way where we could not pass. We walked to the Rancho which was beautiful but nothing for our Rig. An old man showed us around, there were hot and cold springs and a nice green area with lots of trees around it. Since we could not get there we walked back to our Rig turned around and went to Los Barriles. We checked into a nice RV / Hotel place http://www.verdugosbeachresort.com/ for 20 $ a night with a pool directly on the beach and enjoyed a week of hanging around meeting wonderful people ( mainly fishing enthusiasts ) and celebrated the food in town and the drinks at the bar they had.
Relaxing in Los Barriles: 











October 26th. It was time to move on to La Paz. We stopped at a place to get propane which was easier than we thought went shopping and filled the Diesel tank then continued to a place 25KM east of La Paz called Playa Balandra, http://www.tripadvisor.com.mx/Attraction_Review-g150771-d1067272-Reviews-Balandra_Beach-La_Paz_Baja_California.html,  where we met our friends Rob and Marissa with whom we spend time in Los Barriles. They have inflatable paddle boards which we tried for the first time. We had a great time eating and drinking, watching the sunset until …….. The beasts came …. Called nosee’ums little flies/ sandflys you can’t see and they bit the living daylights out of us. We stayed in the water for the rest of the evening because there was no escape but it did not do any good. They ate us alive.

October 27th. We got the hell out of there…..warning to all travelers…… enjoy the beach until the sun goes down and leave or you will regret it !!!

Our friends moved north so we said good bye and returned to La Paz where we checked into a RV park in town. After looking at us we realized that we had uncountable bites that stated to itch badly. At night we had to get something to ease the pain and the itching. It didn’t work to well.
Playa Balandra - Paradise with Sandflys










October 28th we went to town to get our permit for temporary import of our Rig to the main land. Well, we went to the wrong place just to find out that we have to do that at the harbor where the ferry leaves. We passed there the day before …. Damn we have to go back tomorrow. We met other overlanders in town and exchanged stories went back to the RV park and relaxed for the rest of the day trying to stop the itching J.