SANTA ROSALIE TO MULEGE, B.C.S., MEXICO

We awake to the sound of a woodpecker tapping on the windshield.  As I have coffee I realize the only bird I recognize is the mourning dove.  Even the pelicans look different.  We hear Spanish music and see a group of American/Canadian ladies working out with a Mexican instructor.

We continue south to Mulege, another oasis town.  Here the spring creates a river that drains into the gulf.  The town borders this river and again the streets are too narrow for us to drive so we park and walk.  We are the only tourists in town.  With all the bad news about Mexico and the poor economy, people just are not visiting this country.  Peggy tries to help out by buying something from each shop.  We hike up to an abandoned prison with a museum, but it's closed.  We have supper at a patio restaurant where the whole family helps out.  We take an RV site on the river called Hotel Custa Real.

Roadside Shrine, B.C.S., Mexico

Town of Mulege, B.C.S., Mexico

Shrimper off the beach at the town of Mulege, B.C.S., Mexico

Bar and restaurant in the town of Mulege, B.C.S., Mexico

Formal territorial prison in Mulege,B.C.S., Mexico

Formal territorial prison in Mulege,B.C.S., Mexico

GUERRERO NEGRO TO SANTA ROSALIA, B.C.S., MEXICO

After a hot shower and a good Mexican breakfast we continue across the Desierto which is also the Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve.  We have been through several military check points and the guys with the automatic weapons have always waved us through, but now this guy wants to search the motor home.  He checks under the front seats and then asks to get in the coach.  Once we are inside he asks for AAA batteries.  We don't have any, then he asks for a pen light; we don't have one, then he opens the refrigerator and says "coke."  I give him one and he takes two more.  I feel like I've just gotten off cheap.

We take a side trip to San Ignacio, a date palm oasis built around lagoons formed by damming a large nearby spring.  We are over half way to Cabo San Lucas and this is the first fresh water we have seen.  We ride into town and tour the mission church of San Ignacio built in 1786.  It is built of lava rock and has walls that are four feet thick.  We stroll around the town square which is shaded by several large trees.

We continue eastward across the peninsula and come upon three steep mountains called the three virgins.  They are the remnants of volcanoes that last erupted in 1847.  There are hills and hills of chocolate brown lava rock everywhere.  We finally reach the coast and the turquoise blue water of the Gulf of California.

We cruise through Santa Rosalia, the ferry terminal for mainland Mexico.  This is a copper mining town with streets so narrow we are unable to go down them.  We take a campsite at San Lucas Cove, right on the water.  The tide is out so we have to make do with a walk on the pebble beach.  This place is full of sport fisherman, mostly retired Americans who come down here for the winter.  We are treated to home baked goods delivered to your campsite.  There is no electricity so most units have solar panels and a string of batteries.

Bougainvillea flower

Mission church of San Ignacio, built in 1786, built of lava rock with walls four feet thick, B.C.S., Mexico

Inside mission church of San Ignacio

Town of San Ignacio

San Ignacio, date-palm oasis built around lagoons, B.C.S., Mexico

Las Tres Virgines (The Three Virgins), a volcanic mountain with 3 cones, B.C.S., Mexico

Steepest grade on Mex1 called Cuesta del Infierno (Grade to Hell), B.C.S., Mexico

Gulf of California outside of Santa Rosalia, B.C.S., Mexico

RV Park San Lucas Cove, B.C.S., Mexico

Fishing is very popular here in the Cove

CATAVINA TO GURRERO NEGRO, B.C.S., MEXICO

The wind blew all night rocking us back and forth.  Even the dogs don't want to go outside this morning.  We continue across the peninsula which has now become a desert full of boulders and sand and cactus.  We make a pit stop for the dogs and we all come back full of cactus thorns.  This is a very unhospitable place.

We descend onto the Desierto de Vizcaino and the road becomes a straight line and flat.  We cross from Baja California into Baja California Sur and time goes back to mountain time.  We enter Guerrero Negro which is the first town big enough to have a bank since Tijuana.  Our credit cards aren't worth much down here except at an ATM.  Everybody deals in cash, even the Pemex gas stations.  Gas is the same price all across the country.

We find the only grocery store in town and do some shopping.  I'm amazed at the lack of variety here.  As Americans we are so spoiled by our food marts.  Here I get one kind of milk in one size only.  I have a choice of four kinds of cereal and two kinds of cookies.  The good new is it costs about two-thirds of what it would be in the U.S.

We continue across the Desierto at record speeds to Vizaino where we take an RV site at the Kadekaman hotel and have dinner there also.  I'm getting better at ordering from a Mexican menu. 

Scenic view from Catavina to Guerrero Negro, B.C.S., Mexico

Scenic view from Catavina to Guerrero Negro, B.C.S., Mexico

Thorns from the Trampa Rata Cactus

Trampa Rata Cactus

Candelilla (Pedilanthus macrocarpus), Wax Plant

Motel Kadekaman, near Km marker 143, Vicaino, B.C.S., Mexico

Motel Kadekaman, near Km marker 143, Vicaino, B.C.S., Mexico

Painted wall at Motel Kadekaman, near Km marker 143, Vicaino, B.C.S., Mexico

SAN QUINTIN TO CATAVINA, B.C., MEXICO

After coffee we drive a short distance into the dunes until we reach the Pacific where we give the dogs a good run.  So far the beaches here have been pretty deserted.  We breakfast in El Rosario where ordering is an adventure since no-one speaks English.  I order huevos con tocino (bacon and eggs).  We leave the coast and diaganol southeast into the mountains.  The land quickly becomes arrid and cactus become the main plant.  We enter "Valle de los Cirios" a huge protected area.  We take another cheap RV site at Rancho Santa Ines.  We take a short hike across a dry river bed and up a small canyon.  There are more varieties of cactus than we can count and various tracks we don't recognize.  We see two lizards and a hummingbird, our first wildlife.  Peggy sees a hawk on top of a cardon cactus (Pachycerous pringlei).  She uses her binoculars and declares it to be a BBH (Big Brown Bird).  We have supper at a small cantina nearby as the wind starts to blow from the north.

Beach at Cielto Lindo Motel and RV Park, San Quintin, B.C., Mexico

Home sweet home at the beach

Poudre at the beach

Boojum tree (cirio) in the Sonoran Desert Vegetation Region, Catavina, B.C., Mexico

Cactus in the Sonoran Desert Vegetation Region, Catavina, B.C., Mexico

Cactus in the Sonoran Desert Vegetation Region, Catavina, B.C., Mexico

Barrel cactus in the Sonoran Desert Vegetation Region, Catavina, B.C., Mexico

Cactus in the Sonoran Desert Vegetation Region, Catavina, B.C., Mexico

Scenic view in the Sonoran Desert Vegetation Recion, Catavina, B.C., Mexico

Catavina boulder fields, Catavina, B.C., Mexico

Cardon cactus (Pachycerous pringlei)

This is how gas is sold if there is no Pemex available

View from Rancho Santa Inez campground, Catavina, B.C., Mexico

Torote (Bursera microphyllo)

Cardon Cactus and boojum tree (cirio)

Biznaga, ferocactus peninsulae, Barrell Cactus

Paloadan (Fouquieria digeutii), Adams Tree

Cardon cactus (Pachycerous pringlei)

Peggy is somewhere in the rocks

Garambullo (Laphocereus schottii) Old Man Cactus

Cardon cactus and palm trees

Home sweet home at Santa Inez campground, Catavina, B.C., Mexico

Moon rise at Santa Inez campground, Catavina, B.C., Mexico

ENSENADA TO SAN QUINTIN, B.C., MEXICO

After a 7-11 breakfast (yes there are 7-11's in Mexico) we leave Ensenada, the birthplace of the margarita and the starting point of the Baja 1,000 off-road race.  At Maneadero we take our first venture off Rt. 1 toward La Bufadora (The Blowhole).  Most of the houses are small and trashy.  It seems like no matter what your economic status, you have bars on your windows and doors and a closed gate at your fence.  Horses continue to be a popular mode of transportation.  Sometimes it's hard to tell which is the stable and which is the house.   Every unguarded surface is covered in graffiti.  It even spills out onto the street.  We pass through many acres of tented vegetable plants.  We recognize beans and kale.

We climb a steep mountain and down the other side to the blowhole.  This place is a big tourist attraction because there are only three in the world.  We park and then begin to negotiate two hundred yards of Mexican merchants lining both sides of the road.  It's like the midway at the state fair.  I come through unscathed but Peggy sports new Mexican fire opal jewelry and a pair of sandals.

Serenaded by Mexican musicians we descend the stairs to the tidewater blowhole.  The force of the surf pushing against a chasm in the rock that sends a jet of water up to 90 feet high, drenching cheering onlookers.

Back on Rt. 1 we head south through acres and acres of crops and acres and acres of vineyards.  We even see fields of cactus.  As night approaches we are rolling down a dusty unnamed road toward a hotel and restaurant that might not even exist.  But we find they do and we have another authentic Mexican meal.  They also rent us an RV site for six dollars.  It seems like everything here is cheaper except for gas, it's $3.60 a gallon.

Scenic view on the way to San Quintin, B.C., Mexico

 La Bufadora (tidewater blowholl), south of Ensenada, B.C., Mexico-many vendors

La Bufedora (tidewater blowhole), south of Ensenada, B.C., Mexico-Vendors

La Bufedora (tidewater blowhole), south of Ensenada, B.C., Mexico-Vendors

La Bufedora (tidewater blowhole), south of Ensenada, B.C., Mexico

La Bufedora (tidewater blowhole), south of Ensenada, B.C., Mexico

Gull at La bufedora (tidewater blowhole), south of Ensenada, B.C., Mexico