Marpeg: 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.