Bye Bye Baja

Ahhh the holidays. Its hard to believe we have already passed through Thanksgiving and we are on our way to Christmas in the tropics! In Cerritos we had one of the best out-of-US Thanksgivings ever. Somehow through the grapevine we heard that a restaurant called “Don Felipe's” would have a T-day event. Little did we expect that Don Felipe would cook seven turkeys with stuffing, two kinds of potatoes, vegetables and cranberry sauce! There were lots of gringos, a gringo band, and food, then Don Felipe ended the night with a little mexican table dance to celebrate!

The next day we packed up and headed over to Los Barilles to see what the start of the kite-boarding/windsurfing season looked like. People were slowly arriving to the arroyo in the middle of town setting up their palapas next to their trailers and waiting for wind. Unfortunately while we were there the wind came, but it was offshore, which meant it was WHIPPING down the arroyo to the ocean carrying a ton of sand and dust! We tried to ignore it by going on bike rides with our friend Dave from Montana who was very happy to see us again though unexpectedly, and meeting up with Bill from well, Montana. It was very hard to leave John, Marcie and Reece and go our separate ways, but we had booked a trip on the La Paz-Mazatlán ferry and we had to stick to our plan of getting out of Baja and onto the mainland.

Last year we took the shorter ferry ride to Topolobompo but this year we decided the extra price was worth the miles, the road tolls and skipping the uneventful highway south. Poor Lobo had to hang out in Tonto for 18 hours and we took some precautions in the van in case he just couldn’t contain himself. Meanwhile we enjoyed a pretty uneventful trip in a beat up ferry with a small sleeping cabin (actually, it had a shower, that’s luxury!) and terrible food. The arrival into Mazatlán at eight the next morning was very picturesque and we were hardly surprised that our kick-butt travel dog hadn’t made a mess of anything and predictably he just took the longest nap of his life. We spent a very pleasant morning in one of our favorite Mexican cities hiking up to the top of the 2nd tallest lighthouse in the world (on a natural formation that is) and having a nice breakfast on the boardwalk.

We looked at the map, and although we knew our destination was Sayulita we tried to make it a little interesting by doing a side trip to what one of our guide books described as miles of deserted, beautiful beach. It even appeared in one of two maps that the road continued across an inlet of water, by some bridge or something, so we wouldn’t have to do an out and back. So much for guidebooks and maps. Here’s the perfect example why we often prefer to just go. The miles of beach were there, they were beautiful, we drove all 14 miles on them setting the cruise control at 40 mph, getting passed by buses all on the beach! Then we hit this HUGE inlet of water, and no hope of crossing with the vehicle. Then we turned back, decided to camp on the beach and consequently got chowed on by jen-jens, nats, midges, no-see-ums, whatever you want to call those flesh eating blood sucking invisible flying objects. There was nothing man, woman or dog could do to keep from getting every part of the body swollen in bites. Lobo had to be let inside because he was crying from the stupid things biting him in his “guard chair” in the middle of the night. John was the hero in the morning when he went outside to get the vehicle ready while Lobo and I cowered in the van. We high tailed it out of there and found our way to Sayulita. Not even a mosquito in site. Just beautiful surfing waves, palm trees and hibiscus trees, clean bathrooms and showers, and lots of new friends. That was over ten days ago..

STEEKERS

The second most famous off-road vehicle race, behind Paris-Dakar Rally, is the Baja 1000. 1296 miles of dirt, rock, arroyo, and cactus are traveled in 53hrs by Baja buggies, motorcycles and trucks. This is a HUGE event in Baja and it is obvious that the locals take pride in participating and supporting the race. Restaurants welcome racers, the ‘supers’ are full of produce and motor oil and people are lined up in the streets to see the race cars being transported to the starting lines. Seeing all the race ‘convoys’ on the highway is a good diversion; flatbed with the buggy first, then three or four trucks for support with huge gas containers fly by in a tight formation Nobody is more excited than the local kids who have been accustomed to gringo teams handing out fliers and ‘STEEKERS’. Since we are clearly in an off-road vehicle, big tires, big lights, big diesel, the kids charge the van with arms outstretched yelling ‘STEEKERS! STEEKERS!’ or holding signs that say: “Stikers”. We can only imagine that the stickers are decorating their school notebooks, furniture and mirrors. On our way out of Loreto we had the opportunity to see a ‘parade’ through town of the 2nd place finishers; a local Mex-US team!

Scorpion Bay, or Bahía San Juánico, is famous for a beautifully long right wave that wraps around one of the four surfable points of land outside of the town of San Juánico. Looking forward to another 30mile dirt road drive in, John bailed out of Tonto and got on his bike for some exercise. Little did we know that the first 20miles would be deep sand and treacherously slow pedaling downhill as well has up. Imagine his surprise when the last 17k of the ride would be on some of the nicest pavement in Baja! Scorpion Bay has its share of beautiful gringo houses, cafes and well, gringos. I am sure that when the swell is really up it is a pretty crowded break, but we were there for a very small swell, so besides a pretty impressive local longboarding dog and owner, and some visiting families from San Diego we had our choice of waves and it was worth it. We decided to boondock on a beach around the other side of the bay and had a wonderful dinner of carillo and wild rice. The next day started with some playing in quicksand that Helleburg found. On the surf break there was marine fog, then wind, and no surf ☹. So after a little relaxing on the playa, we headed south.

As we drive down the highway we are noticing a difference from when we were here last year. Everything is green! Passing through the mountains after Loreto there were steep cliffs that lead down to valleys with cactus and green low-lying plants that gave the area a tropical feel as opposed to the desert landscape we had been traveling through. Yet we haven’t seen a running river, and there is still work being done in Baja to protect the small potable water supply. On our way to Todos Santos for the Thanksgiving week. Looking forward seeing the beaches of Serritos and mountain biking in Barilles and catching up with more friends who have come down for the season. ‘Till next time!

P.S. Accepting designs for a Tonto STEEKER!!! I would love to give some to the kids..