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"Illegal aliens have
always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian."
I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine. ~ Caskie Stinnett
It is good to have an end to journey towards, but it is the journey that matters in the end ~ Ursula K. LeGuin
Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive!
I told the doctor
I broke my leg in two places. He told me to quit going to those places.
When I get to a place
for the first time and know it like home, this is when I know my journey
will be over
The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what they did, they regret what they didn’t do - Unknown
When you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there ~ Anonymous
RELEASE THE REGRETS OF YESTERDAY,
Dream more while you are awake
- Unknown
Life is too short to waste time hating anyone
Don’t take yourself too seriously. No one else does
One solution comes up every morning The Sun
Make peace with your past and
The best is yet to come!
Enjoy the ride! You only have one ride through life so make the most of it
The world is a book,
and those who do not travel, read only a page
Not all who wander are lost
No one traveling on a business trip would be missed if he failed to arrive ~ Thorstein Veblen
Reduce Recycle Reuse Restore
5% of the Worlds Population Consumes a Third of its Resources and makes nearly Half of its Waste - That 5% is Us!
Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey ~ Babs Hoffman
Around the Next Turn is Where Our Adventure Begins - Pat Bonish '07
Not all who wander are lost
Not all who wander are lost
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Pat's April Blog If this is your first time here, you might want to start from the beginning of our fulltime RV Journey with our 2007 Blog's January 2008 Blog February 2008 Blog March 2008 Blog Photo Gear We Use - Solar Tips, Fact's and Trick's we've learned while on the road
Camper
Check List - A list of things we do before leaving camp.
Again, this isn't gospel, but its a good start for those who might not
already have a list made up. **** Tuesday April 1st 2008 I'd like to start by saying that I'm sorry that I haven't been around for the past few days, but I haven't really felt like putting anything in my blog. I try and never be negative, so that's why I haven't been typing much.
We had gone down to the beach a few different times, but each time there would be either no flying rays, or the water was too rough to paddle out in our kayaks. Cindy and I really wanted to go out in the kayaks to try and get real close up to these wild creatures that jump right out of the water for no apparent reason. We both thought it would be just out of this world to be paddling this close to something so out of the ordinary. Or I should say, that I thought it would be cool. Cindy kept saying that she didn't want to do it incase anything would happen to us, or worse yet, one would hit one of our kayaks, causing us to tip over and the camera gear would take a salt water swim. Well on Sunday afternoon, we heard the water was pretty calm, so we drove the truck down to the beach and unloaded the kayaks. Cindy said right away, "There is a pretty good chop on the water, so I'm not bringing my camera along!" I decided that I'd bring my 1D camera body, her big 28-300 lens (Her pride and joy) and my flash, because I wanted to try a few different things with lighting to see if I could get a different look. Like I said, this is all I had thought about for the past few days. When you've got that photography bug as bad as I do, it tends to control your thoughts. So I got Cindy loaded up and out into the water. A beach entrance on a kayak can be tricky because of the fact that you have no way to get into the kayak with anything on the ground to hold it steady. So once she was in and paddling towards the giant school of jumping mobulas, I finished loading up my kayak, (I was bringing extra compact flash cards and all 3 of my camera batteries because we planned on being out for awhile) and I started to get into the water. The waves were coming in mildly, and I had to walk my 14' kayak into waist deep water to get in so the entire boat would be off the shore. The camera was sitting in my deck bag, a bag that is water resistant nylon, to keep splashing water off of it, but not waterproof by any means. As I was crawling into the boat, a nice wave came and knocked me off my balance which made the camera start to teeter. I lunged for the camera just in time to grab it before it went into the ocean. What happened next was enough to make a grown man cry!
I think time stood still for a few seconds as I was underwater thinking "Hopefully this is just a bad dream and I'll wake up having just wet the bed or something bad like that!" But when I put my feet down and pushed up on the sand, I instantly came back to reality knowing that I had just ruined close to $8,000 worth of camera gear in a few seconds. All our gear is pro quality gear, and is supposed to be able to handle splashes and some rough handling, but nothing short of a $1500 water-tight case can protect a camera from full submersion in salt water. I came shooting up out of the water and was practically running on the top of the waves. I made it to the truck in record time and set the camera on the hood when I realized the keys were in my deck bag which was still upside-down on the kayak. I ran back into the ocean, dove under water to retrieve the flash, my two batteries that were now floating on the bottom like a couple of rocks and right the upside down kayak itself. OH MY GOD, how could this possibly happen? The next few minutes probably looked comical to anyone standing on the shore watching me run back and forth to the truck like I was a paramedic returning to the ambulance for rescue supplies. At this point, Cindy was still paddling out towards the jumping fish I wanted so badly to take pictures of, and was clueless to my sheer and utter panic.
As
I was trying to frantically dry everything off on the front seat of the
truck, I heard Cindy yell, "Hey dumbass, your kayak is starting to float
out to sea!" She hadn't seen any of it and was just thinking I was
still standing at the truck getting ready to paddle out. Little
did she know, that her camera lens, the one that she had said "Why do
you have to bring my lens out? You had better not
I could feel needles popping out of my spine not wanting to turn around from the safety of the truck and have her see all my gear on the seat, filled with a thick salty residue. When I finally did turn around and she realized I was soaking wet, I saw her face go white with fear. Her lips started trembling as she said "Tell me you didn't tip over already!" I just stood there knowing I was at fault. Why on earth hadn't I taken the half hour to get all our Pelican Boxes out of the storage bins? The ones that hold the camera gear dry and protected on the deck of the kayaks. I normally go through the hassle of getting out all this extra equipment, but I had become so cocky after the last month of paddling these calm ocean currents, that I thought "Why go through all that hassle every time when you never tip over?" I swear, I just wanted to sit and cry right there in the sand. Now of all people, I will be the first to say "It's just a piece of equipment, I know I can replace it!" But we're in Mexico, it's hard to even find a place to buy batteries, let along a camera repair shop or even a camera shop in the first place. When Cindy finally got out of her boat, I thought she was going to come up and knock my head off. She just walked up and looked at all the gear with her lip trembling and said "OH MY GOD, I told you this would happen! You've ruined our trip!" There it was, the proverbial "I Told You So!" Just as she was saying that, I started to take the battery out of the camera and about a quart of salt water just poured out when the battery door opened. That was just the icing on the cake, and she stormed off to walk home. I was honestly thinking she'd walk all the way home to Michigan at this point. I said what I always say in a predicament like this, "Cindy, it's just a materialistic item, we can replace it!" But she wanted no part in my calming down speech, and kept waking down the sandy shoreline towards our campground.
Remember the part about a grown man crying, well short of tears streaming down my face, I was as close as you could get to fully bawling my eyes out. While getting a full lesson in humility, I got out and aired down the tires as low as I could, and spent the next half hour digging myself out. By the time I pulled back up to the street, Cindy was walking the dogs towards the truck when she asked "So how long were you stuck for?" I just gave her a look, you know, one of those looks, and drove right past. By the time she walked back to the campground, she had cooled down enough and apologized for yelling so bad at the beach. She said, "You're right, they are just materialistic things, and they can be replaced; so lets forget about it till we get back to the United States and can send them back to Canon to get fixed." Then she added one more stab to the gaping open wound when she said, "And don't plan on using my camera now that you've ruined yours!" The rest of the night I don't think we said two words to one another, which is hard when you live in 200 square feet of space. I spent the night with a fan blowing on all of my gear, and tried to wipe everything down as best I could. I'm almost positive it's all a lost cause, but what else was I to do? I just couldn't stop thinking about how stupid I was and why hadn't I gotten out the waterproof boxes? This would be the second time in only a month I've gone against two of my own rules. Don't rush, and do it right the first time. Last time I did something in a hurry, I tore off the rear scissor jacks while trying to pull out as fast as I could. And rather than load the camera gear up the right way, I get cocky and think "I haven't tipped over in the last hundred times out on the water, why get out all that waterproof gear?" Then I go and tip over, and I don't have a single picture to show for it. Needless to say, neither of us slept too good that night. We both stayed awake all night not saying a word to one another. I knew Cindy wanted to just scream at me, but what more was there to say when I already knew how stupid I was? She knew I felt like that too, so except for continued apologies from me, there was nothing more to say. The Next Day - Monday March 31st
We
had planned on going out on a fishing trip to try and take some pictures
with one of
Congo's Awesome Sport Fishing guide boats today, and being as
neither one of us really slept much last night, I was up and getting
stuff ready
I asked if she was coming, to which she replied, "No you go by yourself, I think I need some time away from you today." So I apologized again, and grabbed her camera and a few more lenses and headed for the docks. Hopefully I would be able to stay above the water today. Theresa said she had one boat going out that only had one gentleman chartering it with a young man going along, and that was who I was going out with. So I introduced myself to Richard and Eric, and we headed away from shore with a light fog hanging over the water. While the 1st mate was rigging the rods and getting the boat prepped, Richard and I made small talk and got to know one another. That's just what I needed was something to get my mind off of what had happened yesterday. Besides, there is no use in crying over spilt milk as they say. It was within the first 45 minutes when we heard a line get snapped from the outrigger and we knew we had "Fish On!" as the 1st Mate was running for the reels. The rest of the day was spent with Richard and Eric reeling in numerous Dorado, Richard landing a small Mako Shark, and Eric fighting a 150lb Marlin for about 45 minutes. Needless to say, it was a good day on the water.
Richard was kind enough to give me a steak from each fish they had caught, which just about stuffed our freezer full with today's fresh catch. The rest was going to be donated to the local elementary school here in Los Barriles where Eric's mother and father teach. I guess Richard has been coming down here for years now, and has sort of adopted Eric to help him with his schooling and education. Each year Richard makes a large donation to this school to try and help them out with food and supplies. He told me that he also works for Pepsi Co., and what ever he donates, Pepsi doubles. So last year they gave the school close to $15,000 dollars in much needed support. He explained the Mexican government only gives the school $50 per month to feed the kids, and the rest is up to the children and their own families to provide. So even though they normally wouldn't keep the 150lb Marlin, they thought that the 100 lbs of meat they would get off of it would be greatly appreciated by the local school kids. We all agreed that normally we preach Catch and Release, but since this was going to such a good cause, it was justified. I know when I got home and showed Cindy the large portion of meat I had gotten in exchange for a copy of all the pictures I had taken, she had a smile on her face.
Teresa said "I think you put it in some corn meal, if you know what that is?" Cindy laughed and said "Girl, I was raised in Tennessee, we used Corn Meal in our diapers instead of talcum powder!" So Cindy rolled the Mako in a corn meal batter and fried it up and man, oh, man was it delicious. Some of the most tender meat I've ever eaten in my life. Not fishy tasting at all. By this point, we were both over the camera mishap, and agreed to try and not bring it up anymore. It was a hard lesson learned, and one I know I wont forget for a long time. Wednesday April 2nd 2008 Leaving Los Barriles for Cabo It was a hard decision to make, but we decided to pull up stakes in East Cape RV Park, and head further South for Cabo. We had been contacted by the editor of the Gringo Gazette, a local American newspaper, who had asked if she could use a few of our photos in the publication. Her offices are in Cabo, and we were headed that way, so I emailed her saying when we get into town, we will call her and meet up. Driving South from Los Barriles to Cabo isn't all that much fun. Once you get anywhere near Cabo, you hit a 4 lane highway, that was just bumper to bumper traffic. Something that we hadn't seen in over a month, and one of those things you never want to see, especially in a third world country. To drive in Mexico, you must be 100% alert at all times. Between the motorcycles, scooters and ATV's that split traffic lanes, to the drivers who just don't think they need to obey the stop signs or merge lanes, this wasn't a fun drive to say the least. Even though we said we had wanted to see Cabo San Lucas, just to say we had seen it, we were both ready to just roll right through without ever stopping.
We
did find the campground that Lindsey had recommended, Villa Serena, and
parked the camper for the night. I walked to a pay phone and
called Lindsey to
The afternoon was roasting hot, and the slight breeze blowing off the ocean that was in sight felt great. Lindsey and Louis, pulled up and we sat around in the shade getting to know one another over a few cold ones. We decided to head downtown and grab some dinner where we would have a great night of conversation and good laughs. This young couple had some great stories to tell, and Louis being from Mainland Mexico, kept us laughing all night with his different stories of childhood and growing up between the two countries. By the end of the night, we felt like ol' friends, and hadn't talked a bit about the pictures or the story we had originally planned on. That's what made the night so great, it was just casual conversation about adapting to life in the Baja for us and this couple who had just moved from New York. Talk about a culture shock! Thursday April 3rd 2008 Leaving Cabo for Todos Santos Waking up to our dog scratching his ears uncontrollably isn't the best way to start the morning. The past few days, Luca, the big dog, had developed a case of something in his ears that he wasn't too fond of. Lindsey had told us about a local veterinarian that they had used and trusted, so we called her for directions and drove the dogs downtown to see if we could get him fixed up. I thought that since his ears are big, and always drooped over, keeping them taped up might allow some air to circulate in there and dry up the moisture. I put some cloth tape on the ears, pinning them together, which he seemed to love. He stopped scratching them and was as happy as could be. But this didn't cure it 100%, and there is no need in making him suffer, so the vet would give us the details on what we needed to do. Hopefully this wouldn't break the bank with the cost of the vet's charges.
He gave us some drops and said if it doesn't go away, try switching his food and taking him back to a vet once we get back to the United States. When I went to the counter to pay the bill, it said $300! I thought "Oh Man, these dogs are killing me!" But the woman said "300 Pesos" That's only $30 American, which included the prescription medication. Not nearly as bad as I had expected, and I thought, man, I should have the doctor look me over while we're here. We said goodbye to Lindsey who had met us at the office so I could give her a CD with some images on it, and left for Todos Santos. We figured driving through Cabo, with the 200 t-shirt shops and all the cruise ships in port was about enough as we needed of this big city. Before we left, we stopped at the first Wal-Mart we had seen south of Ensenada. Our cupboards were looking mighty bare, and we thought we might as well stock back up for the next month. Once on the road North, we were both happy to see almost no traffic going our way, and everything headed towards the hustle and bustle we always try and avoid.
Todos Santos is only 50 miles North of Cabo, but might as well be on a different planet for the diversity between the two cities. This little art community is almost all American ex-patriots who were in search of a simpler life and chose this little seaside village in Southern Baja. You might recognize Todos Santos from the legendary Hotel California the Eagles made so famous. You know the one that you can never leave...I guess it's a major tourist attraction now and people take tour busses up from Cabo to come see it. There is only one campground in the town, and when we pulled in, Cindy said "I'll tell you right now, if it means driving at night in Baja, I'd rather risk it than stay here." The Camp Host came out to greet us, and over the multiple barking dogs chained up in the place, the first thing she asked was "Are your dogs nice?" Cindy said "Yep, and they don't bark either!" She said, "Good, because those damn dogs never shut up!" We asked if there was anywhere to camp along the beach, as Todos Santos is about a mile inland. She told us about Playa Los Cerritos which was about 7 miles back down the road. But warned us that the surf can be very dangerous, they've been know to run people off and we might get stuck in the sand, and it's dry camping. We said, "We'll give it a try", and whipped around heading for the beach. Between Mile Marker 64 and 65, we found a graded dirt road with only a small sign for Los Cerritos Beach Club & Surf. We figured that had to be some kind of joke, since why would there be a beach club out here in the middle of no where?
There were cars everywhere, surfers playing in the water, some tents set-up on the beach and a few motorhomes who had found this secret surf spot along the beach. I walked up to the bartender asking if there were any rules to camping along the beach? He just said "As long as you don't set-up your camp right in front of the bar, you can camp anywhere you want." Now most of the places we've run into on the Baja, are pretty laid back, but this brought me back to my days of working as a cabana boy on the beach in South Florida. Cerritos Beach Club has luxury beach chairs, tables and umbrellas set up in front of the tiki bar. On top of that, they have a few servers, good looking ones that Cindy was already eyeing, who were serving drinks, lunch or anything else you might request right to you on the beach. I think we found home for the next few days! It was amazing how calm the waters were on the Sea of Cortez side just a few days ago, but here on the Pacific side, we were watching 6-8 foot waves pounding the shore. Surfers were everywhere enjoying the constant supply of rollers coming in, and to sit and watch them, was just as much fun for me as it was for them to get pounded by Mother Natures awesome tides.
Cerritos Beach Club is going to be a top notch resort area when it's finally finished. Right now they are just in the developing stages, but the bar is as top notch as I've seen here in the Baja. Phenomenal service, very reasonable prices and just the right amount of Americanism to make you feel at home, but still let you know you're in Baja. I liked the big plasma screens showing the Speed Channel over the bar, the tables on the beach with propane fireplaces in the center, and the beach rentals which included surfboards, boogie boards and jet skis if you were brave enough to take your chances with the pounding surf.
I think we sat talking with Brad till the sun set and most of the surfers had retired to their tents along the beach. As the night air got a bit cooler, one of the waiters brought out nice thick Mexican Woven Blankets for us to cover up in while sitting out on the beach. Does it get any better than this? When we camped along Playa Santispac, we were lulled to sleep each night with the comfortable sounds of the calm ocean water lapping at the sandy shore. Tonight we sat listening to the surf booming as it struck the shoreline like thunderstorms off in the distance. The cool breeze blowing off the Pacific Ocean had us fighting over the blankets, but surely not complaining for the perfect sleeping weather. Friday April 4th 2008 Kicking Back in Los Cerritos One thing I've never understood is laying out in the sun? I've never been one to just sit and fry myself while sitting still for any length of time. So when Cindy woke up and said "I just want to lay on the beach and listen to the waves all day." I thought "Oh man, this is going to make for a long, boring day!" I put our biggest lens on the camera with a 2x extender and sat beside her watching the surfers play in the waves. Only problem was, the surf wasn't nearly as good as it was yesterday, so none of the good surfers who were so fun to watch were in the water today.
While scanning the beach, I found a few women laying out topless, so it wasn't all that bad of a day. I did get to play Mr. Peeping Tom, that was till Cindy rolled over and said "What the hell are you looking at?" I just said "Oh, there is a cool dog playing in the water down there."....LOL When it started to smell like the bacon was done, we both decided to get out of the sun and go find a table with some shade. One of the beach vendors selling hand woven blankets asked if we were interested, and he could probably see SUCKER written on my forehead. Next thing you know, I've bought us a nice, warm, authentic Mexican blanket. Of course Cindy was saying "Why do you waste our money on stuff like that?" I just said "I feel bad, that guy is carrying 20 blankets up and down the beach trying to make a living, and I happened to like that blanket."
Of
course, as soon as the sun started setting, Cindy has the blanket draped
around her saying "I'm glad I have this blanket to keep me warm!"
I should also mention that after I bought it, she says to me "You bought
blue, we have nothing blue in the camper, I'm going to go find the guy
and exchange it for a
After dinner, Cindy says "I'm going to lay down and read till you come to bed and we can watch a movie." It wasn't but 5 minutes later and I can hear her and Luca having a snoring war in the bedroom. What the heck? It's only 8pm! She wakes up at midnight and yells from the bedroom, "Are you going to stay up all night long!?!" I just laughed thinking, in our past life, we didn't even get busy at the bar till 11 or 12 at night and those last few hours building up to Last Call were when you got your second wind and really worked your butt off. Here she is yelling at me because I'm staying up SO LATE and it's only midnight! How funny it is to see what two years away from the bar will do to our lives. Saturday April 5th 2008 Another Day at Los Cerritos This beach is too hard to leave. We've been camped only a few miles from Todos Santos, yet haven't been able to leave our beach side campsite to go explore it. Today was no different, as proof by Cindy waking up bright and early to lie on the beach some more. Between the sun bathing, and multiple walks with the dogs, we spent almost the entire day watching the waves crash along the shore. I had mentioned to Cindy yesterday that none of my pictures were turning out due to the haze from the water. But we realized today that it's not haze at all. What happens is the sun heats up the sand, and when the cold Pacific water hits the hot sand, it steams up. The steam is then blown across the sand and looks like a haze or fog. It's cool to watch, but makes almost any picture I take look like I have gauze over the lens. Overlooking the beach, the American who bought all this property to build the resort is in the process of having his own house built. From the looks of it, it'll probably be over 20,000 square feet of house! I'm not sure why anyone would need a house that big, but who knows, maybe he has a big family? I just know that we've lived in 200 square feet of space for the last 15 months, and seem to be quite happy.
Today, all the workers who are building the cinderblock foundation of the huge structure, took their lunch break and played a game of soccer, or football as they call it down here. It was funny to sit and watch these guys play soccer along the beach. You would think they were playing for a trophy, as many times it became a full contact game. After another long walk on the beach with the dogs, we heard some nice jazz music coming from the tiki bar. We put the dogs back in the camper, and headed over to see where the great music was coming from. We found a nice comfortable chair, and spent the afternoon being entertained by a local musician who was amazing on the violin. Daniel Siqueiros plays this electric violin like Jeff Beck plays the guitar. It was amazing how fast this mans fingers could move and the sounds he could get out of this little violin. We sat watching and listening all afternoon and just loved every second of it. This little tiki bar on Los Cerritos Beach just never seems to amaze me. Sunday April 6th 2008 Happy Birthday Dad Today I was determined to get some good pictures of the surfers. I've figured out that if you walk along the rocks that line one edge of the shore, you'll be in front of the sand that has all the steam coming off of it and wont have that haze over the pictures.
Once you get out a few hundred yards, you're actually right in line with the surfers and the waves they're catching. It's almost like being in the water with them, and was a great place to just sit and watch the waves roll in. Another interesting tid-bit I found out was, if you sit still on the rocks long enough, the local crab population will start to crawl on you to see if you're edible. I know if Cindy would have been with me, she would be cracking up. I'd be sitting down on the rocks, looking through my lens when I'd feel something start to crawl on my foot. I'd look down to see a little black crab trying to taste me with his claws. This would usually result in me screaming like a little girl and kicking the thing back into the water. As soon as my foot would move to kick it away, I'd see the whole layer of rock move around me with other crabs scurrying back for cover. Once I was done taking pictures, I came in and said "I thought we were leaving today?" Cindy said "I'm ready, are you?" So we got in the truck, and pulled around the parking area to get ready to leave, when I came up with a great idea, "What if we just move closer to the beach?" Cindy replied very enthusiastically, "Hey, that sounds great to me!" So we just moved about 100 feet today, and took the dogs for another long walk down the beach. I was telling Cindy how cool it looked from out on the rocks, so we ventured over there so she could see the wild lava rock formations. I asked her to sit right near the waters edge where every now and then a big wave would crash, sending water about 10 feet in the air.
Just then, a monstrous wave came crashing in underneath her and erupted all around her. I'm amazed that she stayed dry, as the wave was a little bigger than I thought it was. But the look on her face was so worth the admission cost. She was scurrying away from the edge faster then those crabs were earlier in the day. Our evening ended with the sun setting North of us, as we're below the Tropic of Cancer. I mentioned to Cindy, "This is the first time in my life I've had to look North to watch the sun set." We put my Mexican blanket to good use, the one I'm still getting flak for buying, and sat on the beach till it was too cold to watch the surfers trying to wait for that perfect wave.
I would like to say a huge Happy Birthday to my dad. I felt horrible all day today because I couldn't be with him, or even call him today. It's my father who instilled such a strong work ethic in me and taught me to be such a strong person. He is one of the main reasons I am where I am today.
He always taught us kids that we'd get no where without hard work, determination and always being true to yourself. There was never a dream of mine I told him that he wouldn't say "Work hard enough, and you can do that some day." He never told me my dreams were foolish, just that I needed to be determined and I could accomplish anything. When we told him that Cindy and I wanted to sell everything and do what we're doing now, he said to both Cindy and I, "I love you kids and support you in everything you do, if this is what you want to do, then I'm very happy for you." He did say "It's not something that I would ever do, but I know traveling is something you enjoy, so you should go for it." Knowing we had his blessing made me feel more comfortable and knowing that our parents were happy with our decision is something you always strive for. I only wish I could be with him more to spend quality time together. Something you can never have enough of when it comes to your parents. Monday April 7th 2008 Leaving Los Cerritos for La Paz We knew today was our day to head out from our little beach hide-away. We had been putting off the inevitable, but knew it would come sooner or later. After one last long walk along the beach with the dogs, we got on the road and drove the few hours North to La Paz. There is nothing really fun to talk about between these two towns, but a whole lot of cactus, which were just starting to bloom. We did drive through Todos Santos, but did just that, and drove through it. The town had a few tour busses parked at the square, and the streets were lined with tourists. The shops were all boutiques and not really anything that said "Wait, you should check us out!" So we just rolled on through and said, "Sorry, not our style." I would have liked to check out the Hotel California, but with 3 tour busses parked outside, something tells me it wouldn't show us too much charm with having to wait in line to see it. I also think both of us were in some sort of funk today, as neither of us really wanted to leave Los Cerritos, but knew we had to. Once you start heading North, it's means you're on your way home, or in our case, back to the States.
We've also come to the conclusion that we're starting to get strapped for time if we want to make it that far North in this short of a period. We normally like to travel at about the same rate as a turtle on valium, but know we need to pick up the pace. Bahía Asunción is one of those areas we wanted to stop at on the way down, but the road is under construction and wasn't recommended for Chuck's bigger Class-A motorhome. We've talked back and forth through emails from an American woman, Shari a Marine Biologist, who came down here years ago, liked the area so much she decided to move down and ended up marring a local Mexican man. In one of the emails, Shari described the place to us saying they think we'll like it very much as it's one of the last in the Baja that is still untouched by the tourism bug. She said it's as close as you can come to seeing what Baja was like 20 years ago.
Cindy caught us up on laundry, and we were in bed early watching a few movies. Not that we went to bed early, because we ended up watching 3 movies and finally calling it a night well after 4am.
Los Cerritos to La Paz We passed through one military checkpoint where the guard asked me to open the door of the camper, but only looked inside and said I was good to go. Tuesday April 8th 2008 La Paz to Puerto Escondido Driving from La Paz North, you travel through many different types of terrain. At some sections you can see the beautiful Sea of Cortez, from high up on a mountainside. Other sections you're in the middle of a barren desert that reminded me of the images the Mars Rover sent back to Earth.
Just North of La Paz, there are two shrines that we had to stop at to get some pictures. These were the largest two we had seen in the Baja. What is so amazing to me is you have to remember that many of the local Mexicans live in run-down, shacks built out of any scrap material they can find. Many of these homes have no electricity, water or those basic essentials we take for granted back in the United States. Yet, out in the middle of the desert, and I mean 100 miles from anywhere, you'll find one of these elaborate shrines magnificently built out of stucco. Some have multiple rooms and some even had electricity run to them so at night they could stay lit up. It just goes to show the respect the Mexican Culture holds for their loved ones after they pass on to the afterlife.
So when Cindy saw me walking up to the truck with a large Mountain Goat Horn, she just rolled her eyes saying "Where do you think you're going to put that?" I just smiled and said "I'm going to mount it right on the hood." To which I got one of those looks of disgust I'm so used to by this point in our marriage. After too many hours of driving, we pulled in to Puerto Escondido for the night. This is the area we had talked about when we were in Loreto with Chuck and Sandy. On one of our days of exploration, we had checked this area out, but had decided not to move down here. This is also where we had found the Yac | ||
See,
after that first time we went out with the
The
momentum of me diving for the camera and not being stabilized by
anything but the boat, had me way off balance. I was trying to
recover without tipping the whole thing over, but after a few minutes of
looking like a drunken penguin, the worst case scenario happened.
I went in the drink with camera in hand.
let
anything happen to that or else!" was now having salt water poured out
of it. 
So
here I was left on the beach with all this ruined camera gear sprawled
out around the truck trying to dry. I loaded up the kayaks, and if
things couldn't get worse then they already were, while trying to back
out, I buried the truck in the sand.
by
6am. Cindy had already been up for a few hours and was working on
the computer. 
On
our ride back in; we were 20 miles out at one point, we spotted pods of
dolphin, a few sea lions, and one Humpback Whale that kept breaching far
out of the water. 
Neither
of us had any idea how to cook the Mako, so Cindy went and asked Theresa
how to prepare it. 
let
her know we had arrived, and she said her and her fiancée would meet us
there in an hour or so.
About an hour in the vet's office, he had taken a sample of the ear
canal and looked at it under the microscope, which ruled out ear mites.
He told us it was probably just an Yeast Infection in the dogs ear
canal, which he said is very common with some dogs, and can be caused by
their food. 
But
after a few miles of bumpy washboard dirt road, we pulled up to a
beautiful beachfront tiki bar, overlooking some amazingly huge surf
pounding the secluded shoreline. 
When
Cindy and I were walking up to the beach, a young guy asked us about our
camper, the usual, if it was a rental. We got to talking with Brad,
an American who actually worked here at the bar who told us some info about the place.
Brad
even said they rented Lap Tops by the hour if you needed to catch up on
some emails while at the beach relaxing. Now, I've seen internet
cafes, but never the rental of the lap top itself and especially not on
the beach with a salty margarita to go along with it. This is as
top notch as they come!
I
basically had to sit and watch a bunch of tourists take their 20 minutes
lesson on surfing, before they went and fell with each passing wave.
It was fun to watch, but after awhile, I just wanted to go give them a
hand. You start to feel bad for them.
color
that better matches our interior colors." So this made her feel
like she made the final decision on the purchase. What ever floats
her boat.
Maybe
he'll let us move into a walk in closet or something small like that
when he's finished.
Cindy
said she was content reading her book and spending one more day trying
to exfoliate her feet in the sand, so I grabbed the camera and went for
a hike along the rocks. 
She
hadn't seen this happen, so had no idea what was in store for her.
She kept saying "What is taking so long?" as I pretended I was adjusting
the camera settings. When I saw a nice roller starting to form
behind her, I said "OK, smile pretty for the camera!" 
I've
always held him up on a pedestal because of his hard work and strong
family values. Raised a dirt poor Pollack in Detroit, he was the
first in his family to graduate high school, then went on to get his
Masters Degree and work his way up through the ranks in Ford Motor
Company. He started out working in the garage at World
Headquarters and retired after 30 something years as an Executive with a
nice pension plan. 
We
both knew that our next few days of driving would involve passing
through areas we have already visited. What our goal is, is to try
and make it to Bahía Asunción as quickly as possible, then once we're
there, we can spend a few days exploring the area before we have to head
back to the United States to be in Northern Arizona by the first week of
May. 
When we pulled into La Paz, we found Casa Blanca RV Park, where we had
stayed with Noel and Jackie a few weeks back, and checked in for the
night. We knew this would be our last time we would have full
hook-ups for awhile, so I topped everything off and emptied the black
and gray tanks, making sure to flush them real good.
One
thing that has amazed me on the Mexican roads are the amount of shrines
the locals build for those who have been killed in automobile accidents.
These shrines dot the road sides from time to time, some being only a
simple cross, while others have erected an elaborate shrine that is just
amazing. 
Between
stopping at a few of these beautiful shrines along the road, we also
found a unique roadside shop that was loaded with various indigenous
animal skulls. I was going crazy here. I have a wild collection of Skulls from
various travels of ours that I have now had to put in storage. When we lived in our stick built home, we
kept many of them displayed in our house in my grandmothers china cabinet that Cindy
also kept her collection of antique perfume bottles in. I know,
quite the contrast, but it makes for fantastic conversations when people
look into the antique china cabinet.