All in a days driving
Kalukmul, Mexico
I said farewell to Palenque and headed up the very straight road to some more ruins. I abandoned my plan of skirting the Guatemalan border which is just as well because its pretty dangerous down that way. Would have looked nice on the map though (which is the main thing :p). I was a bit concerned when I had to pay a toll, but it was only 18 pesos, but then they usually charge you a peso a kilometer and it was about 300 to the Belizean border. That was where I decided to go instead of Guatemala first.
First I would stop off at some more ruins, ones that most people miss because its hard to get there without private transport. No suck problems for me though. I stopped at a nearby campground where I pitched my tent for only 50 pesos and had a go at tidying my van up…. again. It never ends :p
In need of a tidy
The place was soon inundated with Mexican ATV drivers who pay a fortune to come and tear up a wildlife reserve. How they get away with I don’t know. Happily a Belgian couple who spoke English also turned up and I ate dinner with them and we arranged to go to the ruins together the next day.
drive to kalukmul/straight/rain/camping for 50p/strange dinner/motorbikers
Tags: bikers, 50 pesos, Guatemala, mexico, guatemalan border, palenque, trousers, blog, thumb, borders, wildlife reserve, private transport, tea, nearbyYou’ll never catch the Assman alive!
Day 201
San Juan Teotihuacan
Somehow I got up, got my car packed and left Valle de Bravo. The question of whether there was any paragliding to be done was unresolved. I didn’t see anyone in the air during the 4 days I was there. I wasn’t in the mood to find out it seemed.
I had no idea where I was going.
I looked at the my Lonely Planet in a vague attempt to at least work out my next destination. Roland had texted me to say he was on the beach with his friend but that was a bit to far to go and then head back to Mexico city after only 2 weeks. I figured I could make it to the pyramids near Mexico City, they had a cheap camp site and it seemed a good enough idea. My only small problem was getting there, but it didn’t seem to far… Driving in Mexico is easy, navigating is not too bad, but there was only me, and driving and looking at maps isn’t a good idea. I was about to have maybe my worst day in the country…
The first few hours were fine, I followed the road towards the capital intending to avoid it at all costs. 25 million people would be a lot of traffic… I also realised I had another problem, it was Friday. Mexico City has a law, not a bad law either, that restricts cars with the last number on the plate from using the roads for one day a week on a rotating basis. So on Fridays the numbers 0 and 9 were banned. I planned to follow the highways around the capital anyway so I figured I would be ok. As soon as I started getting close to city I became increasingly frustrated in a way I hadn‘t felt before in Mexico. The road signs would direct me to various suburbs but wouldn’t tell me how to get clockwise around the capital. I had to keep pulling over to consult my map which was proving to be reasonably useless, I couldn’t find any of the places on the signs and eventually found myself driving into the city. Not good. I turned around and came 10 miles back out which was a waste of time, then found the toll road and figured that had to take me North and towards my destination. Regretting the 33 pesos it cost me I had found the right road and joined the speedway drivers taking advantage of the comparatively empty road. I figured I would be able to get to the main town to the north of the capital and the carry on to the pyramids but ended up getting off at the next exit.
My map was off scale, I couldn’t find any where on the signs (half of which were obscured by graffiti), I kept trying to steal glances at my map but at one point nearly came off the road and decided I would rather live. I was getting slightly annoyed. I had no idea where I was so drove onto the next sign. I was soon waved over by a police car on patrol. Uh oh. I shook his hand and gave him my licence and then as usual asked if he spoke English. I knew I was in trouble, but I knew also it wasn’t really a big deal. I felt quite justified being in the wrong place at the right time… fix your bloody signs! The cop started going on about the plates and numbers and althought I didn’t know the specifics of what he said I could guess what the problem was right away. I got my dictionary out and replied as best I could to his questions, mostly I said ‘I don’t understand’. After 10 minutes or so of telling him I didn’t want to be there and I was lost he gave me my licence back and told me to keep going and I would get to the pyramids. I asked if I should go back to the toll road once he showed me on my map where I was but he said ‘just keep going’. Maybe this ‘no driving on friday’ law wasn’t that strict after all…
I did another 10 miles or so in thick and fast traffic. I saw a few cop cars but they didn’t see me. I started to relax… The traffic started to get more stop and go and I pulled up to some lights and a couple of cops were standing there just waiting to bust someone. A fat grey haired codger and his younger, equally rotund companion. That someone was me. They took my license and I pulled over. They didn’t speak English either but they had a nice tatty folder explaining the law in English, as if I didn’t already know. They told me I couldn’t drive until 10pm, they also mentioned fines and then wandered around trying to find someone who spoke English. I acted as though I was quite happy to wait around until 10pm, I asked if there were any hotels nearby. I figured I wasn’t in any immediate danger of being arrested. I looked at them a bit closer. Were they really police men? They didn’t have guns or handcuffs. They seemed quite reasonable really. They mentioned ‘Multa’ a few times, the Spanish for fine, but I mostly just ignored the word and asked if I could just hang out until 10. After 20 minutes of hanging around the fat older ‘cop’ handed me back my licence and told me to drive around the block and wait until night. It was about 5pm now and I was still miles from San Juan Teotihuacan where the pyramids are…
I got back in my car, turned left to go around the block… and kept going. It felt so wrong to driving away from the cops but after looking at the map I figured I wasn’t actually in Mexico City anymore. With a deep sense of unease I picked my way through the back streets until I was a few blocks away from my second encounter with the cops. I seriously considered implementing the ‘Assman’ card but then figured what was the chances of getting caught again. I got back on the main road and was stopped at the next lights. This time they really were cops and not just part time security guards dressed up as them.
Bollocks!
Of course they didn’t speak English but I guess they didn’t need to. I pulled over and was directed to a side street where a very seriously looking cop did all the talking. He blathered on for ages, I didn’t understand 10% of what he said but I just played it dumb as much as possible. When he used a word a few times I looked it up in my dictionary. He also kept going on about fines. I tried to bore him by asking where I was on the map, an insisting I wasn’t in the capital anymore. I asked about hotels and waiting around, he told me the fine was 4000 pesos. I ignored that and went back to trying to find out if everywhere nearby had the same law. He said he could let me off for 200 dollars. I said I didn’t have any dollars. I got my wallet out and opened it. Happily it had 20 pesos in it. I pointed to the ashtray full of change I had. He didn’t notice the 450 pesos that was sitting on the seat next to me partially obscured by my guidebook and I ignored it, and covered it up whenever I could. If he asked for my passport I would have been screwed because I always keep some cash with it.
He consulted with his colleague. I guessed I was going to be taking a trip to the station… Instead he gave me back my licence, then gave me directions to the pyramids and… gave me a receipt for the fine I just hadn‘t paid ! I drove off quick before they changed their minds!
This is all you have to do if you’re in DF illegally.
I was still deep in Mexico city suburbs though and I didn’t fancy wasting another 20 minutes on cops who may, or may not, get bored with my lack of Spanish. Lets face it if they took my keys and passport I would have no choice but to pay them. And they had guns. It was getting late, I was tired, I just wanted to get to the campsite and go to bed. I knew I was breaking the law but instead of the police enforcing it properly they were just trying to shake me down for some cash and my licence was giving them all the excuse they needed. I felt I had no choice but to go Assman on them.
I pulled over and removed my licence plates.
In New York I had been on the Kenny Kramer tour, the inspiration for Kramer in Seinfeld, one of my favourite shows. In one episode he accidentally gets sent the wrong licence plates which he put on his car. Kenny also sells these along with his T-shirts and mugs. I bought one myself.
I would never dare to do this in the States but I decided I was either going to the pyramids or to jail, I was bored with listening to crooked cops…
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I made it to the Pyramids eventually via the most convoltuted route you could imagine, cursing all the way, but I didn’t get stopped again! 
Day 200 – but am I happy?
Day 200
Valle de Bravo, Mexico
After a few days in Morelia I headed closer to Mexico City on Sunday and made the mistake of checking into a small hotel with cable TV and the Internet. My body clock was messed up in Guadalajara and this hasn’t helped. I was supposed to be paragliding in Valle de Bravo but I didn’t go down to the place they rent gear until yesterday afternoon and the answer was ‘were shut, come back tomorrow at 9am’. Not exactly what I wanted to hear… I was also getting constantly asked at the hotel how long I was going to stay. In some ways I’m the perfect guest, I don’t want my room cleaned everyday, but don’t ask me how long I want to stay because I really don’t know. They asked me so many times I felt I should be moving on.
If the truth be know I have been feeling a bit down. I should be looking forward to coming to the UK but I would now have to try to find somewhere to leave my stuff, get some accommodation in New York… It felt like my trip was coming to an end and all roads were now leading me inextricably towards Mexico City and that flight I had booked. Mexico is cool, but its not exactly overwhelming me with potential travel partners. maybe I’m just looking in the wrong places, but I was beginning to think that I needed someone to get my arse out of bed in the morning and doing something more than reading my latest book or waiting for a movie to start.
I was also slightly annoyed that someone had stolen the wood from my roof in Morelia. They weren’t proper thieves though since they left my bungee cords on the top. But still!! No more car camping for me!
200 days? bleh
Tags: body clock, eve, valle de bravo mexico, Travel, morelia, thieves, paraglidingWandering around Guadalajara
Day 181
Guadalajara, Mexico
I was getting close to finishing off the current book I’m reading, an Umberto Eco novel called ‘The island of yesterday’ which was a tour de force of brilliance but was slightly distracting in my quest to be a tourist. I must try not to read when I wake up as there is a natural tendency to fall asleep once more, which is of course what happened. It was afternoon by the time I woke and I wandered up into town to find something to eat. My car was sitting baking in the sun and I opened it up to find the new wax on my surf board had melted and dripped all over one of my camping mats :/
The city center isn’t very far so I decided against putting my bike together and just walked up. The traffic was pretty bad, but this being the second largest city in Mexico would only be eclipsed by Mexico City, a place I’m not looking forward to driving in, but shouldn’t be any worse than anywhere else, it would just be more crowded. People in the states told me that Boston had the worst drivers but I didn’t particularly find that to be true just as people in Mexico warn me that Mexico City is a nightmare to drive in, but I’m not so sure. I’m sure its only as bad as Bangkok or Kamapala in Uganda. More traffic means you go slower but also means its safer. Then you only have the problem with the cars around you. I’ve found Mexican drivers to be rather selfish though, the usual stupidity of third world thinking where everyone is looking out for number one. Yesterday I saw a ambulance sitting at the traffic lights with his lights flashing and no one moved. So either it wasn’t a real emergency or the driver realised that even using his siren wouldn’t get them out of the way. This is the scariest thing I guess, you can crash your car, get some help and the traffic still kills you on the way to hospital.
Surveys show that the vast majority of people consider themselves to be an above average driver but this is clearly impossible. I find it better to regard myself as a below average driver since I am regularly doing what is the most dangerous activity in my life it is better to regard the whole act of driving as a easy route to my own death and I would be better thinking I barely knew how to drive. Hidden oil spills, dogs on the road, blown tires, mechanical failure, gravel, dust and sand, huge potholes…. the list is endless and all waiting for an unwary driver to not be concentrating. Dying in a car crash is surely the stupidest and most pointless way to die as its highly preventable. Dying in a drink driving crash is far, far worse, but we’re in Mexico… It happens.
Maybe I should go shopping, Guadalajara has loads of stores and I think my current wardrobe is rather lacking. At least I don’t have to carry any clothes In the city center I set off in search of something to eat but I didn’t seem to have much luck. Everything seemed so… meaty! I wasn’t going to starve though I’m sure, and I’m happy to back into size 32" jeans once more, maybe I can get it down to 30" before the end of the year, something unseen for 10 years. Kira reminded me about a water/maple syrup/cayenne pepper/lemon juice diet with daily sea water enemas which would probably do it. 10 days of that and I’d be really able to eat like crazy for a few months :p If only I could find some food. I found myself in the wedding dress district which was clearly the wrong place for a hungry tourist although it was packed with hopeful looking girls all window shopping for their perfect dress, whether they had the perfect man to go with it was unclear.
Guadalajara isn’t a bad place to get lost searching for something to eat though, the architecture is stunning, with sunny plazas around every corner and neoclassic buildings towering overhead. Its still typical Mexico though with plenty of street sellers hawking their wares; beggars and buskers. I finally gave up and headed for Sanborns, a slice of the 50′s and somewhere I had eaten in before. I was disappointed to see that they give you Nescafe if you order coffee with hot milk, although I’m not sure whether that was a better option than the weak Americano coffee with those awful non-dairy creamer pots you get. What’s so wrong with milk?? I spent far too long reading but tempered my guilt with going through some Spanish-English flash cards and hopefully sticking a few more words to my dull brain. By the time I was onto the last chapter it was dark outside but it was still early and I hadn‘t even eaten. I then realised that I had gone through a time zone and lost an hour, but this is hopefully the last one I will have to suffer. I really don’t like going east!
Tags: stupidity, brain, rash, cards, ko, blog, bangkok, sun, kira, carsTime to leave
Day 179
San Blas, Mexico
Everyone had gone! Even the two American girls camping under Cabana had left, heading into town for a hotel room before their early morning bus ride, there was only the German group left and they weren’t too keen on speaking in English all day. Maybe I should have gone to Sayalita with Ben and Noah, but they didn’t ask and I didn’t push. I made some tea (my coffee had run out) and sat on my balcony for most of the day trying to get back up to date with my blog. I wrote and I wrote and slowly the days disappeared, its funny how long it takes to get back up to date, even when you’re seeming doing very little. My legs and arms were a galaxy of red stars though, the sandflies setting off supernovas all over my body that itched like crazy. I was thinking it might be time to get out of San Blas, really break the curse and move on, I would head to Tepic and decide from there.
Tags: mexico, girls, legs, flies, american girls, american girl, cabana, tea, red stars, keen, eve, blog, camping, TravelStudying and surfing
Day 167
San Blas, Mexico
When I finally rolled out of my tent the surf had died down and I had missed my chance. Perhaps I should have camped where the sunrise would get me in the morning after all… With nothing better to do I set about going through the Spanish flash cards I had bought in the US. 1000 words shouldn’t take too long to learn right? I separated them out into words I knew, words I probably should learn soon and words I didn’t know. I have about 15% of them learnt already, but that’s nothing with Spanish. I think I impressed everyone by sitting and bashing away at them for several hours, but I probably would be better just getting 10 done a day. Now if only I had started this at the start of my trip…. 1670 words? Bleh….
I chatted to Kira for a while too, who I had met briefly the previous day. She was cooking up some soup in a big pot in the kitchen for a party she was attending later and I did my best to charm her into an invite, which mostly worked. She was originally from Russian but has been in the States for the last 15 years. She told me all the action in the evening was in the town square so I would have to check that out later. In the meantime I got my board out once more and hit the surf. The water was kind of dirty though, it seemed some storm was bringing in burnt wood from somewhere and the water was getting pretty black. Not nice to walk on while racing to get past the breakers!
I went into the town in the evening, which was a fairly long walk, it would be time to rebuild my bike I think since it had sat unused in my van since Texas. I found a nice place that did seafood tacos and stuffed my face and then sat in the square hoping Kira would show up and invite me to the party she was attending but it wasn’t to be, and I hadn‘t seen Thomas, the Finnish guy who was also camping at Stoners for most of the day so I contented myself with a quiet day in a beautiful town and tried to ignore the sandflies which were occasionally biting my ankles….
learning flash cards/chatting to Kira/loaned thomas my board/learning all day/surfing/soup for party-pot/tacos in square/no party
Tags: ankles, tacos, set, kira, hadn, bleh, Travel, seafood tacos, flash cards, cards, invitation, camping, sunrise, san blas mexicoDriving down to purgatory
Day 166
San Blas, Mexico
Most of my afternoon was spent driving down the coast to a small fishing village called San Blas. I had heard that it was a good place to practice my surfing and I was looking for a place to chill and improve my Spanish. It was only 4 hours or so down the highway and I listened to my language course and Manu Chao as I rolled along. My planned place to stay was a camp ground place called ‘Stoners’, nothing to do with any illicit activities, it was built by a gringo called Bob Stoner. The present owner is the Mexican surf Champ, an imposing guy called Pompis, helped out by his German girlfriend Nicy. It sits right next to a nice break on the beach and has a few cabanas for $10 or camping for only $3. I found myself a nice little spot where the sun wouldn’t kill me in the morning and said hi to the few other guests before heading off to see if I could remember how to surf.
The afternoon break is pretty rough, I would have to try to get up in the morning and catch that one instead but the area seemed pretty good. The camp ground has boards for rent and offer lessons too as well as a kitchen and fridge, which is great. The only problem is that it pretty much closes at night, so after I had showered and watched the sunset the place was deserted apart from the night watchman who just wanted to get an early night. I was happy to join him, although it would preferably be alone in my own tent…
drive to san blas/stoners/surfing-offer rick my board/quiet night
Tags: gringo, board, language course, camping, sun, night watchman, girlfriend, tent, surf champ, cabana400 km run to Mazatlan
Day 163
Mazatlan, Mexico
Time like an ever rolling stream keeps on moving and so should we, next stop : Mazatlan. A major tourist city 400km south of Los Mochis. There are toll roads on the way but we opted for the more interesting route of the free roads which snake through the mountains. Nothing really to report about the drive, we stopped at a Walmart on the way down and stocked up on crap we didn’t need, although a steering lock for my car probably didn’t fall into this category. I nearly killed us by doing a stupid u-turn in the highway and not having the space to get all the way around and nearly being beaten up for having the gall to refuse to get my wind screen washed. My car might be filthy but my windows are perfectly clean, thank you!
We got to the main town in the early evening and started looking for a place to camp before the sun set but to no avail. This was for posh tourists and there wasn’t a tent to be seen. We decided after not spending money on accommodation for the last 3 weeks that a hotel wouldn’t kill our budgets too much but were pretty annoyed to find the 2 bed room for 200 pesos on the phone became 350 pesos when we arrived, 300 with some negotiation. The usual tricks. We set off for a walk around town and saw the crazy statues all along the beach front before heading into the old part to find the funky square where everyone hangs out in the evening. Very romantic but Roland isn’t my type. It was far too expensive though so we wandered back to the hotel and happily found a street stand with tacos and roast potato that turned from being healthy to a health risk after they finished filling it with fat. Was pretty yummy though
 Roland enjoys his street food roast potato + 1/2 kg of butter,cheese, cream and meat! |
long drive/toll roads?/walmart/illegal u turn/more driving/onto the beachs/no camping/phone hotel/350 not 200/walk along beach/statues/square/catherdal/roast potato/no cafe/free wifi
Tags: wanderings, accommodation, roland, tacos, highways, blog, crap, eve, mountains, tent, walmart, long beachRace to the Ferry
Day 159
La Paz, BCS, Mexico
It was time to leave Baja after nearly 4 weeks of fun but the whole of Mexico was still stretching before me. We got up, packed up and made our way back up to La Paz to get the ferry back to the mainland. The ferry left at 3pm, but you had to be there 3 hours before, ie noon. It was a simple calculation to make and a simple mistake. The road went north from the RV park and so did we. It curved around the coastal road and traffic was light. We passed the places we probably should have been camping for free but then I can confess we sneaked out in the morning without paying for the second night :p Roland‘s idea! The road became really quite bad, strange for a main road, sometimes the fallen rock debris forced us into one lane and the tarmac had fallen into the cliff on the right more than once. Up and down, around treacherous bends and over rutted sections we finally came to a place where the tarmac ended and it was just a dirt track. This obviously wasn’t the main road! We needed to go inland to get back to La Paz and we had just driven for half an hour north on the wrong road.
Nice View on the Wrong Road |
Cursing our stupidity we turned around and went back on the same terrible road, now an hour behind schedule and wondering if we should bother going to La Paz at all. We had been to the terminal before and it states quite specifically that you must be there 3 hours before. We would be there 2 hours before, but it wasn’t an international flight, and hey! We’re in Mexico! I was half hoping La Curva would be open for breakfast but it wasn’t and we found the proper road and put the pedal to the metal. Around 1pm we made it to La Paz and then went up the 25km to the ferry port but we need not have hurried, they would actually sell tickets up to 45 minutes before departure so we stood in the queue, I paid $180 for a 6 hour ferry ride and we went for a much deserved breakfast of fish tacos from the van near the entrance. So long Baja, hello mainland Mexico!
| The ferry ride was pretty mundane, Roland was kicked out of my van and I had to negotiate the boarding alone, which was mostly waiting around for the lorries to get on board. It was a pretty big ferry, and I was soon sitting on a ramp inside and trying to work out what I needed for the journey. I took so long that eventually the ramp behind me was raised and I stood there for another 15 minutes waiting with a deck hand for it to move. When I eventually set off to find another way out and wandering the |  The scary ferry ramp! |
lower decks for 5 minutes I ended up at the same point I started but with the ramp now down. Well I do like to explore. I found Roland and we stood in line for our included meal before going out to watch the ferry depart. A completely unremarkable journey, it soon went dark but the wind was enough to get us inside pretty quick and we read, I watched the end of ‘Stardust’ until my batteries ran out (the ferry had a non standard plug 
) and we tried to ignore bad American movies dubbed in to Spanish.
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Why is Roland wearing a dress? |
Roland had organised another Couchsurfing host in Los Mocis, a town of a quarter million people some miles inland from the port, so we gave him a ring and met him at a supermarket near the highway. Roberto was a big guy, talks good English and the only host in the area, so I guess we were lucky. He showed us the room we would share and then took us out for some 10pm tacos and we discussed a few things to do over the weekend. He works as a lawyer so I guess out timing was pretty good, however Roland had to head off to pick up his father soon so the timing was getting tight….
Waiting on the ferry…
up/wrong road/la paz/ferry terminal/shrimps/ferry/meal/laptop power/coffee/roberto/dinner
Tags: rocks, highways, laptops, sim, couch, camping, dirt track, mistake, mom, rv park, shrimp, clothes, trousers, set, tent, traffic, queuesLooking for a puncture
Day 161
Los Barilles, BCS, Mexico
God it was hot! Happily I had camped closest to the wall and didn’t have too much sun on my tent in the morning, but I woke as usual at 9.30am and prepared myself for the day. After 4 days of being stinky I had another shower but only for pure enjoyment of being clean. We had kind of decided to stay another day. There wasn’t really anything to do but there was a beach nearby and a pool. When Roland finally rolled out of his blue oven we started chatting about trying to find the puncture in my air mattress in the pool and that became the activity of the day, although not in the pool. We blew it up and found one large hole using water but no more. The pool + facemask idea would have been better I’m sure as it was still leaking. We also removed everything from the van in an attempt to discover what had happened to the bottle of vodka Roland had bought in San Lucas the week before but it was gone baby, gone. Someone is going to have a nice surprise at one of the 2 campsites we dropped it at I had solved my GPS marker problem and then started looking at compressing the tracks a bit better. I was also terribly out of date in my blog and despite a few days effort was still 12 days behind. Roland fell asleep and I took advantage of the nearby electricity outlet to try to get back up to date.
Eventually hunger called to us both and we took a walk into town to fix our appetites and Internet addiction. We went for Tacos at La Curva Restaurant and had simply the best tacos yet. First they heaped fresh nachos and salsa in front of us, with guacamole to die for, and then we had fish and shrimp tacos which were piled high for only 20 pesos each. Simply stunning food and just the thing for my appetite. I got another car key cut while Roland checked his email; we had found a place to stay in Los Mochis, the next town after Topolobampo where we would get off the ferry. It seemed likely we would try to get the ferry the next day and Roland gave Roberto in Los Mochis a ring to confirm. We enjoyed our last evening in Baja by revealing to Roland my video game emulator collection on my laptop and he spent a few frustrating hours trying to get Street Fighter to play properly with my cheap gamepad. When he eventually gave up and went to bed I stayed up far too late watching Gone Baby, Gone which was pretty good (8/10) and then despite my previous loathing for Family Guy watched Blue Shift, their Star Wars parody and enormous fun. It looks like I’ll have to start downloading all of them again soon, if only I could find a decent Internet connection….
lazy/puncture/shrimps at la curva/gone baby gone/blue shift
Tags: electricity, tacos, locals, artwork, eve, whore, campsite, girls, disco, salsa, jerkLooking for a shower
Day 160
Los Barilles, BCS, Mexcico
Roland had most of the shade under the campsite tree and hence was getting more sleep than me, I got up at 9.30 as usual when the suns heat on the tent became unbearable and went to work on my latest obsession, putting the date information on my GPS track. Using Excel I was slowly working out how to search through the information until the date changed and then put in a marker which would also be a link to that days blog entry, but my lack of knowledge of excel macros was holding me back and I couldn’t understand why it was giving me errors. My laptop battery doesn’t last very long anyway and Roland blearily enquired from his tent which bastard was running a generator so close to his head so early… I told him it was 10.30am and shocked him into getting up. We had kind of decided to leave and go north somewhat, if only to look for a shower. Roland is cool, if I had wanted to stay another day it would have been no problem, but we were both getting a bit smelly and the milk had run out! :p
Back on the appalling road we learned it soon became sealed and then we only had to watch for the usual insane pot holes dotted around the highway and the ever present ‘topes’ or speed bumps. There was an occasional cow wandering too and we saw a couple of escaped horses but I kept my speed down enough to avoid such dangers. Later on we saw a rolled car, complete with emergency vehicles right outside a school along with scores of on looking children and a body on the ground… Not the way I want to go…
Up at the next town, Las Lagunas, we drove around looking for a Taco place and checked out the beach. There was no surf as promised in our guidebooks so we looked, reversed and drove off towards Santiago. We needed somewhere to camp, with a shower and we hoped to find somewhere there. The weather is just great now, its mid twenties all day and the nights are usually cloudless with a nearly full moon, cold enough to enjoy a fire but not so cold to be uncomfortable. Perfect weather, it can’t last. When we eventually found Santiago we discovered a charming little town with no cheap food and no where to camp. The one hotel/bar in town was no longer allowing camping and again we couldn’t find a Taco place. I was getting very hungry now after only eating half a papaya in the morning but Los Barriles was only 25km away and I thought I could make it.
It would take longer since seeing my first dead Mexican…
Los Barriles is gringo-ville but still we couldn’t find a cheap taco stand, there was a nice seafood restaurant though and after not paying for accommodation for 10 days or so could afford to spend the $10 on the seafood soup which was very tasty but not very filing. I will get the special Tacos tomorrow then, Marlin, Octopus and Shrimp. If I didn’t eat seafood now I would be losing lots of weight or possibly ballooning out on cheesy quesadillas. The town was dotted with RV sites and after checking out the nice, but empty beach we decided to splurge on the $13 to park up and get a hot shower. The RV park is really just a big car park for Americans but lots of them stay here for months and make their spots really quite nice, planting fauna around and even building their own shower blocks on their sites. We settled for a place to pitch our tents and I got the usual regular comment about my Massachusetts licence plate. ‘Yes I have come quite a way….’.
Tonight was a lunar eclipse at 8pm so we showered, went to get beer and went over to the pot luck by the beach to watch the show. Roland didn’t know what a pot-luck was and seemed disappointed when I explained it wouldn’t be a party for stoners :p It was moderately cloudy but regular breaks meant that we saw most of what was going on . I have seen 2 solar eclipses but can’t remember if I have every seen a lunar eclipse. They happen regularly enough but its usually too cold or late to watch them. Either that or I have something more interesting to do. It wasn’t exactly mind blowing so we finished our beers and then went looking for some action in town, which basically meant we went for a walk because there was nothing going on at all…
Doing gps logs/papaya/sealed road/crappy beach at next town/no camping at santiago/up to los Barillos/seafood soup/shower at camground/130 pesos/out for beer/lunar eclipse/looking for bar/charlie wilsons war
Tags: eclipse, stoners, speed bumps, fauna, highways, crappy, tacosShocking roads
Day 158
Somewhere in Baja California Sur
After getting gas and not having to worry about driving like a maniac the dusty, sandy road we had attempted the previous day didn’t seem to bad. We soon learned our mistake in that the road was really only rocky at the start, there were plenty of campsites soon after we gave up the previous evening and we had enough gas to get to the next station. However hindsight is always 20/20 and prudence is not always a bad thing, especially when you’re facing the possibility of getting stuck somewhere dangerous. It seemed Betsabe drove horrendously slowly and since we didn’t have her rolling along in front of us made much better time. The road up the coast was best in a 4WD but easily done in a regular car, as long as care was taken when the rocks started poking up. The amount of property for sale out there was astounding, it made little sense to me since there was little water available, the road was bad and there wasn’t electricity. All they had in abundance was sunlight and sea. I’m not sure what people will do when gas becomes so expensive they can’t afford to ship water in. It only rains for a month a year…
We made it up to Cabo Pulmo after only 2 hours, which was much less than the projected 10 hours from the previous day, but then once you hit 40mph on the slightly rutted roads you stop bouncing and glide over the mini-topes. It was pretty windy now, so no weather for snorkelling or diving, we had lunch at a place on the beach with the other gringos and drove back to Los Arbolitos to find a camp spot. Any spot on the beach would blow our tents away pretty quickly and we faced the challenge of getting my van onto the beach safely, and the greater challenge of getting it off again without being towed. We settled on the better option of camping near the road under a nice tree which was only 2 minutes walk to the water. The place was full of semi-permanent Americano’s with their satellite dishes and solar panels. Down by the beach there was a ramshackle village of mostly abandoned huts and shacks, I wouldn’t have risked sleeping on the mattresses down there though. We collected firewood for our new spot and Roland went off rock scrambling again. I went looking for him as the sun set as I didn’t fancy carrying him back in the dark. Why do I get stuck with the ones with the deathwish?? :p
Another perfect camp spot!
Tags: sleep, rain, maniac, sandy road, blog, sal, s eve, rope, sea, cars, dish, campingBack and forth in San Lucas
Day 157
San Lucas, BCS, Mexico
We returned to the supermarket on the advice of our neighbour to buy more supplies for Los Arbolitos beach which was in the middle of nowhere and on a terrible road. We didn’t want to be driving around looking for food, we would be pretty much trapped with whatever we took with us. Betsabe was at church, it seemed Sunday had rolled around again without us noticing but had invited us to lunch and we drove over to sit and chat and leech her Internet connection. Expecting to spend the night at a dodgy beach I had left my laptop at her place, uploading photos and downloading movies. She is a Lost addict and was stunned to learn that the fourth series has recently started and I spent quite a while earning a extremely positive CS feedback by copying the latest 3 episodes to her laptop and ensuring they play. She made delicious lunch and I finally got to eat cactus which was really nice, although I have no idea how she made it. Roland is the chef, I hope he took notes.
Lunch was late though and I started wondering where we were going to spend the night. When we eventually got going it was 3pm and Betsabe drove us over to La Playita beach, which we had been looking for, before putting us on the road along the coast up toward Los Arbolitos. Of course all this passed me by as everyone was chatting in Spanish, but the road was pretty appalling, sandy with regular bottom scraping rocks. Betsabe got her Toyota saloon over the obstacles with no problems and I followed, with an increasing sense of uncertainty and dread. No one was camping up here, the road was bad, the sun would be setting soon and I only had a quarter of a tank of gas. Not a good combination for a trip out into the Baja wilderness. We came to the first town after half an hour and I decided we should go back to the original beach and come back better prepared, if at all. We said goodbye to Betsabe and her friends and once again went to set up our tents by Barb, our Canadian neighbour, who once again wanted to know why we hadn‘t left :p
Tags: invitation, photos, internet connection, laptop, sal, downloading movies, beachesThe end of the Sur
Day 155
Los Cabos, BCS, Mexico
We finally got as far south as we could in Baja California today, the place known as Los Cabos, the 2 towns furthest down the coast. Tourist city? Traveller hell? The highrises, hotels, expensive bars and the nightmare that is the Hard Rock Cafe all gave it away as hell on earth that the gringos go to to get drunk and have sex. But who am I to pass judgement? As far as we could get and all the kilometres further south only helped the sun to get hotter and more brutal. After a few days without Internet that would be a goal for the day along with the usual problem of finding somewhere to stay. We parked up and went for a walk around town. Near to the harbour the white flabby faces were everywhere, Americano’s on vacation, 2 weeks of release from the burden of being the richest people on earth but still on the edge of ruin. Go Barack, go!
I didn’t get a Valentines Card on the porch of my tent but the sings were all over the town, little children ran around with red heart lollipops not knowing what it meant. I’m sure there were a lot of romantic proposals in town that day but it mostly passed me by. I’m sure my true love was waiting for me somewhere out there in the vast sea of humanity, maybe I had already met her… or maybe today was the day…
Roland had some notion of seeing some arch in the town and since I hadn‘t bothered to read my guidebook how could I gainsay him. Baja is big, I’m small, I’m not going to see it all and since I have someone with an idea of what to do I was happy to release my less immediate goals to other people. We asked one of the multiple tourist information booths where we could find it and they gave us a map and tried to get us on a tour but we fooled them into giving us the information we were after before sneaking off. Waltzing through the harbour we admired the expensive gringo powerboats, but they held no allure for me, I would rather be racing with the wind as I’m sure Sheena was doing right then. We skirted around the guys selling silver necklaces like he had leprosy and made our way around the harbour area. Tourists were flocking like rich seagulls all around us and the other touts ignored us after one look at our clothes. We’re rich too! I silently yelled but they ignored us and concentrated on more affluent white people. Past the port and over to the beach we finally saw some indications of proper life and hints of nature. The pelicans squatted on the small boats in droves, too lazy to even float in the heat and the sand shimmered before us reflecting the sun from the mountains across the bay. That was our destination but somehow we had to get there. The free map hinted at a road but the touts that instantly attached his self to us the moment we entered his ‘patch’ assured us we wouldn’t be able to get there by car. I promised