The beach of Death
Puerto Escondido
Day ??
I’m on day 8 of my visit to Puerto Escondido and thoroughly enjoying doing very little. I’m with 3 charming sisters from South Africa that I managed to persuade to share my van down to coast from Mexico City and I’ve been teaching them to surf. They’re very enthusiastic and between them seem to spend all day a the water on my board and a long board they rented. We spend half the time checking out the dead animals washed up on the beach though. 2 days ago we had great fun trying to help the lifeguard pull a dead and very rotten turtle up onto the beach so he could burying. What a stink. We also keep finding dead sea cobras. I want one for the hood of my car!
Its a nice little beachside town not that I’ve done too much exploring. Maybe its best to stay in the hotel, 2 people were kidnapped at gunpoint yesterday at a nearby restaurant. The sun shines in the morning but has started to disappear in favour of an afternoon shower that comes in varying degrees of ferocity. Yesterday it came down HARD. The little restaurant we had lunch at was leaking water everywhere and then the huge guttering inside collapsed under the weight of the water. If anyone had been underneath it they would have been killed.
Our Israeli neighbours standing in water with the electricity still on….. :p
Caryn cleans her feet
Back in the USA
Day 220
New York, NY
Thankfully felt a lot better after my trouble on the plane and managed to get my bags, onto the train into Penn Station and into a hostel. I didn’t feel like wandering all around Manhattan so looked up a hostel in Starbucks and wandered the few blocks to get to it. $48 for a 4 bed dorm! Might have been better value if I could have gotten up for the breakfast but it didn’t happen. I wandered around for a couple of hours and had an early night.
Next day I packed up my bags and jumped onto the Subway to where I would be spending my second night in NY, the floor of a Daniella’s hotel room. She was over for a course for a couple of days and generously let me share her room. I dumped my bags and set off on a mission to buy a new camera lens. My 17-55mm was good, great in fact, but I was constantly finding myself wishing for more reach. A 70-300mm would suit the bill perfectly and despite the fact that B&H, the best camera shop in NY, if not the world, was closed for passover the prices were pretty much the same all over the city. I walked up past Union Square, which I didn’t even recognise in the sunshine and walked west along 17th Street to the Camera store of the same name. $400 poorer I could now stalk celebrities! After a lunch of falafels and snapple I decided to wear out some shoe leather and try to find something interesting to snap. Sadly the track of my route will never be published as I had managed to lose my GPS tracker! It was my own stupid fault for attaching it to my belt and then putting on my backpack. Bleh.
I headed east and then south, ending up under the brooklyn bridge and finding I could photograph birds with some success at last!
I also checked out the World Trade Center site again, and although construction has started on the new towers it still looked much the same as it did the last time I was there in 2002. A bloody mess!
It was a nice afternoon walk back up to the hotel, I was absolutly knackered but I had arranged to meet Dani when she got off her bus…. I took my laptop out to the local Starbucks but for some reason didn’t bother checking my mail…. duh!
I sat waiting from 11pm until 1am and she didn’t show up. I tried in vain to call her but just ended up shouting at the stupid phones in frustration. Her bus broke down and she finally turned up at 2am. If I had checked my mail I would have had a nice sleep :p
wander past union/can’t find shop/17th str photo/wander west/photo bridge/WTC/walked north/use net/meet Dani/2am/sleep on floor.
Terrible accident on my plane
Day 219
New York, NY
I thought I was getting better by the time I made it onto the plane and indeed everything seemed to be fine, but disaster was looming. I had my meal (I don’t recommend the Continental Seafood choice, unless you like nasty canned tuna) and settled down to endure as much of ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks’ as I could bear. I managed about half before my mental nausea got the better of me and I went to wait for my the toilet. I was feeling much better, I was a bit gassy but I had mostly lost my physical nausea from the morning and was feeling much stronger. I waited for ages and ages, after maybe 15 minutes I went to sit down again and the woman soon came out. Little did I know there was about to be an explosion!
I went up to the toilet and locked the door. My stomach rumbled, I could sense an after effect of the bad meal from the day before bubbling away in my guts. The fans whirled in the bathroom and I savored the feeling of simple privacy being alone gave me. I felt the usual feeling of minor flatulence from an upset stomach and let out a little gas.
I froze in shock and disgust for just second.
There is always a time for a first experience and this was one of those moments. I just hope its my last.
I spun around and ripped my trousers down faster then I have ever done, dreading more disaster and reeling with the horror of what had just happened. 24 hours later the dodgy lentil soup which had caused me so many problems had reappeared at a most inopportune moment and with the same consistency. 
I was properly horrified but the size of the problem wasn’t as great as it could have been and mercifully limited to my my underpants. I carefully removed my clothes and cleaned myself up. I had suspected I might not get my bag delivered so had a some spare clothes in my hand luggage. This was the second slice of luck, if you can have such a thing while soiling yourself on a plane. The first being of course that the accident only happened while I was in the bathroom.
I’m sure they thought I was mixing noxious chemicals in the bathroom since I was in there forever but luckily no one else was waiting when I was finally ready to leave and I dashed to get my spare shorts. If I was going to get a repeat of the disaster I would like it with another layer of protection. I wasn’t even carrying any imodium in my bag. I must have traveled 200,000 miles over the last few years, always with something to protect again such a disaster and now I didn’t have any. I would just have to pray there wouldn’t be more trouble.
Sick and tired of it all
Day 219
Mexico City
Well if seems like its that time to put my trip on hold for a month, I will be back in the UK on Saturday after 3 days in New York. I was lucky I made it to the airport. I was woken up multiple times by the ignorant French wanker who moved into my dorm yesterday. I needed to get up but I felt really awful. I staggered down to breakfast and only managed a small plate of fruit. I was convinced I was going to throw up sooner or later but somehow I avoided it. I guess I will blame the lentil soup I ate for lunch yesterday, I can’t think what else it could be. Max and Josca were fine, but they had pasta.
Josca gives me some ears while Max dishes up the Jamaica
I hovered around the toilet for ages but eventually I had to get my stuff packed and get myself to the airport. I took the Metro and by the time I got here I felt somewhat better, I was shuffling around like a zombie though. I’m soooooo tired!
New York here I come!
Planet earth is slowing down
Day 211
Veracruz, Mexico
God its been hot! After my day at the pyramids outside Mexico City I headed over to the gulf coast, something I haven’t seen since Naples in Florida back in October. No dolphins this time though. My vague plan was to spend the night in Tuxpan and then cruise down to Veracruz, visiting some other Pyramids on the way. I never found them. It was 36C by the time I drove past where they should have been and after shouting and cursing the lack of road signs I went by them and kept going. You can keep your damn Pyramids I’m not interested!
In Veracruz I found a cool little town on the coast with plenty of plaza’s with things going on. Bands and dancing, people out enjoying the evening, music and life. No tourists either really, at least none that I could spot in my wanderings. I found a nice little room at the top of a cheap hotel with the benefit of a breeze blowing through it to supplement the ceiling fan but the disadvantage of a direct audible route to the local Mexican Indie Rock Pub. Normally this would be a plus, but the bands they seem to feature don’t seem to be able to write any good songs. All I hear in noise, try some damn chord progression and melody…
I feel like I’m killing time. I just read a lot. I managed ‘To kill a mockingbird’ in 24 hours which is fine since I will now forget it and get to enjoy it again in another decade. I remember watching it as a play with my old friend Spec when I was in college but all I remember of it was seeing one of the actors get spat in the face.
There is a nice little vegetarian restaurant where you get a good set meal for 45 pesos which i have been eating at. You get a choice of dishes but nothing is written down so I have to guess at what I’m getting, its usually a pleasant enough surprise.
I should have left for Peubla today I guess but since I hadn’t packed up the night before it was unlikely I would get out and get off. My inaction and generally lack of motivation is not too serious, its been so bloody hot that I have hardly been able to move. Today was better though, just high twenties so the fan gets a well earned rest. I’m now constantly aware of the fact that I have one week left, but its more like a week in England than being in Mexico. Since I booked my flight I feel like I have been unable or unwilling to stray too far from Mexico city, if I drove 2,000km I would only have to drive them all the way back. So I’m trapped in a small circle of states, waiting, just waiting…
You’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…
|
|
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
The Mexican Mirror Scam
Day 192
Guadalaraja, Mexico
I finally got some new mirrors so I’m gonna be out of here tomorrow. With Easter making all the shops close for a week I didn’t want to have a 400km journey over to Morelia with no mirrors, or even my little hand held mirror taped on… I went down to the ‘Spare parts’ district on Saturday after I found everywhere was closed from Wednesday onwards and you should have seen the guys running after me when they spotted I didn’t have any mirrors. One guys seemed to think he could get some but after standing around for 5 minutes I drove off, much to his dismay, I’m perfectly capable of getting my own mirrors… Some other guys stopped me, and wanted …. $120! wow! They dropped down to $90, and kept going on about original parts. Big deal, they’re only mirrors, and they’re probably MY original parts. I wasn’t prepared to negotiate from such a high figure so left the area. Its a great scam, I saw a few other people with US plates looking for mirrors… Steal their mirrors, sell them to the shops and everyone is happy. Apart from the gringos.
I went back this afternoon and got 2 mirrors and the plates for $40. I probably should have haggled harder. He started at $60 and kept making a show of calling someone on his mobile to get a cheaper price. As usual the threat of walking away got the price down, but I suspect you could get exactly the same mirrors for $20 in a US breakers yard. So if you’re driving south bring a spare mirror, or 2. There’s a good chance they’ll be broken sooner or later anyway. So after 2 weeks of hanging out in a large city, reading, writing and learning Spanish I really have to get a move on.
With some luck I will be doing some more paragliding later in the week, apparently a place called Valle de Bravo, near Meico City, is quite good for it. Wish me luck!
Merry Easter
Day 188
Guadalajara, Mexico
I woke with a jerk this morning. Or should I say this afternoon.
I’ve been in Guadalaraja for over a week, just wandering around in the day, eating at a nice cheap veggie place I found, sitting in the plazas reading and learning Spanish, playing my guitar, but sleeping later and later. I set my alarm and just ignore it. Its a hard habit to break. I was going to leave today but yesterday, when I eventually got up at 2 PM, found all the car parts places were shut due to ‘Semana Santa’ or Easter as its known here. I can’t go driving without mirrors so I was stuck. But I’ve been paying for my room and playing it by ear, they asked how long I wanted to stay at the start and I said ‘Quién sabe’ or ‘Who knows’… They don’t speak English here though, but I know enough Spanish now to let them know when the light stopped working or that I didn’t need the woman cleaning my room every single day. I’d just prefer it if they bought a toilet seat and killed the mini cockroaches in the bathroom. :p
But the owner was hammering on the door just before noon and just before my alarm sounded. He had shown me sign yesterday that said checkout was at noon, which I knew, but I wasn’t checking out… I was reading in my guidebook that you should book ahead for Easter in some places but I didn’t think much of it, apart from when I got woken up and then he wouldn’t take my money for another night. Great. I understood enough to work out the room was already booked, probably for the weekend. What was I going to do now? Well, there is always the beach… only 5 hours drive away.
Guadalaraja is nice, lots of old buildings and ambience. Its been getting busier in the run up to Easter though. Yesterday the center was pedestrianised and it was bedlam, people everywhere and impossible to walk around. I had set off towards the west side with a map in my head and an address, always the best way to find somewhere. I wanted a cable to connect my flash to my camera, since I lost my wireless receiver on day 5 of my trip. They didn’t have any, but I still had to go off to see some upstairs who spoke English so the assistant could ask ‘why? It connects on the pins’. The assistant only works in a camera shop, its not enough for him to understand that Canon sell them, I want one, ‘why’ doesn’t come into it. I guess I should have told him to go to www.thestrobist.com but its all in English.
I started packing my stuff, took down my mosquito net, which is now saving me from daily ravishments by the local insect population (I put it up when I woke to find my forehead bitten a dozen times…. I must buy some anti-malarials soon too….) and got my shit together. I went down to talk to the owners wife, she was either afraid or liked her distance as she kept backing away from me :p She explained I could move into the little room on the rooftop. Fine with me. I finished packing my stuff and then she comes to tell me I don’t need to move after all. Kind of even better, despite the fact that I’m ready to go.
At least I saw a Easter miracle today. I rose from the dead in the morning
Wandering 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!
Time 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.
Studying 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
Windy by the Pacific
Day 164
Mazatlan, Mexico
Today was the day of partings once more, Roland decided it would be time to head to Guadalarja to meet his father in a few days and would have to go now. We checked the bus station and the buses left every 1/2 hour 24 hours a day so he would be off whenever, but we wanted to try to see a few things first. Mazatlan boasts the second highest lighthouse in the world, but the weather was awful, with low clouds and a heavy wind, it would be pointless to climb that today. We decided to go over the bay to the local ‘island’ (its attached to the mainland) where there was a nice long beach but we didn’t last long. The wind just threw sand everywhere and after an hour of getting blasted we gave up and headed back. Today would have been the one to drive down the coast, but how were we to know!
Cloudy Lighthouse.
We went back to the main beach as the sun slowly started to appear but it was still pretty windy. For a late lunch we had the local speciality ‘Pescado zzzzzzzzzzz something’ which was pretty good and then went back to see the old town some more in the daylight.
Cheers!
We spent some time in the Catherdral before wandering back to the square where we sat and people watched for a few hours. There is a local music school nearby so we listened to the students practice their various instruments and just chilled, quite literally, it wasn’t a good place to sit still in shorts. That became too much so we went off for some internet usage and returned to the potato woman for some much needed late supper. I was going to be sorry to see Roland go, but he’s in the country for a few more months and we’re both going south, I will no doubt bump into him again. Maybe then he will have become a Couchsurfing Ambassador like me and I won’t look down on him so much
new hotel/checking bus station/over to ferry/lighthouse cloud/sitting on the beach/too windy/horses.ATVs/back to maz/claifornia grass/fishy dish/catherdral/sitting in square/fast internet/potato woman/bheer by the beach/bus for roland
400 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
The Three (drunken) Amigos!
Day 161
Los Mochis, Mexico
Even though it was Saturday I had to get up and move my van from outside Roberto’s office. I shouldn’t complain since he was kind enough to lock it up for me overnight but I hate to get up, especially since I had won the toss with Roland and snagged the bed. I should have sensed trouble when Roberto backed his car out to take me over there right into the front of a truck behind us. This wasn’t the only crash we would be facing this Saturday…..
After a shower and not much of a breakfast we then had to wait for the local plumbers to fit the kitchen. Roberto had recently separated from his wife and was now going through the painful process of not only living 400km from his 4 year old daughter but setting up a new bachelor pad for himself, the kitchen was just a shell and needed filing out. When the kitchen fitters had finally arrived and had gotten to work we went off on our mini-tour of Los Mochis. I’m not sure you would put it down as the cultural and architectural center of Mexico but it gets a steady stream of tourists all hoping on or off the train that heads up through the Copper Canyon, Mexico’s version of the Grand Canyon, and an arguably better version of the same. We went for a walk around the botanical gardens, which was a hot walk in the middle of the day. I’m not quite sure why Roberto though we were interested in plants but it was a nice enough place, and free, which is always a bonus. It just looked like a park to me though, if the fact that it had plants in it made it botanical so be it. Roland took up the challenge of jumping over one of the irrigation ditches which was good of him, but the photo would have been much better if he had fallen in, as I hoped :p
|
|
We did pick up an interesting snippet of information though, we learned that there was a baseball game on later on and since Roland used to play baseball a lot, and I’d never been to a game, it would be nice to check out. Best of all the tickets were only $3. Always thinking in the correct way, Roberto took us to a Taco place which he knew sold tickets and proceeded to demolish a load of food while I sat nursing my soda. Telling the average Mexican you don’t eat meat usually garners the equivalent response to saying I had castrated myself, they are horrified, couldn’t understand it and feel sorry for you… My life, my choice…. There was problem with the kitchen and we had to go back. Trying to save a few pesos, Roberto had hired some Mexican Cowboys and they didn’t have the right tools to connect up the gas and water. At least he had worktops instead of nothing as he did before.
|
|
|
We had a while to kill before the game and Roberto now confronted me, saying he was very worried about me. I hadn’t eaten since the night before and this was a cause for concern. I did remind him that I only eat vegetables and seafood and we had only been to places that only serve meat, besides I am perfectly capable of going several days without food and not feeling any ill effects but this didn’t assuage his concern and we set off in search of a ‘Subway’. I quickly reminded him I would rather eat fish tacos and happily he knew a good place that might still be open next to the 24 hour disco. Why it seems impossible to get seafood in the evening is still a mystery to be solved, as well as the 24 hour disco conundrum but at least I got something to eat. Roberto would be remiss to allow me to eat alone and joined in with gusto.
Before the game we quickly went to check our mail at his office and I rapidly uploaded all my missing blog posts that I had spent so much time on the beach writing. I still didn’t have enough time and was transmitting them from the car as we left. There is always another connection though, and 15+ posts at once would have to do :p
I have never been to a baseball game, the majority of my experience with the game is playing it on my Nintendo Wii, so at least I had some idea of what was going on, but then not much. I quickly gathered that the main objective was to drink at least one beer per inning.We took it in turns going off looking for ‘Senor Cervesa’ but with each trip up the steps to our seats I took my turn to be concerned as our host was panting like a car trapped dog, and the stadium was tiny…. For some reason we had chosen to sit right behind the local band and infrequently they would start belting out some random tune at breaks in the game. The guys played away but as no one was bothering to update the scoreboard no one knew who was winning. I soon lost interest and started reading my book, trying to ignore the annoying samples of music they would keep playing and the nearby band. The most interesting action came from the girls who would appear and start throwing promotional items into the crowd. Like plastic cups and key chains… To see the locals go after these was like watching refugees chase a UN food truck, I thought people would start fighting if they didn’t get something. I guess baseball isn’t my sport :p
 |
 |
My First Baseball game, possibly my last…  |
 |
One of the teams won, I have no idea which, nor did most of the crowd, and we made for home. Roberto had managed to snag one of the big beer cups and was now on double portions of beer, I gave up after 4 beers and a trip to the disgusting cockroach infested toilets but my Amigos were both on double figures and were miles from home. I knew I shouldn’t have gotten in the car, I tried to persuade him to let me drive by admiring his car and asking how it handled but it was no good. It seems the idea of letting the person who has had the least to drink handle the driving is as alien as not getting completely wasted in the first place. Roberto assured me he wouldn’t go too fast, but the speed kept creeping up and thankfully the roads were quiet. He didn’t think it was a problem since he was a lawyer! Of course, you have the other drunken drivers to worry about too… ‘
By now our Mexican friend was hungry but he had a pescatarian guest to consider, luckily he knew a place that did potato tacos and we somehow managed to get there. I had 4, and probably would have had more if I had known they were only 2 pesos each! Bargain! Suitably full we went back to the apartment to get ready for an evening of drinking… it was close, we made it. Roland had set off searching for cigarettes despite my attempts to dissuade him and after smoking one agreed that is wasn’t a good idea, but there is no rolling tobacco in Mexico.
Roberto is a big Sopranos fan, as am I, and he put it on for Roland hoping to get him interested. Perhaps I should have gone to watch as well, then we might have stayed at home and lived, but it was not to be. They soon got bored and then insisted I get out my guitar, which I did. We had half an hour of painful shouting to various Beatles tunes before I had enough and succumbed to asking if we were going out. We got changed and set off to a good club Roberto knew of, after first checking we didn’t have any illegal drugs on us. A few more beers while hanging out kept the mood going and Roberto was in fine spirits as he cruised around looking for the club, telling us only the poor drink tequila in Mexico and his adventures in Amsterdam. Perhaps he should have been concentrating more on the road as he nearly killed us all by starting to turn left into the path of an oncoming car. Only my girl like screams of terror averted disaster and we pulling into the parking spot without a sound.
And we had to drive home….
The ‘club’ was empty, just a few locals in cowboys hats standing around outside so we went next door to shoot some pool and drink more beer. I’m ok at pool but its just a game, not a competition of wills, but Roland and Roberto were pretty drunk so it was a simple matter to keep playing for me. I was bored though, and soon gave up and started reading my book. By now I had gotten to the 7th book in one of my favourite series and there was a whole new novel waiting to be read, much more interesting that beer and pool I have to say. After a few hours of this the club must be busy now? We paid our tab and went out to check, I saw inside before the bouncer quickly closed the door, it was still empty but now they wanted 100 pesos to get in! Oh well at least I would be able to get started on my new book since it was too loud to talk and I doubted we would be dancing… Some Saturday night this was!
We got back in the car and went looking for something, finally spotting some police cars outside a club and calculating that if the police were there it must be good… Well it wasn’t the best place in the world, but it was busy, people were dancing, occasionally a load of teenagers would get up and play some pretty appalling music which the crowd seemed to appreciate. I wasn’t being an old fart, the music was awful, but I was still bored. I thought it hilarious to see Roberto finish his beer and then stand waving his bottle around for 10 minutes trying to attract the attention of a waiter while the bar was only 3 meters away :p Eventually the DJ kicked in and Roland and I went off to dance. Roberto didn’t want to dance with us, apparently that’s a bit gay, but eventually he came over to sit nearby while I hoped and prayed to go home to bed…
getting van/crash/shower/kitchen wait/botanical gardens/jumping Roland/tacos/baseball tickets/kitchen install/fish tacos/office&uploads/baseball match/panting Roberto/too drunk to drive/10 beers/cockroach/potato tacos/cigarettes/sopranos/drug discussion/Beatles/drive/near crash/empty club/pool/not caring/reading my book/100 pesos empty club/police club/kids/terrible band/reading again/waving bottle when bar so close/dancing/Roberto not happy/interesting girl/drive home
Race 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.
|
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
Looking 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
Looking 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
Blog day
Day 159
Los Arbolitos Beach, BCS, Mexico
It seemed like I didn’t do much but I sat and tried to get up to date with my missing blog entries. I was on about 28 days and still had notes to fill out from before New Years Eve… How did I get so far behind? Laziness and laziness I guess. Writing my blog is just about the only thing I promised myself I would do everyday and it seemed it was slipping away. I justified it to Roland by saying that normally I would spend travelling time on buses reading but now when I’m bored I will just read my novel and everything else gets ignored… He probably just thinks I’m lazy :p I was surprised by how long it could take to write an entry though. When you factor in time to search for a few photos to flesh out the entry and hammering out the text, each entry can take 30 minutes or an hour. And the longer I left each entry meant I was sitting looking at the keyboard wondering what else happened that day that I didn’t make a note about. Months after I had travelled around New Zealand in 1994 I could recall pretty much every day, where I was and what I did, everything was fun and fresh but now all that remains of that trip are my photos and occasional journal entry. I didn’t want that to happen with this trip.
I got my missing entries down to about 10 days and was mostly satisfied. When I return to the UK I would have more work to do adding photographs to my previous entries to make them better but using the Windows Live Writer program has certainly made my life easier. I could write, add photos and save the drafts without an Internet connection and upload them when I found an access point. I also started working on splitting up my GPS tracks into each days, and I have to think about making the tracks more efficient. I dont need 200 points when I’m travelling down a straight highway, the start and the end will do, but that will require several hours of hacking to figure out and the day was too nice!
Roland borrowed my surfboard, despite the total lack of surf, and went to the beach and I got out my Guitar and spend most of the afternoon making my fingers hurt. Another job I had mentally set myself was to move any guitar tabs over to my phone so I had a ready supply of songs to play when required. I love playing the guitar but finding myself required to play and not being able to remember the songs is just embarrassing :p
That night we burned ‘Mr Woody’.
Shocking 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!
Back 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
Another dodgy place to sleep
Day 157 Los Cabos
After what can only be described as a pretty restless night I woke to a knock on the window from Roland. He had slept soundly in his tent on the roof by Eduardos room and learned he had come home really dunk at lord knows when and passed the tent without so much as a glance or recognition that we were waiting for him. We went for breakfast and then went to use Eduardos shower and have a chat. He gets by by selling crystal rocks to tourists, seems to suit him as he didn’t look the person most likely to get up at 7am without fail. The first warm shower in 5 days was rather nice, but I don’t think I was smelling too bad, my salt crystal deodorant had been working wonders now since Toronto and day 2. I felt glad to be alive when he told me this was a area with a crack problem and he always locked his door. That made me feel super about sleeping in my car! Maybe we’ll see him in his home town soon, but since his Canadian friend left him a load of food he said he may stay longer in Cabos just to eat it.
Ah, Beach Life
We had arranged to meet Betsabe at 2pm so wasted the time by going to a nearby beach, Santa Maria, which was quite nice and quite hot. We spent most of the afternoon watching 3 girls chase each other up and down the beach in an attempt to throw one of them into the sea. It was very warm though so after some reading and Spanish lessons I went to tidy my car and check why my cooler is no longer cool. I put all Roland’s stuff on one side and then had a minor crisis when I couldn’t find my replacement camera charger. Not another $40!! Time flies when you’re having fun and after sorting out my increasingly untidy food box was nearly ran over by Betsabe as she came to join us on the beach. We then froze as we watched a completely crazy whale jumping about and smashing its tail into the water over and over. Roland went for another suicide attempt on the cliffs and happy with living for another day we went over to Betsabes house after picking up some groceries and made dinner. I’m not sure I was a very good guest since I spent nearly the entire time getting my Internet fix. Still no word from Sheena, 5 days now, I wonder when the FBI will be wanting to ask me when I last saw her… :/
We spent the evening with a surfer and made dinner for her flatmate and boyfriend but when it got to 11.30pm we didn’t have a couch to sleep on and headed back to the beach we had scouted out earlier, but it was too close to the center of San Lucas and we couldn’t even say goodnight to Betsabe without being hassled for change. Not a good place to spent the night and we went back to our RV beach which we found packed with Mexicans partying on the beach in their 4×4′s. The music was pumping across the dunes at party levels and despite driving up tired as hell, by the time I got my tent up I was wide away and ready to dance, if not for the god-awful Mexican ‘music’ and their bloody trumpets! You’re on the beach for gods sake, buy some Bob Marley! They soon gave up though and we retired, happy to know the van would block the sunrise this time and the bulldozers nearby would be at morning Mass.
Gringos Locos
Day 156
Los Cabos, BCS, Mexico
The local friendly Canadian tourist information neighbour had some tips for us when we were making our coffee in the morning. She had 4 dogs and many complaints about the nearby puppy farm. I wanted to ask her why she had one of their puppies herself but didn’t dare. She was bigger than me. We went into San Lucas for a look around and come breakfast. Still loving those fish tacos. San Lucas was the picturesque tourist trap of the 2, a typical Mexican town resided behind the facade at the beach and we ate there. I bought some heavy duty hooks, now I just need a hammock. My eyes are open for a nice one from now on. We dutifully drove back into Cabo for our appointment with Mona but we got the cancellation text just after we parked up and had spent 10 minutes washing on the street and changing clothes. It was time to hit the beach then! We walked back through the harbour and headed for sandy gringo central. Across from the Arch in the bay were a long line of hotels. Maybe one of them would have a shower! It was 4 days now and I wasn’t starting to smell like a goat. We found a nice hotel and went and sat by the pool, white skin is sometimes useful, before going for a swim and a game of pool volleyball with our American cousins.o
There is swearing the the rest of this post, I was a bit drunk when I wrote it
The 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 Roland he was lying but due to language issues beyond my control he was soon negotiating a ride on a boat over to the arch. 10 pesos each, 8 with no discussion, ‘tell her 5 and I’ll walk away’ was my suggestion which worked perfectly. It was a small victory however, we soon learned we had haggled down to the standard price. :p
|
|
|
|
|
|
The glass in our glass bottom boat wasn’t so clean but the sea was clear and quite a few people were diving as there was no fishing in the area and the fish were crazy for the rich tourists and their bread. Just like the Mexican touts. We splashed around by the point, looking at the tourists crammed into their expensive boats on their expensive tours, although I suspect they would be shooting over the waves as soon as they were done. I had reached as far south as I could go on the peninsular and it would soon to be time to head over to the mainland on my way to Cancun and temporarily home.
After our boat tour we went to find fish tacos in town. I had also been working on a plan for some business cards and today was the day to get them sorted out. We found a photography place and sat eating tacos across the road until it reopened at 3pm. I made up a card and then the plan was to put 4 on a 4×6 photograph, print them off and cut them up, 40 cards cost me $3 which was a better option than getting 500 cards and then throwing 90% of them away when my phone number changed in Guatemala.
I already have a new version ready to print, I forgot my email address :p
I hate the Hard Rock Cafe’s even more because of Rod Stewarts Trousers!!
Mexican Parking: Front and back…. Maybe I need a car wash…
We went to find a beach to camp on after we had spent a couple of hours in the Internet and eventually found a load of RV’rs off the highway between the 2 main towns. Our Canadian neighbours assured us it was a nice place to camp but we couldn’t find the original planned beach of La Playita, but where we were was good enough for one night. The moon was shining brighter each night as it waxed towards fullness and we drank a few beers and played ‘find the dropped nacho’. Not so easy on a moonlit beach!
drive to cabos/walk around/boat tour/photo cards/tacos/expensive internet/looking for beach/hide the nacho/