Monthly Archive for November, 2005

S doesn’t get much time off work, but he had Thursday and Friday off work in addition to the weekend, so we opted to go to Mexico and do some camping out. We haven’t been able to spend much quality time together due to our work schedules and my traveling, so we were really looking forward to this trip.

Mexico was great. We left LA on Wednesday night and spent the night at a friend’s house in San Diego and then left early Thursday morning and crossed the border at Tijuana. Since we were going south of Ensenada and would be in Mexico more than 72 hours, we had to get a tourist card. However, after crossing the Mexican border, we missed the tourist card office which was right AT the border – there was no damn sign! We drove through some roundabouts and then made an u-turn and cross back into the US (which took 30 minutes due to the long lines) and u-turned again and then crossed into Mexico again. The US border is much more patrolled, of course; getting into Mexico we simply drove in and did not have to show our passports, but getting back in the US, we had to drive through a pair of metal posts that we suspect were radiation detectors that sniff for nuclear bombs. We showed our passports to the Customs guy who commented on my passport picture, “Nice picture!” I get a lot of compliments on it. S calls it the “hottest passport picture ever.”

Anyway, we got back in Mexico and got our tourist card at the INM office, and then proceeded to find the highway to Puerto Nuevo. We got a little lost in Tijuana and missed the turn off, but I figured things out quickly enough and rerouted us.

Borders are interesting places. In the US, the American culture gradually shifts, blends, and changes across state lines and regions. The east coast is definitely different from the west coast, but the differences kind of sneak up on you subtly. But the US-Mexican border is such a definite contrast; different culture, different currency, different language, different everything. In Tijuana, there appears to be no middle class. People are either very rich or very poor. Mansions stand on hills with shanty towns at the base. Trash is everywhere. This provoked a lot of deep discussions during our drive. There were lots of street children and indigenous Indian people wandering the streets begging for money in Tijuana.

We drove down MEX 1 about 60 miles, going through Rosarito Beach. Outside of Rosarito Beach, there was a gigantic Jesus statue lying on its back, on top of a hill. We made it to the small town of Puerto Nuevo, famous for its lobster restaurants. We had Pacific rock lobster with fresh tortillas and salsa and beer for our Thanksgiving dinner. Strolled around Puerto Nuevo for a bit; the sun was coming down and the light was golden, so I took pictures of strolling guitaristas, and took some pictures in a dulceria (candy shop.) Then we were back on the road heading further south through the mountains of Baja. Stopped for the night in a tiny town called Camalú.

Got up early the next morning and proceeded further south; the plan was to take MEX 1 south and then head east towards the Sea of Cortez and camp at Bahía de Los Angeles. We stopped for breakfast in El Rosario and I had lobster burritos and S had a lobster omelette. Continued south and drove through the Cataviña Desert. There are plants here that grow nowhere else in the world; we passed thousands of cirio trees, which are quite unusual-looking; the trunks start off thick at the bottom and taper towards the top, which is crowned with flowers. The trunks are green and covered with short branches with short leaves. S commented that they looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. They did look like some sort of alien species.

As we turned east on the road to Bahía de Los Angeles, we came around a bend in the road and there was a herd of wild burros in the road. I got out and took pictures. They wouldn’t let me get closer than six feet, but they were curious and looked at me with big eyes and alert ears. They were in various colors; white, grey, brown, and some pintos. There were about 15-17 in the herd, and three babies.

The road went through more mountainous desert, and then we reached the edge of the mountains and the road dropped down, opening up to a view of the Sea of Cortéz and the Midriff Islands – “Midriff” because we were halfway down the Baja peninsula – Isla Angel de la Guardía, Isla Tiburón, Isla Rasa, and Isla Meija. Angel de la Guardia is 43 miles long. All islands are mountainous and jut from the sea. We visited a sea turtle conservancy – they raise sea turtles and then release them in the wild. Saw lots of dolphins and whales in the water; there are apparently whale sharks here, but we didn’t get the opportunity to go out on the water – perhaps next time. There are flying mobulas about 100-150 miles south, and I really want to see these fish one day.

The sun came down pretty early – about 4:40 PM. I got some nice pictures of the sun setting and the sky changing colors over the water, and of an octopus fisherman coming out of the water with his catch of the day. We discovered whale and dolphin bones on the beach, and discovered an intact whale skull – that was very interesting to see!

Then we drove to our campsite, which was on the beach, and paid for our spot ($4!) and then drove in town for dinner. The sky was a lavender color at this point and it was gorgeous – how often does one see a lavender sunset with Venus sparkling like a diamond in it?

The town is tiny, and the largest town was more than 300 miles away, so there was no light pollution, and we could see all the stars in the sky. We had fish and shrimp tacos, and then bought some coconut milk, pineapple juice, and rum at the mini mart and drove back to camp; mixed piña coladas and sat on the beach and just looked at the stars. It was very tranquil. This campsite had grass-thatch huts that were open and faced the water, and had cots for sleeping, so you would wake up and see the sun coming up over the water. We opted to sleep in the van, but woke up with the sun as well.

Next morning, we got up early and headed back north – we only had 4 days of vacation. Stopped in a small town called Lázaro Cárdenas and had more fish tacos, and stopped at a tortilleria and bought fresh, hot corn tortillas right off the conveyor belt. There was a man with a small roadside stand making ceviche with the largest oysters I had ever seen – the shells were 9 to 12 inches long! It had oysters, scallops, shrimp, fish, octopus, tomatoes, and avocados. It looked good, but I vetoed eating it because I noticed he was dunking everything in a bowl of water and rinsing it all off, and I don’t drink the local water when I travel (except in France or Italy) and food poisoning is really not pleasant.

We crossed four military checkpoints going north on MEX 1; they mostly check for drugs. One checkpoint just waved us through; two made us get out of the van while they inspected our things; one checkpoint, the soldier was asking us the usual questions, and then looked in the back of our van and saw our sleeping bag, and said (in Spanish) “I would like a sleeping bag.” It was an uncomfortable moment because we couldn’t go through the checkpoint without the soldier’s permission and he made it clear he wasn’t done with us yet. S pretended not to understand him and the soldier kind of dropped the subject to answer his cell phone and waved us on. We kind of felt bad as we think he’s cold, but we agreed it sets a bad example to give things to people in power – suppose he asked for more, suppose the other soldiers came to the van and asked for more things? Not a good situation to be in. Drove most of the day and ended up in Ensenada, a tacky, touristy cruise ship port. Just mostly relaxed, had dinner, and went to bed early.

Sunday morning we got up early and had some coffee and some machacha (ground beef with scrambled eggs and salsa with tortillas) and then headed up MEX 3 to Tecate. We’d decided to cross the border at Tecate as we were going to be going through Julian, a tiny town in the mountains east of San Diego, home of the famous Julian pie. MEX 3 goes through the Guadalupe Valley, which is Baja Wine Country – this was the “Ruta del Vino.” We stopped at Doña Lupe’s Organic Winery and I tasted 7 wines; bought a bottle of their Cabernet and we bought 2 jars of jam.

Coming into Tecate, we stopped at the liquor store to pick up a bottle of cane sugar alcohol – Mexican moonshine, I think. Two little girls at a seafood stand next door were staring at us, so I walked over and started taking their picture. At first they ducked behind the counter, but then they got brave and came up to me and started posing. I took pictures and showed them the pictures in the digital window on my camera, and they giggled and loved it.

Then we left for the border crossing. We were in line for 2 hours before finally crossing the border; bought some fresh tamales from a man selling them on the side of the road just before we crossed into the USA. Got to Julian, stopped at Julian Pie Company for fresh apple pie, and bought 2 unbaked, frozen pies to take home and stick in the freezer. Got home Sunday night about 8 PM, unpacked, showered and hit the sack.

All in all, a very good 4-day vacation!