CROSSING ETC
Trip Start
Oct 18, 2010
1
2
28
Trip End
Ongoing
San Bernardino, California
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Headed south again today to Chula Vista. We followed the advice in our camping book and walked into Tijuana to pick up our tourist cards. Good plan to get the visas in advance – bad plan to walk through the Mexican immigration and then wait for hours to get back into the US. I think Dave was right – we should have just turned back and retraced our steps.
Nov 2
We're in! Just three military inspections – no banditos, no barricades with armed robbers, no druglords, no gunplay, no shots fired. The scenic toll road from Rosarita to Ensenada is just that. Rolling hills/mountains to the left and rolling surf to the right – sometimes with wide expanses of sandy beaches and sometimes with rocky shoreline. Beautiful!!!! Lots of construction though, that slowed us down. We stopped in Ensenada for banking and to pick up a phone for emergencies. We think that either Canadians – specifically me & Dave, are extremely inpatient or that Mexicans generally have the patience of Job. A 30 minute line up to buy a phone is nothing – not to mention the excrutiatingly slow line up at the border yesterday .We were unable to pick up a sym card so will have to wait till La Paz. We didn’t make our planned destination of San Quintin, as we would have been driving in the dark – against official policy. So here we are in our first Mexican campsite in Santo Tomas. There are only two other units here, and a healthy population of flies. We are not on the ocean, but nestled into hills and vinyards. Dave is currently at the store trying to see if they can comprende la Espanol instructions on our cell phone. Hope to find an internet connection soon so we can allay the fears of our friends & family about travelling through the border red zone.
Nov 3
Started the day with a bike around our campground. Although it is deserted – no water in the pool, no people – it is quite elaborate with tons of trees, shady tent sites, an outside bar, a small zoo of peacocks, goats, ducks etc. and a bonus for us - tennis courts – I won’t reveal the score because it would go to Dave’s head.
We set out for San Quintin, driving through fields of grapes, tomatoes, prickly pear cacti, corn, potatoes? Etc. Some of the earth is red – just like PEI, but altogether different.
Camping at the El Pabellon RV park as per Gomez’s suggestion. Miles of sand dunes, the pacific pounding at the shore and only a few other campers.Fernando (AKA Dave) put on his hairdressing hat and coloured my hair on the beach this afternoon. Enjoyed meeting Javier and Mary, from Barcelona tonight.
Nov 4
Another sunny day in paradise. Our breakfast was (not at all rudely) interrupted this morning by the sighting of a pod of dolphins follicking just past where the surf breaks, which is just past the sand dunes protecting our camping spot from the sea. The beach is deserted except for some kelp (and only one or two pieces) and the piece of an old ship that lies on the shore. All our neighbours deserted us this morning leaving us miles of beach all to ourselves. We bikde up the beach – into the wind, then flew home effortlessly – beats step class at the Y any day! Dave is working on projects, and I am hiding from the sun in the shade of our trailer with a good book. Yes, I think this is going to work for me!
Next challenge: uploading some pictures. We really haven't taken very many yet.
