Hello Everyone;
We had grouped up
with our friends Bob and Ann Heit and Pete and Deb Dale in El Centro,California and were on our way to the Baja. We crossed the border at
Tecate and it was easy as only tourist cards are needed for the Baja.
We decided ahead of time that we would drive straight to the south
where it's warmer and start our long stays there. Our stops were
Ensenada, El Rosario, Guerrero Negro, Mulege, Ciudad Constitucion, La
Paz and Los Barriles. 
Baja has coastline,
mountains, prairie, and desert. The road climbs in a twisty, windy
way up onto a mesa then goes straight across the mesa and then down a
twisty, windy way back to the coast. Sometimes we did that more than
once in a day.
The plant life is varied with many kinds of cactus
and trees including the Boojum Tree (Cirios). The drive is very
interesting with something new around every corner.
The road itself in
interesting. Mex 1 is paved. It ranges from narrow with no shoulder
to narrow with a small shoulder to less narrow with a good shoulder.
Some of the curves have extra pavement. Beware of the pavement in
the ditch as it's for the water and ends up in some big hole that is
sometimes hard to see. And of course sometimes the pavement is
broken at the edges and that can come into the driving lane. Every
now and again a portion of the road will be 4 lanes, usually close to
a city.
The Cuestra del Infernio or Devil's Backbone (Not sure how
they came up with that as it doesn't really translate) is quite an
amazing piece of road. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Also ran into several detours and that usually means driving in the
ditch. On coming traffic is always interesting. So far no mirrors
have been lost. Once again I'll let the pictures speak for
themselves.
We're now in LosBarriles till Tuesday. We're in a campground on the beach but we
chose not to have a beach front site. It's extremely WINDY here.
Sail boarding and kite sailing are the big sports here. The last 2
days have been calm so more sail boards and a few paddle boards are
out. The rest of the time it's been kite sailing. The wind seems
to be the best between noon and 4pm.
We've been having
some rest days, walking on the beach, doing chores in town, playing
“Joker”, walking around the town and doing a couple of driving
trips on the coast. The first day we drove south of Los Barriles.
We took the first turn to the coast and ended up on a dirt road. It
took us to a very nice little town called La Ribera which had paved
roads. If we'd gone further we would have come in on a paved road.
A little further down the road was a nice RV park, , Trinidad RV Park with a restaurant.
We stopped for a coffee and a chat with the owner.
Our next stop was
Cabo Pulmo which is a national park. It was originally a pearl
diving area and in the 20th century a fishing village.
There is a coral reef here which is the only coral reef in the Sea of
Cortez. The locals decided in 1995 that the reef needed to be
preserved and with a lot of hard work a national park was
established. In the first 10 years the fish population on the reef
quintupled. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site which also
includes the islands just off shore in the Sea of Cortez.
All along
this coast are numerous housing developments which is a surprise as
the road is a sandy wagon track at worst and a gravel road at best.
Even the paved part of the road close to Los Cabos is broken up and
it looks like 1 more good rain will take out several sections. Today
we drove north on the pavement to El Carondel and came back on the
dirt road.
El Carondel is a fishing village with a pretty pink
church on the hill. There's actually a pretty good looking RV Park
here although it didn't seem to have anyone in it. Once again there
were quite a few housing developments on this road. Stopped at a
beach with some tidal pools. Lots of coral pieces were washed up on
the sand.
Till next time. Drew
and Donna.
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