Ensenada (17)

26 - 28 February 2007
Ensenada, Baha California, Mexico
... population: 200,000 (?)
Estero Beach Resort & RV Park

Dear Friends of Barbara and Charlie (B/C) ...

Humphrey again. This email covers the drive from Catavina to Ensenada on the Pacific Ocean, a drive of 225 miles -- a long day! We stayed here three nights at a very up-scale resort. Ensenada, just south of Tijuana, is the major port on the Baja Pacific coast. It has an American feel to it.

The drive north to Ensenada was long but through some beautiful countryside, much like the American Southwest. The RV park was located right on the Ensenada bay, a beautiful spot. However we had gotten into the winter American climate and were all bundled up again. Here it is Nancy Goerz, a full-timer with her husband Gary out of the famous RV mecca, Livingston, TX. We were at an afternoon social.

At the social two new problems were reported. First Gaylord and Yvonne DeForest lost a mirror which whipped forward to break their windshield. They lost it to an over-taking (!} class A RV driven by an American who was hogging what road there was.

Second, Jerry and Claudia, our wagon masters, reported a new unforeseen development: we were aced out of our next and last stop on the caravan, San Felipe. A reservation made a year ago by Adventure Caravans at a San Felipe RV park was abruptly cancelled by the park because the town and park was chock full of dune-buggies for a Baja 500 mile race down the peninsula.

This is a good example of “Mexican RV park reservations” that we encountered through out the trip: RV parks over-booking with different tour groups. This also impacts single RVers who wouldn‘t find a spot to stop. It was a headache and taxed our “stay flexible” motto.

Most of us decided to return to San Diego and spend our remaining days relaxing and seeing more of that city. One or two of the group, who couldn’t face driving north into winter back home, elected to extend their stay in Mexico and drive over to Puerto Penasco at the head of the Sea of Cortez on the Mexico mainland side. It is a popular winter vacation destination in Mexico just 100 miles south of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument on the Arizona-Mexico border.


Being flexible however we quickly rebounded when we saw the Walmart, Home Depot and a gigantic Mexican retail chain store that makes Walmart look like a corner drugstore. The picture doesn’t really capture the monstrous building and floor space.


The weather moderated a bit and the RV park and resort were really something special. We had a hosted trip-end dinner in the resort restaurant. These were our table partners, Jim and Bettie Harrison from Annapolis, MD, he the retired Marine Corp Colonel; and across the table, Bob and Jan Eldred from Michigan and Egon Roesslein and Joan Trotman from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

A highlight of the festivities was a ditty sung by Jerry and Claudia our wagon masters and Bill and Marita Mitchell our tail gunners that included reference to each of us on the trip.

...(Chorus)
...My, my, my, my
...Driving Baja is quite an Adventure
...With semi’s to watch and mirrors to whop
...And keeping yourself out of ditches!

...(Pertinent verse)
...Doc Charlie’s a Barb, he tells us
...and so is his Barbara too
...Barb Barb is a vet, during Nam did she sweat
...And the rest I haven’t a clue.

We were treated after dinner to another marvelous sunset. However, the greatest beauty on the trip that Charlie and Barbara saw was the care and love that Jim Harrison gave to his wife Bettie, suffering from Alzheimer’s. (see above)

Next: San Felipe -- no, changed to Chula Vista, CA

Humphrey for Charlie and Barbara

Guerrero Negro (15 )

23 - 24 February, 2007
Guerrero Negro, Baha California Sur, Mexico
--- population: 6,000?
Mario’s RV Park

Dear Friends of Barbara and Charlie (B/C) ...

Humphrey again. This email covers the drive from Bahia Concepcion on the Sea of Cortez to Guerrero Negro on the Pacific, a drive of 198 mile drive. We stayed here two nights.




The town of Guerrero Negro (Black Warrior) was named after a 19th century square rigger that was the first trader to anchor in the lagoon, called Scammon‘s Bay.


The bay is site of one of the largest salt plants in the world. It produces 5 million tons annually, mostly sold to Japan. Salt water is pumped into pools to evaporate, the salt is scraped off and loaded onto barges for shipment. Some crystals get pretty big.


The bay is famous for being the winter birthing grounds for gray whales that spend their summers in the Bering Sea and migrate 6,000 miles south annually. 90% of the whales go to several Mexican west coast lagoons, 10% to Korea. The whales select the Mexican lagoons for the climate and the waters salinity and shallowness. The females arrive early to birth and tend their babies. The males arrive later to mate with non-mothering females then in March they all head back north 6,000 miles. We were watching at the left near the entrance to the bay on the left.


Upon our arrival at the boat dock for the whale watching boat ride we were met with the news that one of the whale watching boats had had an accident, no details -- an earlier segment of our group had gone out earlier in the morning. Ambulances arrived and the survivors shortly arrived and it was a boatload of our people. No one was dead.

Several were taken to the hospital and released after treatment. Casualties included broken ribs, a head laceration, fractured T-3 vertebra, dislocated finger, broken nose, dislocated internal organs, and a mangled knee that later required hospitalization in San Diego due to infection. Fortunately the boat, with a hole in the bottom, was able to beach before it sank and other boats arrived to transport the people back.

The Mexican driver of the boat had lost his attention and ran into a large mooring buoy. To Charlie, with his sea experience, this was quite understandable; it is amazing how fast things come up on you out on the open water.

Everyone in our later group segment was given the option of “chickening out” or go out as planned. We all elected to go out and it was worth it.


Whale watching requires being at the right place at the right time, close surveillance all around the boat, and a fast camera to get a picture. Charlie had a slow camera. The dialog went something like this between wife and husband:
...“There’s on at one o’clock. Quick get it.”
...“You missed most of it.”
...“There’s another one. Get it.”
...“You missed it again!”
..“I did get a piece of it.”

The baby whales came right up to the boat and could be touched, they felt like soft leather. The mothers, encrusted with barnacles (which gives them a gray appearance) hovered closely by and were not threatening.

Of course when sighting a close-in whale, everyone moved to that side of the boat except Charlie who moved to the other to counter-balance it. It was funny watching people in other boats around us all preoccupied looking in one direction while a whale surfaced unnoticed just behind them. I don’t know how many we missed.


After a lot of whale watching we returned by the infamous mooring buoy to see some seals who bask on top. In the left picture on the front of the buoy you can see some blue paint from the earlier collision.

Charlie titles the right hand picture, “Hey, you guys are tipping the boat!”

Next: Catavina

Humphrey for Charlie and Barbara

Bahia Concepcion (14)

20 - 22 February, 2007
Bahia Concepcion, Baha California Sur, Mexico
--- population: 50 ?
Playa Buenaventura

Dear Friends of Barbara and Charlie (B/C) ...

Humphrey again. This email covers the drive from Puerto Escondido up to Bahia Concepcion along the Sea of Cortez side, a drive of 74 miles. We stayed here three nights. This email was written today at the 1000 Trail’s Solodad Canyon campground -- great site, more later.



A typical view along this beautiful stretch of road along the Sea of Cortez. Bahia Concepcion is just south of Playa Santispac at which we stayed on the way south. It was the same kind of beach front RV park and offered a similar sunrise over the Sea of Cortez.

The highlight of this stop was a side trip to prehistoric cave paintings up in the mountains. Note the artistic view of cactus: Barbara took these pictures. The cave, a rock climb, is a national historic preservation site accessible only by foot and guide. The paintings are on the high roof of the cave and date back about 9,000 years. The upside down deer (?) means that the animal was dead.


More than half the fun was hiking there and back including fording or ferrying across a creek. The guide paddling the boat firmly announced to passengers, “Don’t move!”


It was here that Scout was introduced to flying kits. She was ultimately successful barking it down.


Our last evening we had our regular travel briefing for the next day’s drive. The meeting was sweetened by margaritas, a good buffet dinner and then for desert, roasting slugs on the beach with guitar music.

Next: the infamous Guerrero Negro

Humphrey for Charlie and Barbara

Puerto Escondido (13)

18 - 19 February, 2007
Puerto Escondido, Baha California Sur, Mexico
--- population: not many
Tripui RV Park

Dear Friends of Barbara and Charlie (B/C) ...

Humphrey again. This email covers the drive from La Paz to Puerto Escondido, a 200 mile drive. We stayed here two nights resting up.

We stayed at a large seaside resort that didn’t catch our photographic interest. We mostly sat around and watched the mountains grow.

Next: Bahia Concepcion

Humphrey for Barbara and Charlie

La Paz (12)

15 - 17 February, 2007
La Paz, Baha California Sur, Mexico
--- population: 196,000
Casa Blanca RV Park

Dear Friends of Barbara and Charlie (B/C) ...

Humphrey again. This email covers the drive from Cabo San Lucas to La Paz on the Sea of Cortez, 106 mile drive. We stayed here three nights.

La Paz is an active port, terminal for ferries from the mainland, and the capital of Baha California Sur state. It is a bustling city that we happened to catch during their Mardi Gras which essentially closed the downtown in the evening; B/C stayed at home.


Our sightseeing of the city was by bus. The roadway system were well developed however traffic was pretty heavy. Always there is a stop at the traditional Mercado or market, now really an acronym with all the supermarkets with packaged and refrigerated foods.


Lunch was at a popular semi-outdoor restaurant: you ordered outside and it was served to you at the table inside. The restaurant was across the street from the malecon or harbor walk. The tide was out. Charlie came across a group of high school kids who were posing for one of their kind taking a picture of them with her cell phone. He volunteered to take one of all of them and shot this as an aside.

The afternoon included a visit to a long-established weaving artisan; in the morning we had visited a long-established pottery artisan.

That evening we were hosted to a margarita cocktail party and dinner at a plush ocean-side resort.

The highlight of the evening was a very professional dance troop of engineering college students! Charlie says that he never saw engineering students this attractive in any of his classes. The dress and dancing was spectacular, all on the theme of courtship as represented in dances from the several different ethnic areas of Mexico.

Next: Puerto Escondido

Humphrey for Charlie and Barbara