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
