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

Cabo San Lucas ADENDUM (11a)

14 February 2007 - Valentine Day
Cabo San Lucas, Baha California Sur, Mexico
Villa Serena Trailer Park

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

This posting is being sent post-humorously, we’re currently in the 1000 Trails campground in Solodad Canyon in the northern suburbs of LA.

Humphrey again. Charlie brought to my attention that I overlooked some of his pictures taken at San Lucas, specifically a memorable breakfast which may suggest some new culinary ideas.

Valentine Day was the cause for the excessive red and white garb. It was another beautiful morning in San Lucas, much better weather than on Valentine Day in 1964 when Barbara and Charlie met at a reception for newly-inducted Navy nursing students, where else but in the famous bar in the O Club at Sand Point, Seattle.


Everyone was hungry for breakfast. You made your eggs in a baggy which was then boiled to perfection. You then plopped your egg concoction onto your plate.

The proof of success is in Barbara’s smile.

The morning also heralded two new Valentine Day events: gals made scratch-out hearts for their lovers, and guys showed their macho prowess with assembling and flying a model airplane from a kit. Charlie applied his engineering background: considered the center of gravity and thrust, the angle of attack, and stabilizing wing design in his gull wing entry. The competition was based upon distance flown. He was in first place after his trial (he was the first entry), but failed to win the coveted trophy: a big bottle of candy hearts.

Next for sure: La Paz

Humphrey for Charlie and Barbara

Cabo San Lucas (11)

9 - 14 February, 2007
Cabo San Lucas, Baha California Sur, Mexico
---population: 150,000
Villa Serena Trailer Park

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

[map]Humphrey again. This email covers the drive from to Los Barriles down the coast of the Sea of Cortez to Cabo San Lucas at the tip of the peninsula, 66 miles. We stayed here six nights.

Along the way we passed the Mexican monument marking the Tropic of Cancer (22.5 degrees north latitude) which we crossed here marking entry into the tropics and tropical temperatures.

A clarification of names. Cabo San Lucas is at the western end of “Los Cabos”, resort development stretching from San Juan Del Cabo on the right, an older laid-back town, to Cabo San Lucas, the modern tourist mecca on the left. The RV park was about 7 miles east of Cabo San Lucas and 15 west of San Juan Del Cabo, just east of Costco.

The area marks the convergence of the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific. In the 16th and 17th centuries the gulf side was a favored hiding place for pirates who plundered Spanish galleons. The early 20th century brought commercial fishing and when that petered-out, in 1974 the Mexican government began development of Capo San Lucas from scratch as a tourist center. So all the ritzy hotels, shops and crowded yacht harbor that you see in San Lucas, all to world-class standards, is only about 30 years old.


San Juan Del Cabo. We’ll start here. The town is built around the ubiquitous Catholic church, built 1720 and now beautifully restored; with typically narrow streets, very appealing tree-shaded shopping lanes, and “Shooters” a pleasant roof-top restaurant/bar overlooking it all. Here B/C are having lunch with Al and Terri.

Charlie at lunch at the Gardenia Restaurant in Cabo San Lucas with (right to left) Claudia and Jerry our Wagon Masters and Marita and Bill our Tail Gunners. Gardenias is famous for its tacos at reasonable prices for Cabo San Lucas. Charlie’s distressed look was caused by the announcement that they were out of cactus tacos.

Barbara and others went on a shopping tour to Todos Santos 40 miles north of Cabo San Lucas which was holding its annual crafts show. Alternatively there is the more traditional but upscale Marina Mercado Arts & Crafts Market at the Cabo San Lucas small boat harbor. Barbara noted that just about all of the crafts displayed were shipped over from mainland Mexico. Cabo San Lucas has a number of high-style stores, a modern two-story down-town mall, a Costco, Home Depot and soon a Walmart.

Cabo San Lucas has a lot of tourist things to do beyond shopping. One attraction is to take a small glass-bottomed boat out to see the fish, view the old cannery of 75 years ago, visit Lover’s beach for sunbathing (notice how Barbara caught Charlie blending into the geologic rock formation), watch the kayakers and ultimately the see roosting pelicans.

Note the cruise ship in port; Cabo San Lucas gets 1-5 daily.


A highlight of the stay was a catamaran sail at sunset. Charlie was very interested in the number of trimarans in the harbor both private (from up and down the West Coast and Mexico) and those used locally for sailing tours. For some reason he didn’t find the tri he designed and built 40 years ago in Seattle. Here Barbara has gained Margarita confidence sitting on the net between the halls talking with Al and Terri. Then the obligatory picture of B/C in the wind; the temperature was in the tropical 90‘s but the sea breeze made it a little chilly. The rock formations at the very end of the of the Cape, the advertised sunset and lastly the paved malacon around the yacht harbor on our way home from the cruise.

Next: La Paz, the beginning of our return north.

… Humphrey for Charlie and Barbara