Baja Bound, Part 11

San Ignacio to Mulegé, Baja California

Early morning breakfast

Mission Nuestra Senor San Ignacio de Kadakaaman

Anders and I were up early, even though the clock was advanced by one hour in Baja California Sur. At 7:15 we were at the Rice and Beans restaurant for breakfast.

I (Liz) had cheese and avocado omelette and Anders had bacon and cheese omelette. Naturally served with beans and lightly fried potatoes, almost like a "rösti" but with a hefty dose of garlic.

Huge breakfast, not bad, good coffee. We watched the sun coming up over the Date Palm trees. San Ignaciao is in a fault of the earth, hence the palm canyon.

In the morning Lynne and Dee came with us into town. We looked at the old Mission Church: Mission Nuestra Senor San Ignacio de Kadakaaman 1728-1840.

The church was restored in 1976 but shows cracks from earth quakes.

Driving toward Conception Bay

Coyote beach

The museum next door was open, exhibiting some rock art/rock paintings of nearby Sierra de San Francisco. All with Spanish explanations, but very interesting.

Santa Rosalia viewed  from Hwy 1 is the ugliest city so far in Mexico! Very commercial and dirty.

We drove out to Coyote beach with the gang. What a beautiful beach and setting....The water is crystal clear and warm. Wow!

After a while we headed back into Mulegé and checked into Clementines B&B. Good!

Had supper at Scotty's Pub in town. Very good.

More pictures from this part here.

Baja Bound, Part 10

El Rosario to San Ignacio

Cacti jungle

Beautiful Country.

Yesterday we stayed in El Rosario at the Baja Cactus Motel in the newly renovated section. Our room was great. Lynne, Dave, Peter and Dee could park right in the inner courtyard with their rigs, that was great.

We went to Mama Espinoza for supper.

Everybody was in a good mood, apparently the Margaritas were good. Most of us ate good Mexican food. I (Liz) had Prime Rib for dinner, kind of needed to give my tummy a break.

Mama Espinoza is still alive at 107 and counting. Her daughter now runs the place. The Baja 1000 racing crowd have a tradition to stop here and eat and drink.

The morning drive out of El Rosario did not disappoint. We climbed to a high plateau and the fields of cacti just increased. Amazing!

Just before Catavina there are huge boulders and yellow rocks with cacti just growing out of it. We looked into the "Mission Catavina" hotel. That would be a beautiful place to stay with its old Spanish style architecture.

Liz and Anders outside Mission Catavina

Trucking south.

Dee, Dave and Lynne

At the crossing over to Baja California Sur from Baja Norte, there is a food inspection, no citrus fruits or potatoes are allowed, we payed 20 pesos and then they spray the vehicle's under carriage.

We continued all the way to San Ignacioand to the Rice and Beans motel. The food there was ok, but the rooms were not. We will not stay there again.

The first motel room smelled from sewer and had roaches on the floor. We got a different room, that at least did not smell.

We had a pretty good meal at the restaurant and later cooled our feet in the pool.

During this part of the drive we were stopped at several military check points, no problems, very nice young men just doing their duties.

Much of the countryside we drove through this day was dry, and not cultivated.

There are more pictures from this part of the trip on line. Have a look.

Baja Bound, Part 9

Ensenada to El Rosario, Mexico

Pretty Drive

It is a tight squeeze. Time to fold the side mirror in.

Dave's mechanic was supposed to install new shocks this morning, but he never showed up.

Apparently he had called someone and left a message?

We are late leaving at around 10 am. Direction south towards Mulege is in the GPS.

We will not make it there for a few days but we are working on it.

Our goal for today it Catavina. We may not make it there since we had a late start and it is pitch black at 6 pm.

Apparently you do not want to be on the road at dark, we have been told.

The drive is nice and interesting. Anders got really tired driving behind the two slower RV's ahead of us.
The narrow roads and the Mexican style of driving and passing takes a bit of getting use to.

Miles and miles of green houses.

The towns do not look like they are getting much of the profits.

The Valle St. Thomas is quite pretty. In the Valle de San Quintin they grow tons of vegetables and fruits.

For example we often eat strawberries and raspberries from "Driscol" in Canada. Well, it is here they grow them.

Miles and miles of mesh covered green houses line the road as we drive along.

A bit further along all kinds of vegetables are grown. Huge companies operate here.

Unfortunately it looks like not much of the profits are passed along to the local people. The small towns look poor.

We arrive in El Rosario around 4 pm, we fuel up and decide we should stay the night.

We check into the Baja Cactus Motel. Baja Cactus may not look like a lot from the outside but it is great, a bit rustic, but we loved it, and the price is right.

Hotel Baja Cactus

Our room, great.

Mama Espinoza's restaurant

The owners of the gas station next door is the same owner as the motel. Nice to see some of the local people getting ahead.

We clean up and go out for supper at Mama Espinoza. Great food and Margaritas.

Early to bed after a bit of a tense day of driving.

For more pictures of this part of the trip, check out our web album.

Baja Bound, Part 8

Lebec, California USA to Ensenada, Mexico

Dave and Lynne at the front and Peter and Dee behind.

It is now 11 days since we left our home in British Columbia.

We are up bright and early and ready to roll out of Lebec at 8am.

Anders and I decided we would drive ahead, because Lynne and Dave with their motor-home and Peter and Dee with their truck and 5th wheel will take a bit longer. So we drove ahead.

It's Sunday morning and the perfect time to drive through Los Angeles and San Diego. Traffic, yes, but not problems. We then all met later at the Albertson Store at El Cajon just past San Diego on the #94 Hwy.

Wine country in Mexico

Arriving in Ensenada

Here we shopped for the last little US things and headed toward Tecate and the Mexican border. We parked our vehicles and walked over to the Mexican side. We were met by a Mexican official and had our tourist visas stamped. Then we walked back to the USA and picked up our vehicles.

We were a little nervous, but Dave explained that most of the time we would just drive through. Well, Peter and Dee did. We got searched by friendly border guards,and then were sent on our way.

Dave and Lynne, got searched and were not as lucky. The border Guards decided that the 9.9hp motor Dave had with him for the boat, he would have to pay import duty on. They brought the motor last time no problem, but this time they through the book at them. It is not easy to know with all these things.

We were waiting and nobody knew what was going on. Lynne and Dave had to wait for the right person that would decide how much duty.....

Two hours later we finally see Dave and Lynne coming down the highway. Good, they did not end up in jail. We were so happy to see them again.

Dave filled up with gas at the Pemex station up at the top of the hill. All gas stations are Mexican owned and look the same. Usually they also have "servicios", washrooms.

View from our room

After all this excitement, we are soon

Dinner with Lynne and Dave

 on the road again on the Ruta Del Vino, the Vine Route.

Morning Walk around the resort.

We go through Valle de la Calafia

Dee, Lynne and Peter in the RV park, also part of the resort.

and Valle Quadeloupe on hwy #3 where large wineries have made their home. The towns close to the wineries are pretty nice, other then that, the area looks very poor.

The road from Tecate to Ensenada is very narrow and curvy with sharp drops off the pavement. The scenery is wonderful and the evening glow makes it all look good.

At about 6 pm we roll into Ensenada, a big city of about 280,000 people on the pacific ocean. Poor areas, tourist areas, local nice areas. We drove all through town to the Estero Beach Resort. We had a reservation and our room is fantastic with a view of the pacific.

Peter and Dee went to bed early, and we had supper with Dave and Lynne at the resort. We had some really good Mexican wine with dinner "Don Luis - Cetto"

During dinner Dave and Lynne informed us that their motor home needs new brakes and drum repair. We will stay here two nights.

Then next morning we took a nice long walk around the hotel grounds. As we were crossing one of the roads a gentleman stopped in his SUV and asked if we wanted a ride. We said no thanks, we needed the exercise. He promptly pointed out that I (Anders) could use some, but not Liz.

We chatted some more, and he introduced himself as the owner Antonio Novelo Silva. He owns this hotel and 4 more. A very nice man. His son Luis is the manager.

With the help of the front desk staff, Dave got a mechanic out to fix his break, they did a fantastic job, all for $150.00, Dave gave him $200. Great service.

Both of us loved Estero Beach and will stop there on the way back home.

More pictures from this part of the trip, click here.


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Baja Bound, Part 7

San Simeon to Lebec, California.

Early morning fog

Wonderful  landscape

Incredible mountains and hills

We wake to a bit of fog and the breakfast room is equally foggy with tons of people.

A tour bus stopped last night and they are all in here eating.

Our goal this am is to drive to Lebec, CA and meet up with some friends. We take Hwy #46 towards Bakersfield.

The drive was wonderful over the coastal mountains, ranches and valleys with trees and huge hills with no vegetation.

Then we come through Paso Robbles, an area with a lot of new vineyards. It is very nice, but they have a long way to go.

A little later we drove for miles along Almond, Pistachios and Pomegranates plantations.

At the intersection of hwy 33 & 46, James Dean died in a horrific car accident on the 30th of September 1955.

We stopped in at the general store where they sell everything including Hollywood old time pictures, almonds and more.

Times are tough in this part of the state.

From Lost Hills south we are on the I5. This is really desert which they grow almonds, cotton, pomegranates and vegetables.

Almond plantation

Times are tough in places. Please support your almond growers.

James Dean died in a car accident here.

Anders, Lynne and Dave enjoying a Margarita.

However we were told they are running out of water. We sense there is a fair amount of politics regarding ground water, the signs speak for themselves....

"Food grows where water flows"

and

"Now water - No Jobs!"

In Lebec we check in to the Holiday Inn Express and later meet up with Lynne, Dave and Dave's brother Peter and wife Dee.

Everybody is happy and we go for some good Mexican food right next door to the hotel.

This was a very interesting and good day.

More pictures from this part here.

Cheers, Liz and Anders






















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Baja Bound, Part 6

Healdsburg California to San Simeon California

It is the 18th of October 2013 and we started out the day with a nice leisurely breakfast. The weather pre-cast was good and there was not a cloud in the sky.

Top of the Golden Gate Bridge showing above the fog

We were excited and hoped that we would be able to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco in beautiful sunshine.

After a short drive we arrived in the Bay area and all we could see was the top of the bridge for a few seconds, the fog just rolled in and it was thick as pea-soup. So we crossed  the Golden Gate Bridge in fog.

Anders and Olga (that's our GPS) did a great job driving through San Francisco. We had decided to drive the #1 Hwy along the coast south.

Time for coffee.

In Monterey we found a funky coffee place with fantastic croissants and Latte to match. There were some great signs on the walls in this cafe

"Dream until your dreams come through"

or how about

"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pas, it's about learning to dance in the rain"

This part of the California coast, Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel and Big Sur is spectacular and beautiful.

Anders overlooking the California Coast Line.

Way more traffic than further north, but the road is a little wider and not quite as many curves.

We stopped at the Hearst Castle, but the tours for the viewings were all full. We did take a tour of the museum in the Visitor Center. A good lesson in American life in the early 20th century. How the Rich and Famous became and stayed famous and rich.

Anders asked, Liz are these logs on the beach, I said yes. Well, after looking again, there were moving around. Here in San Simeon on the beach, the Stellar Sea lions were lying in the sun. The harem keeper bull was busy with all his females. He was also busy defending his position against all the young bulls challenging him at his ultimate right to be the top guy. Apparently about 95 percent of all the young bulls will never be able to mate!

We stayed in San Simeon in the Hotel 6. A clean and friendly place to stay after a long, but interesting day.

More pictures from this part of the trip on line.

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Baja Bound, Part 5

Garberville California to Healdsburg California

One of those amazing trees in the Redwood Forest, California

Tight fit to get the truck through.

We left Garberville on a sunny but crisp (6 C) morning.

We had a wonderful drive on Hwy 101 taking in some more of the Redwood forest continuing in direction Legget. We also tried to drive through a tree?!

Arriving in Legget we decided to head for the coast again and took Hwy 1. Well... let me tell you this highway is not for the faint at heart.

The road is like a grape wine, up and down, around the bend, in circles, just dizzy thinking about it.

Sure glad we did not have the 5th wheel trailer with us. We finally reached the coast, beautiful but very narrow road, a bit tiring to drive.

Along this road the coast lends itself for surfing, and we have seen many surfers out there. Looks really cold. Mendocino is a nice seaside village.

Just past the town of Manchester we have had enough of windy roads and decided to head inland.

Beautiful Coast line

Rough driving in this back country

We took Mountain View road from Manchester to Hwy 128. Wow, talk about a cow trail, this was so narrow there is no need for a center line, it is only one lane.

With incredible steep grades and 180 degree curves, this is probably the most trying road, incredible.

It was a pretty country side, but it will be a long time coming before we drive that road again.

Once back on 128 and then 101, we both took a deep breath. We sure experienced wonderful vistas today, but the roads will get no compliments.

Eventually we arrived in Healdsburg and checked into the Best Western.

Here is a tip, ask hotel staff if they have any complimentary or 2 for 1 wine tasting passes.

Wine tasting can cost up to $30-40, most common $10-15. We got 6 passes. If you buy some wine, most of the time they wave the charges.

More pictures here from this part of the trip.

Sonoma Valley and Napa Valley

The next day, October 17th we did the wine touring thing. First things first, we had to do our morning walk for 45 minutes  through some pretty parts of Healdsburg.

Wonderful metal sculpture.

Sonoma Valley

I got the truck going and I looked at the gauges like I always do and there was no or very little oil pressure!!! Panic sets in, and I checked the oil six times.

Lots of oil and I just had it changed. This is my baby, it can not happen. I paced back and forth on the parking lot, a small cloud over my head.

I then got in the truck again and started it up.... I somehow looked at the temperature gauge, its all fine, the motor is not warm yet so the gauge is not showing anything and of course the oil pressure is just fine :))

We first headed north on the road and toured both the Sonoma and later the Nappa Valleys. One winery was just down the road from our hotel, The Seghesio Family Vineyards.

They have some great wines. I am not a Chardonnay fan but they have a fantastic one.

Also their Venom is absolutely incredible. The wine is made from Sangiovese grapes.

This vineyard was first planted in 1910 by the founder of the winery, Edoardo Seghesio. It is the oldest Sangiovese vineyard in North America.

Liz in Sonoma Valley

Lots of Olive trees

Town of Napa, California

We really liked the Sonoma valley and visited several wineries including Rodney Strong.

Rodney Strong was a ballet dancer in New York in his early days, before he became a winemaker. The Pinot Noir  from Rodney Strong is wonderful.

The Rodney Strong winery has a really good self guided tour with lots of interesting information.

We later drove the Napa Valley and enjoyed the valley, but we do prefer the Sonoma Valley.

The town of Napa seems to be suffering from the downturn in the economy.

Many stores are empty and closed. There were a lot for sale and for lease signs.

We hope this will change in the future.

For more pictures from this part of the trip, have a look at our web album.

Happy travels,

Anders and Liz


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Baja Bound, Part 4

Gold Beach, Oregon to Garberville, California
The Redwood Forest

Going for our morning walk in Gold Beach, Oregon

Anders on the beach

It is October 15th 2013. We took it easy in the morning. Went for a breakfast and then a nice walk on the beach.

The waves were just unbelievably beautiful as they were crashing in on the beach. We watched one person trying to surf, it looked challenging as well as cold.

We were on the road around 11 am after we fueled up with Diesel. Interesting, Oregon (and New Jersey) has state laws requiring gas attendants to fill up the gas.

You can not pump your own gas. This helps to employ a lot of people, not a bad idea.

We drove Hwy 101 south toward Brookings. Wow, some unbelievably beautiful beaches and arched rocks and small islands.

This is the Samuel Boardman State Scenic Corridor and with sunshine like we had, it is unsurpassed.

Oregon Coast is one of the most beautiful

In the Redwood Forest, California

We arrived at the California border (sort of), however we could not see welcome sign? Continuing in California we arrived in
Crescent City, a very quaint little town.

We stopped by the National Park Info Center. "Sorry we are closed due to government shut down".

We helped ourselves to some maps outside, and kept trucking on. Actually a local couple we chatted with told us where to go and what to see... nice people!

We left Hwy 101 and took the Newman Dury Scenic Parkway. The forest and its giant Redwoods are very impressive.

One of the trees in the park is over 379 feet tall. The worlds tallest tree.

There are three types of Redwood:

1. The Dawn Redwood, found in Central China. Can grow up to 43 meters or 141 feet.
2. The Giant Sequoia, found in Sierra Nevada and central California, up to 95 meters or 311 feet.
3. The Coast Redwood, found in Northern California Coast. Grows up to 115 meters or 379 feet.

Fantastic coast line in Northern California

Andres among the giants.

We motored on south, the forest is a lot like the rain forest we have on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

Over all, we both felt the Oregon coast was more beautiful and interesting so to drive along.

Hwy 101 turns inland a this point through valleys and over hills. Nice driving. We eventually ended up in the little town of Garberville.

We checked in at the Best Western. That is a super nice hotel. Very friendly staff. The complimentary wine and cheese in the evening was awesome, we met some really nice people. The breakfast was amazing.

For supper in Garberville we went to a great restaurant called Cecil's New Orleans Bistro. The food was fantastic and the service was great. This was a really good day.

For more pictures from this part of the trip, check out our web album.


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Baja Bound, Part 3

Lincoln City to Gold Beach, Oregon USA

It's early morning on the 14th of October 2013 and we are enjoying breakfast in our hotel room over-

Liz on our morning walk at Lincoln Beach, OR.

looking the pacific ocean. Coffee never tasted so good :)

We put our runners on and set out for our morning walk in the southerly direction on the beach. It sure was fresh out there.

After a good half hour of walking, shooting a gazillion pictures of the ocean, sunrise, and seagulls, we turn around and head back to the hotel.

Around 11 am we are trucking out of town, south on hwy 101. Not a cloud in the sky, life is good! The scenery is fantastic. We are definitely are seeing the coast of Oregon at its best. Long term forecast is for 10 days of sunshine.

We stop at Stonefield Beach Wayside State Park to eat our packed lunch (chicken sandwiches). Two

Anders taking in the sights

Mink whale surfacing while we have lunch.

Such beauty.

Sunset

bites into my sandwich a mink whale breaches out in front of us by the breakers. He (or she) is feeding like crazy going back and forth.

After enjoying the "Whale Fix" for the day we truck further south. The road is at times winding, and the speed limit varies between 70-90 km per hour.

No rush here, love it. We drive through North Bend, Coos Bay and make an Ice Cream stop in the town of Bandon.

The place to go here is the Face Rock Creamery, great ice cream and fantastic cheeses made right here. Take some along to match with the wine tonight.

Bandon is a very quaint little town with all kinds of shops. All kinds of seafood can be had here. There is even a fudge factory, if you have a sweet tooth like me (always keep a pound or two around, just in case).

On the road again, and after some more jaw dropping scenery, we call it a night in the town of Gold Beach.

We check in at the Gold Beach Inn. The hotel is fine, not spectacular but OK. The interior is fairly worn and dated. It is clean and that's the main thing.

The hotel offers 3 hot tubs on the way down to the beach which is really nice.

We go and pick us some food and enjoy a nice supper with a sunset and a bottle of wine.

For more pictures of the trip, check out the condensed album or the long version with a ton of pictures.