Back to La Paz

Tuesday; 16 March - Somewhere on the Beach to La Paz

1. Shadows in the tire tracks on the beach at 6:00 a.m.

2. Our camp on the beach. We stayed off the dunes to avoid getting stuck.

3. Gray whales were breaching offshore in the early morning.

4. Road to the beach at the Aqua Blanco development....

5. Where the local cows eyed our truck.
We were suspicious of there intentions and monitored there activity carefully.

6. We tried to find our way back to the road through the Suguaro.
The GPS and map were not much help.

7. Looking back to towards the ocean as we climb through the Suguaro.

8. Getting back to La Paz, we visit the Palmeira Marina north of town.

9. Ray likes this boat Beth. Please wire money.

10. Coming to his senses, Ray signs the deal on a 36ft sailboat.

11. Just kidding ... We met Captain Dave of the Free Spirit in Triunfo 2 days ago.
He invited us to come see is boat.

12... and to share a beer..

13. Hedley, see what makes Ray smile?
We scored some bottled propane at Walmart.

We woke up early this morning and made tea. We drank our tea facing the ocean and saw 4 gray whales breaching just off shore. We think that there were 2 mothers and 2 Babies. It was like the mothers were trying to get the babies to jump. The big ones would jump about 1/2 way out of the water, then the little ones would make these attempts that just didn't compare. They did this for about 1 hours. Then they moved off to the north. Very cool way to wake up.

We packed up and proceeded to get stuck in the mud driving from the beach across the mud flat. I pushed and we were able to find solid ground without Ray’s much coveted recovery gear.

We continued to drive north-west on the dirt road fronting the beach and visited several. We tried taking a dirt track back to the main road and got lost in the Saguaro. We tried several tracks that did not agree with either the GPS or our new maps. But persistence pays. We could see the main road on the GPS and we made our way through the maze. We found the main road was paved (our maps said dirt) and turned left and rode it to the end, then turned around and returned to Hwy 19.

We had an easy drive into La Paz where we had lunch and sat on the Malecon. Oddly, it felt good to be home.

We went to visit Captain Dave of the Free Spirit at the Palmeiri Marina on the north end of the Malecon. We had met Dave in El Triunfo 2 days earlier. He showed us his boat and another perspective on retirement that got Ray’s creative juices flowing. Beth, I think Ray has killed the Airstream on the ejido plan is presently upgrading. It was of interest to both Ray and me to see all the on-board system (e.g. water desalination, solar power, navigation).

We returned to the Casabuena B&B for the night (from where I am making this post). We made a run to Walmart at the edge of town and found some Coleman propane canisters (We have had some trouble with the adapter for the big canister), tequila, and 2 bananas (this is really a guy trip).

I think we are headed to Puerto San Carlos tomorrow.


Monday; 15 March - Cabo San Lucas to Todos Santos and Beyond (lat 23 30.742; long 110 17.312)

1. We walked around Todos Santos.
The artist community here reminds us or Carmel and Santa Fe.

2. We drove the dirt road north of Todos Santos and found great beaches.

3. We camped here ...

4. We shared the beach with the local pelicans ...

5. ... and local fisherman that arrived at sunset.

6. Our first true sunset on the Pacific was great.

Walked the beach in Cabo San Lucas this morning and had breakfast somewhere near the harbor. The beaches are impressive. There is a reason all the development is there.

We packed up and headed north on Hwy 19 beginning the rebound portion of our trip. We tried to explore the beaches between Cabo San Lucas and Todos Santos but we were greeted with a phalanx of gated roads. Despite what the travel books might indicate, it appears that all the beach front up to Todos Santos has been sub-divided and sold to California. The beach entries that were described in our books were not there. We arrived in Todos Santos without getting to a beach.

We walked around Todos Santos. This is a quaint Mexican town that has become an artist community reminiscent of Santa Fe, New Mexico or Carmel, California. We had lunch at a street stand before heading north on the dirt road running north out of town.

We accessed several beaches and did some general exploring. Some distance north of town, the sub divisions ended and we got back into what felt like the ejidos we had seen further north on our trip down the peninsula. We pulled into one beach where we camped for the night with local pelican and fisherman as our neighbors.

We had beer for dinner (yes we've sunk this low).

The surf pounded the shore so hard we could feel the vibration through the sand.

We had our first true sunset on the Pacific (the others always had land on the horizon).