Punta Banda and the Border

Friday, 26 March – Punta Banda, BC to Cuyamaca State Park, CA (lat: 32 54.241, long: 116 35.070)

1. Sunrise at Punta Banda just south of Ensenada.
We are on the Pacific side.

2. More flowers in green fields give a tranquil look to a troubled sub-division.

3. The Pacific ocean beach looking out toward Punta Banda

4. Eating breakfast at the cafe that is part of Adolfo Villarino's RV Park.

5. Adolfo Villarino in front of the entrance to his RV Park.
at Punta Banda. Aldolfo says "Come to Mexico".

6. Troy is from Montana. He lives permanently at Adolfo's.
He showed us his "trailer".

7. Another look at Troy's trailer addition.

8. Driving down the Malecon in Ensenada. At 1/2 million people,
this is the most traffic we have seen in 5 weeks. We decide NOT to try
crossing the border at Tijuana and opt for Tecate instead.

9. Crossing the mountains on Hwy 3 to Tecate, we find fields...

10. ...of yellow flowers ....

11. With white accents. We really need Jack Huffman to do this right.

12. Arriving at the border, we find the "fence". The maps are wrong to get
to the border crossing. The road on the Mexican side have been
changed to accommodate the lines of cars.

13. The US to the left. Mexico to the right.

14. The line of cars to the barder is about 1/2 mile long.
We wait for a little more than 1 hour.

15. We score our last tamales from a street vendor as we wait.

16. The "fence" appears to be free billboard space on the Mexican side of the boarder.

17. As we creep towrad the border we read one advertisment ...

18. ... after another ...

19. Looks like if you buy the taco stand, you get the hot babe in a bikini.
Are our adverts this overt?

20. ... Wait!!!! Is that for US tax preparations?????
Is that a US phone number???

21. The competition offers e-file??? What's going on here??

22. We arrive at the boarder with plenty of time to spare.

23. Crossing into the USA.

Got up this morning and did the by now normal beach walk. We knew that this would be our last day in Mexico so the feelings were bittersweet. We packed up and drove around Punta Banda. We explored the settlement of houses on the sand spit running toward Ensenada. We talked our way past the security gate and drove to the end of the road and got out and walked the beach. The houses were very up-scale. It was a ghost town. Although the houses looked occupied based on the furniture in the rooms, there did not appear that anyone was in the houses. There was some maintenance going on on several houses. The beaches were empty.

On leaving the spit, we looked for some breakfast and picked the Café outside the RV park we shad stayed at. It belonged to the Villarino R.V. Park and Camping that was immediately next to where we camped. We ordered eggs and sat at the table in front of the café. Adolfo Villarino, the owner of the park, brought out our eggs. It turns out that Adolfo speaks better English than either Ray or me so it gave us an opportunity to ask a lot of questions that had been piuling up during the trip.

We asked Adolfo to sit with us. We discussed the present border politics and narroctics trade. The answer was consistent with what we came to believe is true: the US media is over blowing the situation and the US travelers are staying at home. Oddly, the Canadian travelers seem to keep coming explaining the abundance of British Columbia license plates on the road. The retirees who have been coming to Mexico for years are still there. However, the seasonal traveler, like Ray and me, have all but disappeared. There is drug violence in Mexico for sure. But the question is, are you really going to travel into those areas? If you did, what is the upside of preying on the traveler?

The conversation with Adolfo was refreshing. We discussed Baja history, the local agro-businesses, that affects NAFTA has had on Mexico, and herbal medicines. I would like to post the conversation as it was rich in information, insight, and perspective.

While we were talking with Adolfo, Troy, a welder from Montana, joined us for breakfast. Troy has been living at Adolfo’s camp for two years. He added another perspective to the conversation. Having worked construction management in Las Vegas, he saw first hand the use of illegal labor and the inconsistent policies of various governmental agencies to this practice. The game is played by presenting forge documentation. Interestingly, taxes are collected and withheld against this fake identity. Troy indicated in his experience, it was not a cash business. This led to a number of questions that Troy could not answer. Why can’t the state and federal tax agencies detect these forged identities?

Troy went on to show us his “trailer” complete with permanent addition. Adolfo encouraged us to look at the camp. I had some regrets for not staying there the previous night. It was tidy and clean. He also had hot showers (I had a cold shower that morning). If you are using this as a travel guide, I would definitely recommend Adolfo’s Villarino R.V. Park & Camping as a travel stop between the US and Baja Sur. Here is Adolfo’s contact info:

Villarino R.V. Park & Camping
Punta Banda, Mexico
General Manager: Adolfo Villarino
Kilometer 13 La Bufadora Road Poblado Punta Banda, Baja California Mexico
Phone: 01152 (646) 154-2045, 01152 (646) 154-2034
US Phone: (619) 819-8358
Email: avillar@prodigy.net.mx

If you are interested in sport fishing in the Ensenada area, I would recommend contacting Troy who runs a boat out of Punta Banda.

Troy Dye
“Beater”
Villarino’s RV Park
Punta Banda B.C. MX
(cell) 646.107.4681
(vonage) 406.988.4603
(local) 646.154.3148
Beater57@msn.com

After spending the morning talking, it was clear we needed to move on. We said our goodbyes. Ray went to buy tamales from a stand along the paved road. I went over to the fire station and bought four, tee shirts to support there fund raiser. I had another interesting conversation with the American gentlemen manning the volunteer fire station. I got another perspective on boarder violence and the affects on the local economy.

We drove through Ensenada along the malecon. Traffic was a little crazy and we were glad to clear town.

At El Sauzal, we turned off Hwy 1 onto Hwy 3. We ascended the mountains and came into the wine country which was picturesque. We looking for places to stop but at this point, we really did not have time to stop if we were going to cross the boarder today. We settled for a visual tour. Hwy 3 is a good road. The wine country has easy access from Tecate.

As we neared Tecate, the fields along Hwy 3 were in bloom with yellow flowers.

Arriving in Tecate, we had some unfinished business that involved using up our remaining pesos. We stopped at a super-mercado and bought two bottles of tequila (our legel limit to cross the boarder) and some bananas. We also helped out the Mexican Red Cross who were out fund-raising. The also helped us out with directions to the border crossing. We found the map and GPS to be in disagreement with the road signs. We opted to follow the signs and listen to the Red Cross volunteers. The road has changed to provide room for the queue of cars waiting to cross the border. The road now runs parallel to the fence for over a mile keeping the back-up of cars from spilling into Tecate.

While in line, it became apparent that the “fence” is used as a billboard on the Mexican side posting advertisements for an eclectic mix of goods and services including US tax preparation. We read and photographed many of these adverts. We also scored some tamales from a stand servicing the northbound travelers.

When we finally had our turn with the immigration officer, it was not pleasant. Regardless of what is happening at the border, manners should not become a casualty. Both Ray and I felt that we were treated like we were guilty of something. The was an implied threat in our initial interview “if your story checks out, you will make Joshua Tree tonight, …. If not, you are not going to Joshua Tree”. We went through secondary inspection where the next officer gave us incomplete instructions (e.g. “stand by the table” – there were six tables, none in the bay with our car) then became irritated when we went to the wrong table. In the end, there was no “Thank you” or “Welcome to the US”, on a wave of the hand. I also thought it interesting that I did not recognize and latin workers. I am not trying to slam the customs and immigration people. I recognize that they perform a difficult, at times hazardous, and often unappreciated job. However, I am an US citizen carrying a passport returning from travel in the country of one of our biggest trading partners. We were doing nothing illegal (well .. in the end we forgot to declare the tamales). There is no reason for the reception we received. All could have been conducted in a more polite, business like manner. I could not get away with using the tone the boarder officials use in my profession.

On clearing the border, we took state hwy 94 east. It is worth noting the oak trees which we had not seen south of the boarder. I don’t know why these trees appear to be exclusive to one side of the border. We took highway S1 north, then eat on I-8 where we passed through a border patrol checkpoint. This was remarkably similar to the military checkpoints in Mexico with the exception that they did not check our cooler. We then took state Hwy 79 to Cuyamaca State Park. This was a nice park. The campground was within an oak grove. The park ranger told us that some parasite was killing the oak trees.

We opened the larger of the two bottles of tequila and had supper.



Thursday, 25 March – Bahia de los Angeles, BC to Punta Banda, BC (lat: 31 43.090, long: 116 39.855)

1. Sunrise at the Bahia de los Angeles

2. A reminder of where we have been: the coast road to San Felipe.
We briefly consider returning through San Felipe but decide to break
new ground on the Pacific side.

3. We stop at the ruins of Mission San Fernando about 5 miles off
Hwy 1 and find ourselves on the Comino Real

4. One of the few historical markers that included English (which was helpful).

5. Arriving at the cutoff for the Sierra de San Pedro National Park, we see that the
road is washed out. It is a good thing our travel book Spanish has improved
or we would have driven the 50 miles of dirt road to the park.

6. Beginning around San Quintin, we leave the Sonoran dessert behind.
The land becomes greener. Agro-business extends to Ensenda.

7. Yellow flowers cover the fields.

This morning we decided that with our one “free” day that we wanted to visit the Sierra de San Pedro Martir National Park. This would take us the high point on the peninsula well above 10,000 feet and promised mountain forest similar to what you find in the Sierra Nevada. This is also the site of the national observatory.

After eating in “town”, we gassed up and left Bahia de los Angeles and had good pavement back to Hwy 1. Once on Hwy 1, it was a long drive through the dessert to El Rossario where we bought gas again. This long stretch across the dessert was broken up only by Catavina which had food (we did not stop) and gasoline being sold out of drums. There was a Pemex station under construction so it looks like there will be better service along this stretch in the future.

We made one stop west of Catavina. At El Progresso, we got off the Hwy and drove about 5 miles to the ruins of the Mission San Fernanado.

Continuing north, we left the Sonoran dessert. We entered an stretch with a lot of agro-business starting around San Quintin and continued north past Vincente Guerrero. There are a lot of people in the area and Hwy 1 is the only road. The road in somewhat congested and isn’t that spectacular to drive.

When we arrived at the turnoff to San Pedro Martir, we saw the sign for the national park. We also saw a sign that said the road was closed because of washouts. Luckily, our travel book Spanish had improved enough to understand this road sign. This part of Baja had experienced very heavy rains in the last year. The fact that several bridges on Hwy had washed out should have been an indication to us that the dirt road through the high mountains was not going to be in good shape either.

We were a little disappointed with this turn of events. We talked about trying it anyway but given that it was getting late we quickly formulated plan “B”. We had talked with a camper at Daggett’s that morning and he had recommended the beaches on Punta Banda south of Ensenada.

We continued north. After passing through Colonet, we passed through some low mountains with extensive vineyards.

We descended into the greater Ensenada area and turned west off Hwy 1 at Maneadero and drove out to Punta Banda. We found an RV park on the beach with (cold) showers and set up camp. We had dinner at “Sharkey’s” restaurant where we had a nice dinner.

2 More Days in Old Baja

Wednesday, 24 March – San Francisquito, BC to Bahia de los Angeles, BC (lat: 28 58.523, long: 113 32.818)

1. Sunrise at San Francisquito

2. The beach at sunrise at San Francisquito

3. The water was very clear like all of the Gulf of California beaches.
You could see the stingrays swimming in the water.

4. After breakfast, we hiked the headlands north of the beach.
A man, his hemp shorts & sunhat, and a backpack.

5. At the summit of the headlands, we discovered an observation post (assumed to be Mexican Army) with clear views of the runway at San Francisquito, the beach, and about 200 miles of coast line. We decided NOT to investigate.

6. A view of the beach at San Francisquito just below the observation post.

7. The road north to San Rafael

8. VIDEO: Live the dream as Ray drives Baja.
We had about 160 miles of dirt track like this on this segment.

9. Arriving at San Rafael, we find Francesco ("Poncho") as the only resident.

10. Francesco shared his beach and laguna with us.
Looking back, we should have stayed here.

11. A look at the Playa San Rafael from behind Francesco's.

12. After entering a long valley with steep mountains on both sides,
the road makes a straight shot to Bahia de los Angeles.

13. Unexpectedly, we came across an airplane blocking the road south of Bahia de los Angleles. About two miles further north, we came across the pilot (Jesus) and his companion. We gave them a ride into town.

14. Bahia de los Angeles is a beautiful place but has been
sub-divided and sold to the sport fishermen.

15. We camped at Daggett's Camp north of town.

The winds last night were fierce. I was already awake when Ray decided to put down the tent. We scrambled around to reconfigure the taco into “coffin” mode. Even with the tent down, the truck was rocked by the wind. In the morning, we assessed the damage. None to either the truck or the palapa (which I thought for sure had blown away).

A military patrol came through in the morning.

We decided to hike the headlands north of the beach. I assured Ray the views would be great based on my previous night’s reconnaissance. We hiked out to the point then starting climbing the steep, boulder strewn hills behind the point. As promised, the views were exceptional allowing us to see the three volcanoes of Las Tres Virgenes 60 miles to the south and Isla Angel de la Guardia (I think) about 60 miles to the north.

As we neared the summit, we say a radio antennae and camouflage netting atop a rock bunker. It was clearly an observation post that both Ray and I agreed did not need to be explored further. In addition to having a great view of the coast, the hilltop had a direct view of the beach at San Francisquito and the runway. We assume this was a Mexican army position. We will leave it at that.

We returned to the beach descending a lave flow. The sharp lava rock ripped through Ray shoes this time leaving us both without rugged footwear. On returning to the beach, we had a second helping of fish tacos at the restaurant. During lunch we decided to move on up the coast.

We backtracked 10 miles to the place where the road forked. We took the road toward San Rafael. We had another nice drive through the dessert.

At San Rafael we came to an amazing beach. It is amazing that I am still using this word this late in the trip. The sole resident on San Rafael was Francesco who ran a llantara (tire repair) on this empty stretch of road. When we pulled in, Francesco and his two dogs met us. He asked if we had a puncture. When I told him we just wanted to walk the beach, he seemed genuinely pleased and told us to stay as long as we wanted. He went on to explain that he had been living on the beach for over 20 years and that he is known as “Poncho” in the tour books. He said if we wanted to take one of the two palapas on the beach, we were welcome. He also told us to make sure we saw the laguna with the birds. Ray and I spent some time walking the beach. We considered staying but rationalized that there were better things waiting at Bahia de los Angeles – we were wrong.

I was touched by San Rafael and Francesco’s heart-felt generosity. I asked him if it was ok if we came back in a year or two to which he said yes. I wanted to give Francesco something to repay his kindness. Given how remote San Rafael is, we gave him our papaya, two apples, and two cold beers out of our cooler. Francesco was pleased with the papaya.

We reluctantly left San Rafael. The dessert ride continued past the cutoff to Bahia de las Animas which we would both have liked to explore but tagged it for “next time”. The mountains which keep this section of the coast so remote, seemed to formed an impenetrable wall. We drove straight for the mountains with some discussion as to how we were going to get over them. Then the road took crested a small pass and began running down a valley between two sets of very steep mountains on either side of the road. Directly in front of us about 20 miles in the distance was Bahia de los Angleles. This was most interesting geography.

As we descended the valley, we came across a small airplane blocking the road. Here is what happened next:

Joel’s Version: We continued down the road another couple miles and found two men walking toward Bahia de los Angeles. The elder man asked for a ride. He introduced himself as Jesus. His plane had “bad gas” and the plane went down. They needed to get to the phone so they could call for help. We unloaded the jump seats and all crowded in.

Ray’s Version: We continued down the road another couple miles and encountered a gang of narco-terrorists. Ray decides to sell Joel to the drug cartel. They pay Ray well to use him as a gringo drug mule. At first blush this sounds a bit harsh. After a few shots of Patron Silver, the ethical disonance subsides.

We gave Jesus and friend a ride into the “town” which was an odd collection of buildings and business extending from the beginning (or end depending which way you are traveling) of the pavement to the junction (about 1 mile). We helped them find a phone, first trying the Pemex station at the junction then coming back to the store at the end of the pavement. After getting Jesus and friend situated, we said our goodbyes and continued north.

We drove north around the bay to Punta la Gringa looking for a campsite based on a recommendation we got Alpohsinna’s. The rock beach was very picturesque. Wanting a shower, however, we headed back south and settled in at Daggetts Sports Fishing Camp (www.campdaggetts.com / rubendagget@hotmail.com) which promised hot showers (they were hot) and camping.


Tuesday, 23 March – San Ignacio, BCS to San Francisquito, BC (lat: 28 24.674, long: 112 51.415)

1. North of Vizcaino, the dessert was in full bloom.
Remember, it had rained here several weeks earlier on our way south to San Ignacio.

2. After El Arco, we entered to Saguaro zone.
From El Arco, we saw two ranches.

3. In the middle of the dessert, we saw this sign warning of livestock.
We only saw two motorcycles heading south this day.

4. The road was fairly good single track.
The only rough patch was here (about 15 miles before San Francisquito)
where we descended quickly.

5. 80 miles from Hwy 1, we arrive at San Francisquito to find
Alberto's fish camp, a restaurant with some palapas, and an airfield.

6. The beach at Punta San Francisquito.....

7. ....where Ray discovers what the hooks are for Hedley.

8. The area was once a breeding ground for sea turtles until over hunting decimated the local population. Local conservation efforts are working to bring up the census.

9. The scalloped beaches make interesting shadows at sunset.

10. Another great beach, another palapa, another nights camp.
The high winds caused us to put down the tent in the middle of the night.

11. Reflections of sunset on the mountains.

Today we began our longest segment of dirt track for the trip. After our second epic breakfast at Terry and Gary’s Ignacio Springs B&B, we buy groceries and water before leaving San Ignacio behind. I really liked this town so the finality of leaving left me with a melancholy feeling that the trip was coming to an end and that bad times were becoming memories.

We gassed up at Vizcaino. We decided that we could get by carrying only 5 extra gallons so we filled only one of the extra tanks. At Vizcaino, you can take a paved road most of the way to Scammon’s Lagoon on Laguna Ojo de Liebre. The intelligence we obtained was that like the other calving areas, the whales were leaving. This is a section of the peninsula Ray and I wanted to explored but decided that taking the dirt track into San Francisquito had both a higher value and temperature.

We left Vizcaino with this unfinished business and headed toward Guerro Negro. Before Benito Juarez, we turned off Hwy 1 on the dirt track to El Arco to begin our ride to San Francisquito, San Rafael, and to end 160 miles later at Bahia de los Angeles.

The road to El Arco was pretty good. We passed a maintenance crew dragging a scrapper behind a tractor taking off the washboard. We drove on this recently resurfaced section at over 40 MPH. We came upon a crew from the state electric company that was changing a flat tire. We asked if they needed any help as the road had become fairly desolate immediately after leaving Hwy 1. They thanked us but refused our help. Then about 5 of the crew tried to direct us around the truck and trailer which was pretty much situated in the center of the road. The problem was there was a pretty significant drop-off on both side of the road and there wasn’t much room to get around the truck and trailer. The crew was just a little too enthusiastic about my ability to clear the truck and trailer without tumbling down the embankment. Ray, infected by the enthusiasm out on the road ensured me that there was room. I folded in the mirror and put the right side wheels over the bank. The taco thought thin … and we made it.

The Baja travel book had it correct about El Arco …. Ask for directions. El Arco is a small settlement. The local traffic has created numerous well worn tracks that obscure the not-so-well-worn track heading out of the settlement. This was a problem we faced more than once on the trip. So after driving around the settlement, we asked if we were on the road to San Francisquito. We were not …. or we were having a Spanish language failure … too soon to tell. We backtracked through the village and headed out on a track that did not look anything like the road we traveled coming in from Hwy 1. The track eventually put us on a road the GPS recognized and we liked. We passed two motorcyclists going the other way, the only traffic we would have that day. They were from the US and confirmed we were on the correct track.

The 40+ mile drive from El Arco to San Francisquito went through some beautiful dessrt terrain. We went through a low point in the mountains. I only recognized passing two ranchos. Big country. We took our time stopping often to just take in the country.

The junctions to El Barril, San Francisquito, and San Rafeal were marked and agreed with the maps and GPS. We arrived in San Francisquito with several hours of daylight. We drove by Alberto V. Lucero’s fish camp at the far end of the air field that crossed the point. Alberto was heavily recommended by Gary back at the Ignacio Springs B&B. However, the camp was in a cove that didn’t have the spectacular view that the beach had in front of the restaurant.

So we drove over to restaurant, paid 100 pesos for a palapa and settled in. The restaurant was serving fish tacos (that’s it) that were exceptionally good. There was also a refrigerator (I don’t know what was powering this) full of cold beer. I tried to get the name of the restaurant. I ask if this was part of an ejido. I got a yes and a no from the two people in the restaurant. I asked the one that said yes what the name was: “San Jose”. So there you have it. At the end of a very desolate road is a restaurant, that I can not name, serving fish tacos and cold beer. This is Baja.

I want to add the people at the restaurant were very pleasant and helpful. I think we were their only customers.

We walked the beach the rest of the evening. I walked out out to the point and could see about 100 miles both up and down the coast. Having eaten a late lunch, we snacked for dinner.