Jan. 9, 2016

The wind has died! We decide to do a run before going kayaking. The tide is out and it will be much easier to load our boats if we wait till later. After breakfast the wind has picked up slightly, but it is blowing on shore, which is a much safer wind direction. Our destination for the day is a beach called La Gringa.  A beautiful paddle to a cobble beach about 5 miles away. Two Mexican ladies are walking on the beach and show us some unique rocks that they have been collecting. We are again blessed with lots of bird sightings. A pair of Willets are enjoying sunning. We usually only observe them foraging for food so it is nice to see this different behavior. When we return to our palapa, once more our neighbors have changed. This time we have a group of four young adults. They met several years ago when traveling in Europe. Erica and Stephano are from Italy, Jill is from Portugal and his wife, Sybil is from San Francisco. They have kept in touch and decided to head to South America meeting in the States to start their journey. Knowing that they do not have enough money for the entire trip, they plan to try working their way South.  They also plan on playing music for money. It was fun to talk to them and listen to their music. Shelia comes by and entertains us with stories of her solo drive to Central America.  One more day and then it will be time to go.

Jan. 8, 2016

The wind continued to blow through out the night and into the morning. A new couple have moved in next to us. They are from Germany and Ensenada. Only here for the day to see what this area has to offer. Unlike us they have to get back to work, but are glad for the opportunity to visit this beautiful place. With the wind blowing, a decision is made to walk along the beach. We encounter several walkers who comment that this year is quite different than last. This year is much windier and colder. Can't do much about the weather so will just adapt. Glenn who we meant several days ago has a trailer located along the beach front. He has taken an older trailer and made some nice improvements. With the uncertainty of the weather and politics, he invests the least he can for a million dollar view. Glenn is quite informative and tells us more about the area especially the history. He has a hobby of collecting old bottles and has located parts of many in the hills behind the town where there was once a gold mining area. He also suggested that we should check out the museum in town. We asked him about a man that we thought was clamming in front of the beach. This man,however was hunting for octopus. He would squirt bleach on the rocks and the octopus would surface. Unfortunately this is damaging the reef, not to mention the octopus population.  The wind seems to be dying and we are enjoying the neighbors. We all decide that we should all stay for several more days, perhaps the wind will really die down as everyone has hinted. Meanwhile we are going to take the opportunity to go visit the museum. It is a great find, having both cultural and natural exhibits. We increase our knowledge and also enjoy taking to Keith. Keith is a volunteer that one could write a book about his many adventures.  The bakery was our next stop and no disappointment today. Lots of new items filled the shelves. The big decision was deciding which ones to purchase. Back to our palapa when an older gent who introduced himself as Peter Garcia stopped by. He had noticed our kayaks and was soon telling us about his adventures in seasons past. Sounded like he was quite the kayaker and climber in his day. The day ended with more conversations with Lisa, Noah, Tom and Tina.  Shelia, a new arrivaltoday is here with her three dogs.  She plans on spending 6 months here and checking out some business opportunities.  With the sun setting around 6:30 we are soon in our bags, reading and practicing our Spanish.

Jan. 7, 2016

El Nino is causing Bahia De Los angles to have more of a windy winter than usual. The wind picks up during the night and continues to blow. Once again we are fortunate that we are sleeping in the car as the neighbors in their tents are awakened by the wind. Trying to get back in the habit of a morning run we start off just after sunrise. Returning to our palapa we have breakfast, noting the dark clouds over the mountains. Soon the wind picks up even more, the temperature drops and the rain begins falling. it is raining so hard that I decided to sponge some of the mud off of the car. This is the first rain that this area has experienced for several months. The last rain was last fall when the hurricane hit and caused a lot of damage. During the rain storm, a large animal is rapidly swimming right next to the shoreline. When it surfaced we were able to see that it was a large male sea lion hunting for fish. As it chased fish to the surface the pelicans followed dive bombing the area. Both species were successful in their forage for food. Meeting the neighbors is an added bonus of slowing down our pace. Lisa and Noah are from New York. she is a professional singer and violinist. We have enjoyed the music coming from their palapa. Next to them is Tina and Thomas, they are on a 3 year or so motorcycle journey.  They started two years ago at the tip of South America and are now headed to the States and eventually to the Arctic Ocean. Their blog is tintom Kiwi. With the wind blowing, we decided that going to check out the town is a better option than kayaking today. There are no banks in the town and only 3 small mercados. Food choices are limited, but adequate. a good find is the pandanaria. The bakery had a good selection of warm, fresh and delicious baked goods. Several of the small stores offer internet service for a fee. We are curious if Ryan's boat won an award at the Parade of lights so we stop at one and purchase an hour of service. Great news! Their boat won first place in its division. Back to the beach, the tide has gone out exposing a rocky tide line. The bird feeding fenzy is entertaining. We observe. red breasted mergansers, eared grebes, brown pelicans, yellow footed gulls, herman gulls, whimbrels, white egrets, snowy egrets, american oyster catchers, reddish egrets and more that I am sure we missed. The wind is still howling so we move our car to a location that we can get a wind break from a building. Car camping does have its advantages. Ryan told us that some of the roads in Northern Baja have been closed due to rain. Glad that we made it this far south. Evening in the car consisted of a game of banagrams, a review of Spanish words and some reading. 

Jan. 6, 2016

We so enjoy the ability to sleep in our car when on the road. This morning we watched the sun rise and  the sky was crystal blue. Last night the clouds blocked the stars and we half expected the rain to fall. A brief shower barely left the ground moist. Guess we will head off for a morning run. The desert landscape welcomed us with open arms.  It felt good to be back in Baja. Upon returning to the campground we chatted with a couple and their two year old traveling in a van. They had spent the last several years working and saving their money. Recently they had quit their jobs and were headed to Panama in their van.  Needless to say they were full of excitement. We had a leisurely breakfast before packing up and heading southward.  Our agenda is loosely planned and we are excited about the ability to explore some new territory.  As we leave Rancho Santa Ignes we travel through high plateau country reminding us of the plains of Wyoming. Not for long though, soon we are descending and the Boomjum tree is our friend once again. It is joined with the Yucca tree making for a picturesque landscape. We pass a road that would lead us to Cocos corner and the Sea of Cortez. Several years ago when we were doing support for Ryan and his friends on their motorcycles we had traveled this road. Getting two flat tires at the same time was in interesting event.  Fortunately the boys on their motorcycles came back looking for us and we devised a plan to get us out of this dilemma.  Good memories of that trip remain with us. Now though we are on our own adventure and we are headed towards the town of Bahia De Los Angles. It is a 40 mile one way journey to the town located on the coast of the Sea of Cortez. If all goes as planned this winter it will be the northern destination of a kayaking trip we are planning.  Arriving to the town around noon, we purchased gas, bought water and met Glenn. Glenn lives here for 6 months of the year and gave us an orientation to the area. The other 6 months he lives in McCall, Idaho. He suggested we camp at Daggers or Archleon. After checking them both out we opted for Archleon.  We appreciated having a stone palapa which gave us wind protection. We soon discovered why the winds here are called El Elephantes. When the wind howls it is huge! The view here as the folks say is a million dollars. We agree.

Jan. 5, 2016

A quiet nights sleep was exactly what we needed. We were up at first light and were ready to start driving. As we approached the steep exit, a gate across the road was blocking our exit. This could be interesting. I walked up the hill and tried to push the gate open. There was no obvious lock, but it did not budge. A man walked toward me and I asked him where we could pay since we had not seen anyone last night. He pointed across the road and said that the store located there would open at 7 and we could pay then. Then he showed me that you had to lift the bar up not push. At least we were not locked in the campground.Don drove to the top of the driveway and I told him that we could pay at 7. I then decided to ask the man who helped me with the gate if I could pay him. He smiled and said of course. So on our way before 7 rested and seeing the road in daylight made us feel thankful. The morning started out rain free, but it was obvious that a lot of rain had fallen the day before. Numerous rocks on the road reinforced the good decision we had made of not driving at night. Our car and kayaks are now quite brown in color and pulling off on to the berm is out of the question.  We see several vehicles buried up to their axles in mud.We are told that 3 inches of rain fell last night and it continues to fall intermittently till we reach San Quintin. The good news is that we can get data on our mini ipad when we are near larger towns and the forecast is for better driving conditions as we head south.  Soon we are approaching El Rosario, which is the gateway to the road turning west.   We stopped here last year on our way home and shopped at a small market called Cassandra's mini market. Last year we had given it a 10 for being neat and organized. The same was true this year. Their high standards were evident. It was typical of a small store with not many choices, but there were fresh corn tortillas, eggs and some vegetables which were all we needed. Soon we will be approaching one of our favorite spots in central Baja. The Valle de Boojums is a National Parque with little to no resources. The endemic boomjum tree is found here as it decorates the landscape among the boulders.  A museum along the road is badly in need of repair and the granitic boulders are covered in graffiti.  The small town of Catavina is located here. The only gas available  is sold by people who sell it out of drums and five gallon gas containers. We made sure our tank was full and could make it to the next Pemex station. Soon we see the sign for our destination for the night, Rancho Santa Ignez. We turn left on to a bumpy road and soon are parked under a mesquite tree. The wind is strong and the clouds are building. Not sure why but we decided to take a short nap which turned into a long one. It seems that all the activities of the last several months have resulted in a somewhat tired condition.  We are looking forward to relaxing under blue skies and fresh air. Waking up from our nap we decided to check out a more protected area from the wind. It was available so after parking we decided to take a walk/run up a sandy arroyo.  Three wheeler tracks in the sand are most likely made by Ralph an older man  in his 80's that we had met last year when we stopped here. He and his wife, Patricia have been coming here for more than 50 years. They have quite the off the grid homestead.  Last year we were treated to some of his garden greens. We ran by his gate and headed up a rocky road. Shortly we heard his vehicle and saw him approaching on his vehicle with his dog. He had seen us and wanted to show us some Indian signs. There were rocks that had been placed in circles and straight lines that he thought were made by the natives. He told us about the mission that was located 14 miles down the road.  Not something for this year, but maybe in the future. The road was mostly dry, but mud from the previous days rain gave us the indication of how easy it would be to get stuck. Back to camp and cooked up a meal of beans and vegetables. It was a good day that did not seem rushed. Night activities included Spanish and playing Banagrams. 

Jan. 4, 2016

Finally the day has come that we can load up our kayaks and point southward. First, however, we have lists of items to complete before the actual departure. Donna gets to continue her quest of making sure she has filed correctly for all the medicare supplements. It was difficult to make all the connections over the holidays, but a call to a helpful agent seemed to get the needed results. The actual medicare may be a bit more challenging as she can not pay over the phone and will have to rely on the postal service for getting all the forms there in a timely manner. Apparently I will not know until Feb. and I am not sure where I will even be at that time. Moving on we cancel our car insurance and Verizon data plan. A stop at Costco for gas indicates there may be a problem with our credit card, a call to Schwab assures us that the problem is fixed.  Once again we are denied at the gas tanks, but now are assuming that it is a Costco gas station problem.  As I used the card to get some last minute items in the store and did not have a problem.  With the list of items crossed off we head back to Ryan's to get our kayaks and are soon crossing the border around noon. A major storm is on the docket today and heavy rains are predicted for later in the afternoon. By the time we got to Ensenada the rain had started falling. We needed to stop here to get some pesos. Parking the car Don heads to the bank to get some pesos. Shortly he returns saying for whatever unknown reason the card is denied. He tried several different banks and all with the same results. He tried my card, he tried requesting different amounts, but nothing seemed to work. Our only solution was trying to call Schwab on the satellite phone as our cell phone did not have coverage.  After reaching Schwab and then loosing the connection, we realized this would not work either. Now we know how people feel when they have money in the bank , but can not access it. Our plot seemed to be getting dismal. Don had seen a Telcel store and perhaps we could get service on our Ipad and then call Schwab. It was worth a try as the other option was to return to the States. Don left on a mission and time slowed, the sun began to set and the rain began falling. We may be spending the night in the Walmart parking lot. Meanwhile Don is learning the patience of standing in line and restanding in lines as getting a sim card is not a simple procedure. As I wait in the car, our phone which we can not use in Baja, alerts me by text that a charge has been made to our credit card and if we do not alert the company they will put a hold on our card. Great now we may not even have use of our other credit card. Finally he was back with a smile on his face and said I got the card. The first attempt to call Schwab on the ipad was successful. As we explained our situation she said oh yes I see that you have made numerous attempts to get some money. She then proceeded to tell us that this area is known for bank fraud. Our first thought was that she was going to question our need, but after a while she returned to the phone and said you should be good to go. Off goes Don once again and quickly returns with pesos in hand. With telcel working we can alert our credit card company and they remove the hold on our credit card.  All is well except that it is now dark and rainy. Our wanted to get to destination is 100 miles away and even though we would like to attempt it, our better common sense decides against it.  We are relieved when we see a sign for a campground called Palomar. It is a summer resort, but has spots for overnighters in the winter. Only one camper is there and we quickly make our beds and fall quickly asleep.