We have arrived… how to say that in Spanish??? I have no idea, but all I know is that for a short day it was pretty long! It started with Lawrence fueling up the truck ( again..) while I had a short walk to stretch my legs before settling into the right seat… then he had to hook up the boat and clean everything up, in case we got searched thoroughly. You never know…
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We opted to cross at Tecate rather than Tijuana, as per everyone’s advice. That took a while to get to, through interesting terrain
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… then the border. All very civilized, but they did make us stop and wanted to see inside the camper and the boat. We took our papers in, sat down politely, watched as the nice gentleman looked through things and stamped what needed stamping, and we were free to go. No problem!
Then we were in Mexico, winding our way down narrow streets to find the highway that would take us South. Easier said than done, but we managed, and I must say, we probably looked a sight. On the road,all was good… we congratulated ourselves and wondered what the fuss about the roads was. Well, we found out soon enough!
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It’s not that the roads are in disrepair, though – the roads are being repaired. Entirely different but just as scary! Ripping up many kilometres of road, leaving a dirt/gravel, very narrow lane next to it for both directions of traffic to share…
However for the most part everything was marked well, and you knew if you had no space between you and nothingness, pretty much. Would not want to do it at night though. And everyone wants you to pull over into the nothingness so they can pass you – all quite hairy, but the intrepid captain managed to get ‘er done.
We had one more federales stop, where again the nice men with guns wanted to see inside the camper and the boat – again, quick, civilized, and over before we had a chance to be worried.
After the ripping up of roads was done with ( it was on and off, and just when you thought you wouldn’t see it, there would be another five kilometres of offroading.. truck and camper and boat bumping along like a loco pony)…. the trip became a lot easier.
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Also managed to find one rest stop, not the fancy kind in the States but good enough for us, to pull off the road and have some lunch. It is not a good idea to eat while you are driving, most of this trip will require two hands on the wheel and four eyes on the road! I can’t even read as we are travelling, just too much to look at and to worry about.. it’s hard work being the navigator!
The wind picked up as we went further south, and at times there was a lot of dust flying everywhere – I am thinking the Great White Beast will the the Great Red Beast at the end of all this!
Driving through the towns is interesting too – the two lane highway bisects everything, and on either side is a very wide stretch in front of the shops where people walk, ( or run remarkably fast to cross as no one slows down for them)… cars drive along, cut into the highway or pull off right in front of you, and dogs languish in the dirt… also horses!
Every town was brightened up by flower vendors, selling bright orange marigolds – I think it may have something to do with Day of the Dead… as a lot of the roadside shrines had fresh bright orange flowers arranged on them.
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Other than that, I saw no other indication of Dia los Muertos.. however we did see a fair sprinkling of Christmas!
Finally we arrived in the town where the RV park is situated… although it is not IN the town, and the side road we had to take to get to it can only be described as a lane, winding up and around and down and becoming less and less road-like the further from the main highway we got. However, it was indeed the right road, and the large empty campsite let us know we had arrived. Thankfully, as we tentatively drove through it, we found the restaurant and office, a bright coloured building declaring itself open and ready for customers.
From here I do not see the beach although all down this coast the surfing is supposed to be excellent and I would think this is one of the places surfers may stay. However – there is no one else here. Dinner should be interesting – although they had a lovely poster with some dead animal being roasted over a pit and proudly declaring a real carne night on Saturday night… I do believe we will be missing that! PITY!!! ( well, Lawrence is devastated, me not so much).
Dinner will be at 8 ish, I gather – although I may get hungry and want to check in a little earlier.
I can actually see cars parked outside the restaurant now, so it may actually be a popular spot!
Looking forward to a real meal – have been a bit bummed out by the food I have eaten in San Diego so far, and I love Mexican food. Can hardly wait for my first roadside fish taco!
OK, now I am making myself hungry.
Later.. dinner at the restaurant. By far my favourite food is Baja Fish Tacos. Have I mentioned that – oh yeah.. like, two sentences ago. So of course I had fish tacos tonight. They were marvelous. Everything was marvelous. Even watching the baseball game , world series, had to check with Andrew who was playing because I couldn’t really read the screen, but it was marvelous.
And the fact that the restaurant opens at 6:30 for coffee and 7 for breakfast tomorrow morning is especially marvelous.
Hopefully the brown lettuce and alfalfa sprouts I ate don’t make it all less than marvelous. And the ducarol works and everything just does what it’s supposed to do. Welcome to Mexico, where they always tell you don’t eat the salad. Which of course, I always do.
hopefully the wine and the ducarol kill anything nasty.
We shall see.
and also: just going back a day or two… a photo of the rig’s rigging…. stuff I talked about yesterday.
and as well, for my brother Charlie – a pic of a much larger boat than ours, on the road in California, just to say that yes… you too can come down here and live la vida loca…. !!!!
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