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Barmy, Balmy Baja
Hello from San Juanico, surfing Mecca on the West coast of the Baja peninsula. Sorry it’s been a while – internet is non-existent in some places here.
So we crossed into Mexico just over two weeks ago, at Tecate. We chose there as it is supposed to be quieter and more relaxed than other crossings – and it was. So relaxed in fact that they didn’t have enough staff to do the paperwork for us to temporarily import our truck. Not really a problem, as we can do this at another customs office further down the peninsula – but it would have been nice to get everything sorted at once. But they gave us a 6-month visa without any problems, so off we went.
Driving through and out of Tecate, the change in environment was an immediate and stark contrast to the States. It’s less developed, less organised and so much more laid back, but with that comes a dirtier feel, with a lot of rubbish strewn about and packs of dogs wandering around. But our first impressions are good - the carefree attitude suits us and the locals, on a whole have been very friendly and accepting of our pidgin Spanish. Even the regular military checkpoints (checking for drugs going North or guns going South) have not been too traumatic, although quite invasive at times.
Motorsports fans will know Baja for the famous desert races held here. The daddy of them is the Baja 1000, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary and was run this week. Over 1300 miles of mainly off-road racing, criss-crossing the peninsula from Ensenada to La Paz. Having decided not to go to South America and therefore have no chance of seeing the Dakar Rally in January, we decided we must catch the Baja instead.
The course has been marked out for weeks to allow teams to do their pre-running practices, so for us it was a simple case of following the course where possible until we found a good place to stop for a few days to watch it.
A brief run-down of our route: Tecate to Ensenada on pretty good roads, but probably a bit too rough to warrant the toll fee - Pacific coast with the roar of the waves and the sunsets, but a sea breeze meant it was pretty chilly at night. Across to the more sheltered East coast and stayed on a beach in San Felipe for a few days, warmer nights, town very touristy, lots of US ex-pats, bars and nightclubs, glad we were staying away from the main-strip. On to a remote campsite called Papa Fernandez, where we joined two couples of Canadian “Snowbirds” – retirees who head South for the winter. A nice couple of days relaxing on the beach and drinking around a campfire at night, swapping stories and getting top-tips of places to visit further South. Off road to Coco’s Corner, famous in these parts as a traveller’s stop, where you can buy overpriced drinks and look around Coco’s cabin covered with the usual license plates, underwear, bikinis, dollar bills that visitors have left. Down to Bahia De Los Angeles, whale watching place but not at this time of year. Head back West to where we are now, San Juanico, including a pretty tough 100KM off-road section that took four hours, but saved us 6 hours compared to taking the paved route.
We haven’t done much at all really! Lots of relaxing on beaches, some swimming, some kayaking, some walking. There’s lots of other travellers, mainly North Americans here on holiday or for the winter, but we’ve met a fair few European overlanders and backpackers too. Special shout-out to Nomadic Michael, a long-time North American overlander, planning on going international – good luck mate!
The coast is mainly fishing villages and holiday places and the interior barren, ever changing landscape with the odd dusty little town. The wildlife has been pretty spectacular. The sea is evidently so full of fish, great shoals of them keep leaping out of water, occasionally followed by a chasing seal, or dolphin. Hundreds of birds dive bomb the ocean, from the Exocet like cormorants to more bouncing-bomb like pelicans and the shores are littered with beautiful conch shells. The harsher inland is ruled by eagles, sunbathing on tall cacti, coyotes and their apparent nemesis, the road runner birds. The other night we were sat in a beach side restaurant, when we noticed a commotion from the other diners - a tarantula as big as your hand just wondered through like he owned the place. And last night we saw our first scorpion!
“Enough of the David Attenborough stuff, what was the racing like?” you ask? In a word – mental! No health and safety, the roads are open to the public throughout the race, so we drove the wrong way up the course, out of town, to see the first bikes coming through and along the course back to town later. The whole town turned out for a 48 hour party – drinking, loud music, fireworks as all sorts of race bikes, quads, trucks and some drunk locals and delivery drivers screamed sideways through the town. And the dust – so much choking dust! It was one hell of an experience.
The best thing about San Juanico though? Not the race or the view or the world class surfing where you can ride a wave for 8 minutes or even the fresh fish burritos or quesadillas. It was meeting Christie and Dudley, a surfer couple from California who are just so lovely, funny and easy to get on with. We met up a few times over a few days and just really enjoyed their company. They’ve had to move on as they’re off to Maui next month to decorate their other house! Tough life hey?
Now the race is done and it’s safe to get back on the road, we’re going to head back to the East coast again and perhaps do some snorkelling.
Belated wishes to Bry’s big sister who had a special birthday this week! Sorry we couldn’t be with you, but we did have a few drinks for you. Love and miss you Ka, hope you had a great day / week celebrating!
Hasta Luego!