Happily Homeless

Todos Santos, Baja California Sur: Mexico

Todos Santos is a small Mexican town on the West coast of Baja California Sur. It is approximately a 1 hour drive from La Paz and is located only a few kilometers from the Pacific Ocean. The town is full of small gift shops, restaurants, and hotels for all interests and budgets. In recent years Todos Santos has been “discovered” and is currently undergoing many additions that include restaurants and hotels dedicated to travelers that are looking for a more all inclusive service. But even with these changes the town has not lost its small town charm or authenticity. Todos Santos is also known for its famous surfing beaches located only a few kilometers from the town center, Los Cerritos and San Pedrito.

Restaurants:

Los Adobes: If you would like to have a bite of perfection in a beautiful desert garden, this is your place. Los Adobes offers fine Mexican food in what is the towns most beautiful garden. Prices run approximately $16 USD and up for a meal you are sure to remember. They also have a beautiful polapa bar in the rear of the garden, where you can sample their famous Margaritas under the palm thatched shade. In addition, four computer are available at the bar for internet access, ($4.50 USD per hour or $6 USD for 2 hours)
Contact info: Address: Calle Hidalgo between Juárez & Militar Phone: 011-52-612-145-0203 Home Page: www.losadobesdetodossantos.com

Café Brown: Café Brown has a great selection of quality local food and drinks at mid-range prices. ($7-$13 USD) The atmosphere is very inviting and will make you feel as if you are back in your local coffee shop. They have internet access on one computer and wireless internet is also available for $2 USD per hour. This is a must stop if you are in town for only a short period of time.
Contact info: Address: Calle Militar & Hidalgo, in Misión del Pilar Plaza

The Taco Stand: If you are looking for some of Baja’s best Tacos de Pascado (fish tacos) you must go to The Taco Stand, located directly across from the park on Military Street. The fish is fresh, the stand is clean, and the price is right ($1 USD for each taco)

Cheap Places to stay:

San Pedrito RV Park: San Pedrito RV Park is a small camp with RV sites ($16 USD per night ) and Cabanas ($20 USD per night) as well as camping directly on the beach ( $4 per person per night). They offer warm showers (sometimes) and a flush toilet right on one of the better surf beaches in the area.

Los Cerritos Eco Surf Camp: Located right on the beach at Los Ceritos, the Eco surf camp offers a tent hostel with a composting toilet and solar power. The camp has been located here for 9 years. Patricia and Daniel, the owners, really know the local scene. They rent tents, surf boards($15 USD) and boogie boards($10 USD) at the best prices in the area. Although primitive, if you are going to Baja California Sur to surf, this is a great stopping point.
Contact info: http://www.todossantos.cc/ecosurfcamp.html

Surfing Beaches:

Los Cerritos: This is surfers paradise. Though Los Cerritos may not always be the biggest, or have the most consistent shape, there is always something to surf. With both a right point break and a beach break that goes both ways, any surfer can find something they like just off shore. The beach has 3 surf shops and one taco stand that serves fish, shrimp and beef tacos as well as ice cold beer. I have yet to meet a surfer that has not loved this beach, but since everyone loves it, there will be a lot people in the water.
Located at 64.5 km a few Kilometers south of Todos Santos.

San Pedrito: Due to the day use fee ($2 USD) and the rocky bottom, San Pedrito is a lesser used beach. Sunrise surfing has yet to draw a big crowd here, so it is ideal for those who like to have the waves to themselves. By mid morning the water is full and by mid day, the waves are typically blown out. If you’re not surfing, there is not a lot to offer at the beach other then the sun. Due to the steep beach, swimming is next to impossible.
Located at 55 km a few Kilometers south of Todos Santos.

Spanish Lessons:

Guillermo Bueron is a certified Berlitz instructor who holds Spanish classes that cater to the individual, based on the desire to learn, knowledge, and available time. He also holds conversational classes for people that are advanced and just need more time practicing the language. If you are in Baja Sur and are interested in learning Spanish, we highly recommend staying in Todos Santos and learning from Guillermo. Contact information: Email – g_bueron@yahoo.com A website with some information on his classes – http://www.todossantosinn.com/language.html

Day 161/163 – We have been driving full days since we left Mazatlan, though the distance we’ve gone has been minimal. We have been very impressed with the quality of highways throughout Mexico, with only a few exceptions. For the most part, they have been very well paved, or in the process of being repaved, making them comparable to the United States. The road along the coast is twisted and has a few mountains to go over, at times making the drive very slow.

donkeys and lots of them.. they are my favorite so far! Jason says I can´t have one though 🙁

Cows, lots of pastures in Oaxaca

The town we stayed in after Pie de la Cuesta was Puerto Escondido. Puerto Escondido is another tourist town, with mixture of Europeans and North Americans. There is a nice downtown right on the beach. A market is created on one of the main streets in the afternoon and into the nighttime. Pedestrians wander down to look at the gypsies handmade jewelry. They also offer ‘rasta ties’, a strand of hair wrapped with colorful string in a decorative weave – I remember getting one in high school once, but not from Mexico, from Lake Chelan in Washington, 🙂 not quiet as exotic. People from the village outside of the city are also at the market, selling hand woven animal dolls and clothing.

The first change we noticed when we went from the state of Guerrero into Oaxaca was less trash on the side of road. In Guerrero there were times that it literally looked like that roadside had been collecting garbage for months from the nearby town. Mexico needs to find a better system for their waste in the rural areas. I know the people don’t have any idea what to do with it, and it doesn’t look like the state is stepping in to provide services. Even their yards are littered with wrappers and soda bottles. Oaxaca seems to have found a better solution; maybe they have been educated about the environment. I have no clue what the facts are; these are all just observations we’ve had from the roadside.

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Some lowlands with lily pads and flowers

Juchitan is the beginning of what I believe to be the windiest part of Mexico. We are on the edge of The Isthmus, where the land becomes very narrow and the mountains become quite low (250 meters high). This creates an area where the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean are within 210 Km (130 miles) of each other. The weather systems from both bodies of water mingle and create high velocity wind, which sometimes causes strong weather systems. The wind doesn’t ever stop blowing, it gusts in short cycles, making the window of our hotel last night rattle constantly.

lowlands getting blown sideways from the wind – hard to tell but it was a neat sight

The drive through the Isthmus the next day was not exactly relaxing. The strong wind tried it’s best to push us off the narrow road. We were able to cover a good distance though, because the roads were flat and mostly straight all day. We stayed in Tapachula last night. It is a bustling city right next to the boarder of Guatamala. Since the boarder crossing can take hours it is best to start in the morning.

sometimes it can be a lonely road

Thank you for all of your comments and views on the cockfight. We thought we should write more about our feelings on the cockfight since the post was more about the event instead of our views on the event.

Surprisingly, neither of us felt disgusted by the cockfight. But before you judge that sentence, please finish reading this entry. Now, this event is not legal or common in the United States (for which I am glad), but it is common here. I personally don´t agree with the idea of raising animals just to watch them fight. I think it is cruel and a waste of animal life for sport, which I don’t agree with. But from our observations of this culture, they do not view animals in the same light as most of the people in the states. Animals like roosters, chickens, cows, donkeys, etc.. seem to be viewed only as resources for food and labor. I doubt that animal rights even cross their minds. Now I am sure that some people in these countries don´t agree with this, but overall, they don’t even flinch at cockfighting, due to their cultural upbringing.

We feel that experiencing an event is a big part of understanding the culture and the social life of a country. It is something we think is important, in order to get closer to the true identity of a people. Jesus was so excited to show us the roosters he has trained, and was excited that we were interested in going to an event that was such a big part of his life. It also gave us a setting in which we could get to know him on a more personal level. The fights are not gory, bloody, or by any means visually disturbing. I am not saying that that makes it okay, but this gives you a better idea of what we saw. They occur every Saturday and Sunday, going from 6.00pm until 1.00am. It is one of bigger activities that locals partake in, and as you can see, it is very time consuming. Watching the roosters fight was not the interesting part. The interactions between the people and the hierarchy involved was very interesting; from the main guy who is respected by everyone, to the guys who bring their girlfriends to show off, and to the socializing ~ they look at it as a way of gathering with friends and spending time together. It did bother me that they juiced up the roosters so that they would fight more aggressively, and that because of the coca they didn´t use the roosters for food (so we were told). I have to say, being at the fight was one of the most interesting parts of our trip so far.

Overall, since the fights were such a normal part of everyday life down there, it did not seem as bad as we thought it would, partly because there is so much more to the experience than just being there to see the birds fight. We were interested in observing our surroundings, and the deeper layers of this cultural phenomenon, than in just watching the fight itself.

Day 160 – This afternoon we were pulled over by the police. I just want to say that Acapulco is a big city, with a very crazy street system. Jason incorrectly pulled off the highway to exit by crossing the speedway. So many things seem loosely ruled in Mexico that we didn’t think it was illegal to do that. Though once the officer explained to us what we did wrong, we realized we shouldn’t do that again. He was very nice and even led us to the area we were trying to get to. We’ll just say that the ticket should have been 400 pesos, but he was nice enough to let us go with a tip for leading us to our destination.

We ended staying north of Acapulco at Pie de la Cuesta, next to Jesus’ casa on the beach. Jesus was a very nice man who runs a small restaurant out of his house on the beach and provides a place for campers to stay. Jason noticed that he had fighting roosters in his yard and mentioned that he wanted to see a cock fight. Jesus said in one hour they are going to one and we could come with him. It turned out that Jesus raises and trains the roosters, then sells them to the men who enter the roosters into the fights.

Palm trees and banana trees

more landscape — I love the trees

An hour later we were walking down the road with Jesus, Oscar, Freddy, and Bill. Oscar and Freddy are Jesus’s cronies and Bill was a traveler staying on Jesus’s land. We approached a tall concrete wall that had a big metal door for an entrance that trucks could have used. Inside was an open air arena with a tall cone shaped palapa covering most of the space. Under the center of the palapa is a ring especially made for cock fighting. A concrete arena stepped down into the ground to create stadium style seating around the ring. The roosters are kept in metal cages on the outside of the arena. We sat down near the cages and waited, not sure what to expect. There were about a hundred people sitting and standing around, eating ceviche with crackers and beer. Then four men and two roosters stepped into the middle of the ring, two men for each rooster, and they placed leashes on the roosters and walked them around the ring for all the spectators to see. Now the bets started and the men in the center of the ring walked over to a beautifully made wooden box. Pulling out a drawer from the box, the men picked out the proper blade for the fight. The blade is then secured onto the rooster’s leg with thread and tape. Once it is on they put a sheath over it to protect the handler and the rooster until the fight. The handler holds the rooster like a cat and strokes the head and wings to keep him calm. Next they bring in a third rooster to roust up the fighters and get them ready. The handlers bring the roosters to the center of the arena and after taking off the sheaths from the blades, they touch beaks and the fight begins. They fight so fast that it is hard to keep track of what is happening; with wings flying, legs kicking, and beaks pecking away. Later we learned the birds were given coca (not coca-cola) to increase their adrenaline to make for a better fight. The fight doesn’t last long, though it goes until one rooster completely dies, even if that means restarting the fight after they slow down. The winning handler receives 500 pesos and the loser receives nada. Sometimes even both birds died at the end, but the winner is the one who lasted the longest.

Day 159 – As we go further south, we have noticed two things: Mexico has a lot more video games than we thought, and there are now a lot fewer license plates from the states and Canada. At almost all the mini-mart type places there are at least two or three old-school arcade games with the simple joystick and button controls. That brings back childhood memories! The license plates we see now are mostly are from Canada, but there are a few from Texas.

sunset on Playa Azul

We are at Playa Azul, right on the boarder of the states Michoacan and Guerrero. It is a Mexican tourist town (for a change) and has lots of bathing suits and beach wear for sale on the streets; as many as you could ever dream of! It has a swimming beach with no waves and the water is pretty warm. Though there were a lot of pelicans on the water and a bunch of little fishies. 🙂

We had a few events happen this evening. First, some Spanish children hung around our van until they had enough courage to come over and ask Jason for some candy. The perfect level for us to try out our Spanish 🙂 After some general questions, to get to know each other, they asked if we had any pens. We said no to both questions and they got bored with us and left.

The second event happened late at night. We are parked next to a motor home that has been staying next to the town square last few nights, without any troubles, until now. Some guys in a truck decided to pull right up next to the motor home and after revving the engine, took off to do a 360 in the middle of the road. The guy in the motor home came out yelling at them as they sped away. So the motor home fellow decided to pick up a few rocks, (yeah, is that a good idea?) and waited outside to see if they were coming back. They came back in their beefed up red 4×4 truck and were asking the man what his problem was, in Spanish. The man yelled back at them, in French, and the guys in the truck started giving him crap for being so upset; neither of them fully understanding the other. The truck left again after the wife, from inside the motor home, yelled at her husband to come back inside. Five minutes later the truck came back with their music blasting and parked right next to the door of the motor home, turned off the car, and just sat in the bed of the truck listening to their bass-pumping Mexican country music, and drinking beer. Some buddies of theirs came to join them for awhile and neither of them left for about an hour, but they left peacefully. I think they got their point across.

I have to mention that two wandering horses came walking through the square at 3.00am. It was so random.

Day 157/158 – Tropical climate is our new environment now. Down near the ocean we have palm trees and green leafy trees all around us. Between the highway and the beaches are fields of five story tall coconut palms and under those grow a dense crop of banana trees. As we go up in elevation in order to go over the mountains the surroundings become drier, with a few cacti, pine trees, and rocky terrain. In changing just a few hundred feet of elevation our surroundings are quite different.

country side

Sayulita was our town for the night, and if Baja Sur was a gringo resort area, then this was a village from the states! It’s the place to go if you want a cool, hip town (reminded us of the East Village in New York) and are looking to lounge on the beach or go surfing with no worries. Not the place to go if you are looking to get away from the states and all of its normalities.

more country side

We are starting to spot some new creatures. A tarantula crossed the highway today, I think I squished him. He was big, hairy, and striped black and orange. I am glad we are not sleeping in a tent 🙂 Jason saw an iguana on the side of the road and I saw a really cool, long lizard. We’ve been seeing more horses saddled up with the full get up, with lasso and all! The Mexican cowboys tether their horses up to the trees in town.

We drove all the next day and only made it to Manzanillo – 277 km/172 mi – the road was all curves and hills. When we came close to Manzanillo there was a very long stretch of road construction which didn’t help either. We got into town and tried finding the two trailer parks that were in the guidebook, but we had no luck. We drove around for two hours and asked for directions but no one could help us. We finally saw a motor home parked on the side of the road by the beach and asked if we could park with them. They didn’t mind at all.

beach just north of Manzanillo

Day 156 – (J) We woke up refreshed and headed out to wander the streets of old town. We were in town well before all the shops and people had started to stir, so we had the city and streets to ourselves. After grabbing a quick bite to eat at the local market, we walked along the boardwalk that is adjacent to the Pacific Ocean.

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Below – Church in old town Above- old town streets

Along the walk Mexican teenagers had a spot where they would dive from a cliff, into what looked to be shallow waters near the coast. They did this in exchange for donations from the swarming gringos. They leaped from approximately 30 feet above the water and timed the landing to match the peak of the incoming waves. More then I would be willing to do for a few pesos!

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Get ready……………………………………… and dive!

From old town, the coast line

After about a 3 hour walk along the coast we went past the hotel that I had stayed at when I had come to Mazatlan for spring break, 9 years ago. This really brought back memories. I was only a kid back then and my only interests in Mazatlan where Cervasa and Tequila. I have a hard time remembering back on that week, and I am sure that it is due to my primary focus back then! The town had changed so much in the past decade. Many of the same hotels and shops where there, but it seemed that for every one that was there on my last visit, there where 3 new ones to match. Across the street from my old hotel was a new sports bar that had opened since my last visit. It was perfect timing! At 6:00 that evening, the USC vs. Texas national title game was on. So that is where we spent the rest of the night. I am normally not a die hard college football fan, but after 6 weeks of not watching sports, it was a great way to relax. After the game April and I took an open air cab back to our hotel in what might have been the world speed record for a chopped up VW Bug.

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Ode to the Taxi_________________ street art on the wall near our hotel, a well said statement

Day 155/156 – The next day, after playing fetch with Mara, an awesome dog :), we headed out along highway 15 libre (the free-way, instead of the toll way). If you have an extra hour or two and are trying to decide whether to take the toll way or freeway, take the freeway.

Lucy, Bernie, Mara, and Jason – with our vw’s

The road is in great condition and the scenery was spectacular, and it wasn’t that much slower. We were out in the middle of the country for most of the time, but went through a few main towns. The environment changed from the dry desertscape of Baja to a more lush desertscape. A lot more green brush and trees on the mountains and plains, along with cactus and rocks scattered around. We even went through a few fields and over a river or two, it felt a lot more like the northwest. The ride was very tranquil.

Landscape off highway 15 libre

Mazatlan; we stayed in Old Town where there are no big fancy hotels. It has the feel of a small European town. The hotel we stayed at was called La Lerma (located on 622 Simon Bolivar – phone 981-2436) right near the beach with secured parking. It is a really simple, but great hotel with a big courtyard where you can park your car. It has clean rooms with the basics; a bed, a bath, and a ceiling fan. Very recommended and affordable ~ costing us only 120 pesos a night.

La Lerma hotel – we highly recommend it.

Day 154 – On the road again!!! Wow, one month was pretty long in one small town, but the perfect amount for us. It was enough time to get a feel for the town and make a few friends, but not enough to start getting settled or too comfortable. We have heard a lot people come down to Baja as a stop on a trip down to Central or South America end up getting stuck in Baja. Personally, I don’t think Baja is a paradise that would trap me, but I enjoyed being there very much. It was a great stepping stone for the rest of our trip.

Landscape off the ferry from the port outside of La Paz

Our transportation to the mainland was the Baja ferry that travels to Topolobampo. The ride was long, but there were a lot of people to talk to, they play movies, and it’s a perfect setting for reading a book. The ticket includes a free cafeteria meal, which tastes a good as any cafeteria meal, though we missed out on the cake 🙁 it was served in the late evening. I think the highlight of our time on the ferry was watching a few schools of dolphins play chase with us and show off by doing flips and jumping out of the water really high; and also watching a Jim Carrey film in Spanish.

Those specks are dolphins jumping around

Getting ready for the ferry was no problem at all. We registered our car with the Banjercito to get our temporary visa. The process was very simple; all we had to do was supply copies of our registration, drivers licenses, passports, and tourist visas. They did the paper work and we paid $27usd on my visa card, then it was done. Customs was just fine, also. Everything went extremely smooth and couldn’t have been easier.

Ironically enough we met a couple from Washington State that had almost the exact same VW Van as us, just one year newer! They pulled up right behind us in line as we were waiting to get onto the ferry. Lucy and Berny were traveling down to visit a friend in Mexico – I can’t forget to mention Berny’s extremely cute dog Mara. We didn’t get off the ferry until around 10.00pm and caravanned with Lucy and Berny through the small highway that lead to Los Mochis and stayed at an RV park there.

Port of Topolobampo

Day 153 – HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

We went to the New Year’s celebration that we were invited to and met our friends at their friend Armin’s house. Armin built the house all on his own. He did a great job of creating a home that is one with the outdoors. We hung out there for a few hours chatting and snacking on delicious dips. Once the time was right, we headed over to where the real party was happening, at his neighbor’s ranch. It was a big fiesta with fireworks, food, and lots of music. We tried our Spanish out and carried out basic conversation with a little help from a friend 🙂 As the clock struck midnight everyone yelled Feliz Ano! and more fireworks went off and a big round of hugs and “Feliz Ano’s” went around. It was a great fiesta, similar to parties our families would have thrown. It made us feel right at home. We felt very honored to be welcomed to experience such a great celebration with a family that didn’t even know us. Thank you Armin and the Skott Family!

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Armin in his kitchen____________ The Skott Family and Armin

Resolutions. It is that time of year again to try and make promises to ourselves about bettering our lives, and then crossing our fingers that we will hold to them. Then a month later totally forget about them! I like to be realistic in my new year’s resolutions. So, I would say my new year’s resolution will not be to keep the blog up to date by posting every two/three days… since we all know that that is just a resolution to be broken, hee hee…. I think my first resolution is to learn Spanish, so that I am close to being fluent by the end of the year. Taking full immersion classes when we hit Guatemala will help us with that. And maybe another one is to send as many postcards out to people as we physically can. The only reason they have stopped this past month is because the postcards in Baja are 60 usd cents a card – and that is just a bit tooo expensive for us. So, no worries ~ our breakfast postcard writing ritual will start up again once we hit the mainland and can get better priced postcards. We haven’t forgotten about any of you! Everyone we have met on the road, all of our friends in NYC, and all of our family and friends in the Northwest ~ you are always on our minds!

Hope your new year brings the best to you and may it be better than the last year!