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Jan. 2 – Mexico

Friday, January 6th, 2006

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

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Dec. 22/23 – Mexico, Baja

Sunday, January 1st, 2006

Day 143/144 – This morning Jason and I got up at dawn to watch the big waves roll in. Today a big swell is coming down the coast and creating big waves. It was impressive to see, though not as big as they were saying. As we watched from the ridge we only saw three or four surfers go out to try and to surf them. After they rode one wave in that was it, no one else made it out into the ocean until the waves lessened later in the morning. The waves kept pushing anyone who tried back to shore no matter how hard they paddled. We packed up the van after being graced by the presence of huge waves and headed toward our destination – Cabo Pulmo.


Crashing waves…. somehow we lost a bunch of photos of the big waves, so this is the only one I have to post – bummer.


Oscar lounging at his truck.


Raphael and us on the ridge.


All of us at the van 🙂

First we had to stop in La Paz and get our front shocks replaced. The dirt roads took the last bit of cushion out of them. Back to our favorite VW shop, Geraldo’s VW (2145 Madero Calle – 612.125.0056) who even uses email to set up appointments! After they looked at the shocks they told us that we cracked the torsion bar in the front. Oh, that is what that noise was the other day…. we thought it was just the shocks.. oops. Glad we took it in! So, that took longer to fix and we stayed the night at the beach near the ferry terminal.


Geraldo’s VW repair shop. The best place in La Paz!


La Paz boardwalk – Taken by Peter


Eating some yummy cookies on the boardwalk at La Paz. – Taken by Peter


Sunset at El Tecolote beach outside of La Paz. – Taken by Peter.

Got up next morning, enjoying our new front end with loads of cushion! The guys went fishing and afterwards we headed into town to do our shopping and get ready for the town of Cabo Pulmo, because they don’t have much there. After shopping at a crazy packed grocery store (it was the day before Christmas eve), we went to a store similar to Costco called City Club. They gave us a day pass to go look around and find our necessary items, including our snorkeling gear. Finally, we headed off to Cabo Pulmo, but had to stop an hour and a half earlier than our destination, due to night falling upon us. The last six or so miles to Cabo Pulmo is a dirt road, not something we wanted to drive on at night, so we camped at Los Barriles. We stayed at a nice RV park called Martin Verdugo’s Beach Resort (http://www.verdugosbeachresort.com) right on the water. We got a campsite, clean bathrooms and clean showers for $120 pesos. A great place to stay!


Pelicans having their morning tea – Taken by Peter


Jason fishing at the beach – Taken by Peter


Public market in La Paz – Taken by Peter


Downtown La Paz

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