backtracking a little...

Pre-trip

On Friday I had two days to get my bills together, do my taxes, move all my belongings out of my room and into storage and put all this

into this

and put this

on this


I didn’t make it. I decided it was better to get an early start on Monday than a late, late start on Sunday and stay in California two nights. So we did just that. The drive was gorgeous, wildflowers everywhere

We grabbed some food and headed to San Clemente State Beach for the night. Jeff found this sign and, seriously, who ARE THESE PEOPLE THAT NEED THIS SIGN??? Ack!


Crossing the border was a breeze, and thank goodness, I wasn’t looking forward to explaining the hundreds of feet of fencing material and PVC, let alone the gallons of formalin I just picked up in San Diego for Brad. And we even got waved through all the military checkpoints which almost never happens when I have a giant van full of stuff coming through. The military never cares about the biology stuff, in fact they often ask me lots of questions about what I do, they’re just looking for guns or drugs, which I keep well hidden behind the formalin…

The second night we camped in Cataviña and woke up to this


Another day of driving from Cataviña to Guerrero Negro where we crossed the state border between Baja norte and Baja sur and also had awesome tacos. After Guerrero Negro you cross over the desert to the Gulf of California side and your first look of the Gulf is at Santa Rosalia.


My favorite part of the drive is along Bahia Concepcion. *sigh* so gorgeous.


The first night in Loreto we camped at Playa Ligui where our alarm clock was the panga fishermen getting their boats ready.

The next couple of days we camped at Juncalito

which was guarded by a vicious dog.

Actually, this poor dog broke my heart (well, they all do in Mexico, but this one in particular) because apparently he was abandoned by his owners after Semana Santa. I was so glad that the beginning of the trip this year didn’t coincide with Semana Santa because it gets crazy. Tons of cars on that tiny highway, the beaches are covered with people and trash and then they leave and left behind is tons of trash and this poor little guy. One of the permanent residents of Juncalito walked over to our campsite and said that the dog’s owners were camped here and then left her. He said he’s been trying to catch her but can’t. I had already put out a water bowl for her and was giving her leftovers, and just felt awful I couldn’t take her but we didn’t have a home yet either and I don’t know where she’d fit in the van. I felt even worse the next day when we left because she had slept at the corner of the tarp by my feet all night.

After 3 days of travel and 3 days of camping Jeff had the most awesome hair.

And after seeing this picture and thinking, hmmm, that’s what I always imagined Puck looked like, I don’t think you would be very far off…

We decided we were so over camping because of all the packing and unpacking plus I was already a bit nervous with all my equipment and not wanting to leave it unattended and Jeff being a bit bored guarding equipment while I went around and ran errands and looked for a house. I know he probably thought I was a ninny about guarding the stuff, but I knew what I was talking about, plus if we lost any of the equipment (boat, motor…) the trip would pretty much be over since I don’t have the cash to buy more or to pay for a charter everyday. I felt redeemed when another resident came over and told us to be careful because in the last couple of weeks some camps and permanent residents have been getting ripped off. He said that one guy even got his motor stolen off his panga. The people came in at night on a panga and loaded this guy’s motor in it and took off. I stuck my tongue out at Jeff but DIDN’T say “neener neener” because I’m very mature.

The other day we found a place that had a yard to park the van and boat in and a locked gate, but no kitchen. I decided that if we couldn’t find a cheap place to park and with a kitchen we would go back to that place for a week and just make do. So that’s where we are now, San Bruno Motel. It’s a very nice room and the owners are very nice. I’m sure when they saw all the stuff we were unpacking they cringed a little but I feel better having a secure place to lock up our stuff and we could bathe, and get some work done. If I can’t find a place soon, I may just keep this room to keep all our stuff in while we’re camping on Carmen.