January 27 to 31, 2008

JAN. 27, Sunday, Last day in Bahia Conception

We had a marvellous time last night. There were 7 couples from our beach and a few from the beach nest door to us. The food was good and the dancing was plentiful. Val really had a good time. We came home around 9:30 p.m.

Our last day at Los Cocos beach. Up at 7:30 this morning. It is cloudy with sunny breaks. We went out for one last kayak trip around the point towards Play Santispac. Sea was calm and there are lots of birds floating in the water and on the rocky shore. We even saw an anhinga with its wings spread out to dry. Around the point we came upon a bunch of pelicans flying to the side of the cliffs and pecking at the underbrush then flying away to a distant island with little branches in their beak, going to built a nest, I suppose. It was really neat and interesting to watch them. The cliff was quite steep too. We continued on the another beach and grounded ourselves in the shallows. We stroked to a nearby island, went on shore to explore then headed back home.
Once home we had a shower and ate breakfast then read for a while and just hung around the beach chatting with all our neighbours. Had happy hour, supper then to bed by 9 p.m.


JAN. 28, Monday, Travel to San Ignace

Can you believe it, the sun came out and it is already 65*F by 8 a.m. Go figure!!!!!

Up at 7 a.m., packed, dumped and said goodbye to everyone. We were on the road by 9:30 a.m. stopped in Rosarito for a break and the sun finally broke through and made things a lot more enjoyable. We stopped at the Propane yard to fill one of our tanks then climbed the "hill from hell" slowly but surely and continued on to arrived in San Ignacio by 1 p.m. The drive into town was very pretty and picturesque with all the tall date palm trees with their leafs reaching over the road. (see pictures link) We noted two new RV parks which were not mentioned in our book and we arrived at our destination, "El Padrino RV park" near the town centre. Paid 140 pesos for one night with electricity and hardly any water pressure, set up and walked into town to take a look. It had a very nice town square, a very pretty Mission church, very old with stone slabs for flooring, and the main street was very quaint and very Mexican. A neat little village. We had lunch here at a street side cafe (love those).
Walked back to the camp and sat around and relaxed.

N 27* 17' 08" W 112* 54' 04"
Alt: 380 feet, distance today: 161 KM
Average speed 39 MPH with a max of 66 mph (going down hill)


JAN. 29, Tuesday, Onwards to Guerrero Negro

Yes blue sky and warm sunshine. We were on the road by 9:30 a.m. and headed NW on Mex 1. traffic was light, went through one military check point, ( we get check at everyone now as we are headed north) and stopped in Viscaino at a Bancomer for some pesos.
Arrived in Guerrero Negro by noon at our camp site, "Malarrimo motel and RV park", paid $40 for 2 nights and set up. We were the only one here but it didn't last as two caravans came in around 3 p.m. and a few single units. One guy almost hit me and so I had to help him back up his 5th wheel. It can be nerve wracking at times. The guy looked totally frazzled from his ride down here. Most of those alone are Canadians and the caravans are mainly Americans with a few Canadians among them. Our friends from Los Cocos, Russ and Joyce, came in around 4 p.m.
We went to the tourist office and paid 1050 pesos (approx $103 cdn) for the both of us to go on a whale watching tour. That includes lunch and about 3 hours of whale watching in a panga and a guide. Went over the bar to access the internet, downloaded our mail and uploaded some pictures.

For dinner, we (the four of us) went to the restaurant which was highly recommended by Russ and Joyce. It was very reasonably priced and we had a good time.

We averaged 47MPH coming here today with a max speed of 63 mph

N 27* 58' 05" W 114* 01' 50"
Alt: sea level
Distance today: 146 KM.
Fuelled in town 103.7 Litres plus filled the jerry can too.


JAN. 30, Wednesday, a free day to explore

Our whale tour, which was to be at 11 a.m., was cancelled due to the high winds and we re-scheduled it for tomorrow at 8 a.m.. It is also very cloudy so we went into town and got some groceries and cerveza, toured around and took a drive to a road we had seen coming in to the "OJO de LIEBRE" (Eye of the rabbit) That is the name of the Bay where the whales are. We drove through a salt field and arrived at the bay only to find everything closed. The bay looked shallow from this side and there were a lot of white caps out there. Came back to town and read. Had happy hour with Russ and Joyce and to bed by 9 p.m. as we have to get up early tomorrow.


JAN. 31, Thursday, Whale watching and move to Bahia de Los Angeles

Got up at 6 a.m., dressed warmly and headed out by 8:05 a.m. It is sunny and NO WINDS!!! Our guide, a cute little Mexican girl of 16 yrs of age gave us a narrative on the salt mine and the origin of the towns as we drove to the boats. Her name was Maria. we drove through the salt mine field and arrived at our destination on the dock where all the pangas were. Ours was named "TONINA" and our captain/guide was "JUAN". We went out in the Bay and almost immediately we began seeing whales breaching, breathing and just swimming along. The panga were very careful not to hinder the whales and were very respectful of their distance, never harassing them. We liked that. We saw dozens of them and lots of little babies. We even had one swimming under our boat but unfortunately, we never had any come close enough to touch them. It was really wonderful seeing them in their natural habitat. The day was warm and the seas were calm which allowed us to see them when they broke surface.

It was AWESOME and UNFORGETTABLE! I am so glad we went. It was worth every penny. On board were one couple from Germany, one couple from France and one couple from the U.S. We chummed up with the Americans, Steve and Gail and I had an interesting talk with the French people from Nice, France. We spent 2.5 hours out there in the Bay and on the way back, Juan gave us a tour of the shore line which was very sandy and hilly. We saw sea lions on a dock for the big barge that contained salt, awaiting to be taken offshore to the ships waiting on an offshore Island.

After returning to our site, we packed and left by 1 p.m. Drove south on MEX 1, stopped at the border between Baja Norte and Sur, were asked for our tourist cards, then drove on to Jesus Maria were I topped up: 19.65Liters. We continued on and soon there after the road began getting narrower. We arrived at the intersection with MEX 12, headed towards Bahia de Los Angeles without incidents. The road has been recently paved so it was smooth driving and the road was wider, a bonus. We drove through what looked like a dry lake bed and climbed to 2000 feet where we saw lots of cirios and what is known locally as "elephant tree"; a tree with a big white trunk and stocky and short. Quite interesting to look at. We arrived at the top of the hill and saw Bahia Los Angeles. What a sight!!!! Came down the hill, stopped a the Pemex at the town's edge to fuel: 50.97 litres then on to our campsite, "Daggett's RV and fishing Park". Here already are Russ and Joyce and also the people we met on the whale boat; Steve and Gail from Sonoma, California.
Parked and paid 300 pesos for three nights, no power nor water but there is a sewer outlet. I set up then we had happy hour with Russ and Joyce and invited Steve and Gail to come and join us.
We had a marvellous dinner made of crab cake (freshly bought locally) and went to bed happy and content around 9 p.m. after a nice dinner. We are here! What a wonderful and full day!
We put on 85 KM of touring mileage while in Guerrero

N28* 58'29" W 113* 32' 48"
Alt: sea level, Distance today 201 KM
Average speed of 42.6 MPH

Life is but a journey filled with adventures

January 23 to 26, 2008; Los Cocos beach

JAN. 23, Wednesday, cloudy

It rained overnight. Not much but enough to get everything wet and the road muddy. We got up at 8 a.m. to a sight to behold! The Bay had about 20 dolphins swimming near the shore and they were putting on a show. Gord got his boat out and offered us a ride so we went along. The dolphins were racing with us and the faster we went, the more they liked it. They would come right to the boat, turn sideway and look at us, then jump out of the water and splash us. It was WONDERFUL! We stayed out for about a half hour then came back in. Ron and Louise and Millie were out in the kayaks and we would go towards them so that the dolphins would swim near them.
WHAT A PHENOMENAL WAY TO START THE DAY!!!!!

Later in the day, Val and 7 others went for a walk. I had to go back to town. Got 340 pesos worth of fuel then came back home. I also ordered parts for the truck cover that I broke coming in here. It's free and they will send them to Phoenix. Came back to an empty camp....everyone is still out. Got the closet door fix that had come unhinged from all the jarring and bouncing I guess.

After a great dinner of camaron, rice and fresh broccoli, we went and joined the group for a campfire. Had lots of laugh and even sang some folklore songs. There is a young couple here from Israel and she sings and plays guitar and so does Ronald so it was fun. There were about 9 couples around the fire.


JAN. 24, Thursday,

Cloudy again today and it rained again overnight. Ronald and Louise left today for Loreto and so did Gord, his wife Gwan and Millie as Millie was taking a flight back to Ontario this morning. Gord and his wife will be back tomorrow and Ron and Louise will be back Sunday, maybe.
We went into town as there is not much to do at our site....it's cold and wet. We had lunch there and picked up ice, firewood and beer.
3:30 p.m. and the sun is trying hard to come out. Maybe we have seen the worst of it. Had dinner and read. We had pizza for dinner. A truck came by selling them so we bought one. We were in bed by 9 p.m.
A really weird and wonderful thing happened yesterday. As we were sitting in our palapa reading our book, I started reading the graffiti on the beams and came upon one that said " doe & fred foo, feb 14/04" it also had little Chinese characters. Now there is only one couple we knew who signed like that and that was our friends Doe and Fred who passed away last year. I sent an e-mail with a picture to Doe to confirm. This is just too weird!

JAN. 25, Friday,

Got up at 7 a.m., the sun is out so we decided to go kayaking before breakfast. Went out for about 2 hours than returned. There was a lot of red algae on the Bay and at times it was as thick as soup. We kayaked to an Island we can see from our site than over to three other beach front campsites and slowly made our way back to our site.
We had breakfast and stuck around home for the rest of the day. Everyone else is gone to town. A new couple arrived today and parked beside us. They were apparently here before. It is cloudy with sunny breaks and the day is cooling off as it wears on. Val bought a new carpet from the Mexicans for 700 pesos. She felt in love with the fishes on it, all different colors. We had fresh trigger fish for dinner that we bought from beach vendors. It was delicious. It is a very tasty and tender fish with white meat.
Had happy hours with our new neighbours and 2 other couple came over to join in. Gord and Gwan are back so they also joined in.
We went to bed by 9 p.m. after sitting under our palapa and watched the algae turn the water into a sparkling display of blue color. The shore has a continuous blue line that looks just like those string of miniature lights. It's very beautiful. I have to try to take a picture.


JAN. 26, Saturday

Wash day! Truck, clothes and us. still cloudy but the sun does peak through once in a while.

I am at the internet place so will post this. Plans for the day are to go kayaking this afternoon then dancing tonight at the Bay next to us. Should be fun. Filled the water tank and charged the batteries ( I am borrowing my neighbour's generator) Pretty generous of him but goes to show the camaderie at this site.

Life is but a journey filled with adventures

January 19 to 22, 2008; Bahia Concepcion

JAN. 19, Saturday, sunny

Left Villa Serena at 09;03a.m. after saying our goodbyes to everyone. It was a bad time to leave because as we got on the highway, we were caught in a major traffic jam. Unbeknown to us, there was a fund-raising run happening which snagged the traffic. It took us an hour to go approx. 8 miles to the turn off to Hwy 19. But we made it and got going north, past Todos Santos and onwards to LaPaz. The highway was easy to drive, much better than coming down on Mex 1 through San Jose. We had rolling hills for a while then a fairly straight and wide highway.
Once at the junction of Mex 1 and 19, we drove on 4 lanes highway to LaPaz, by-passed the town (which we found on our previous stay) and headed northwest to Ciudad Constitucion (Mexican spelling). We stopped for lunch just outside of LaPaz around 1 p.m. and for diesel ( 52.72Liters @.569)
The drive was uneventful, I guess I am feeling a bit more easy having driven it before but this is the good part of the whole highway.
We arrived at our campsite, Manfred's RV Park, in Ciudad Constitucion, around 4 p.m. (we made a few stops along the way) and paid $40 u.s. for two nights. After setting up, we walked to the onsite restaurant and had a couple of cerveza and dinner which was delicious: a chicken cooked in mushroom, rice and some vegys.
Went to bed around 10 p.m.

N 25* 02" 57" W 111* 40' 47"
Alt: 201 feet
distance today: 376 km
As a side note, we drove a grand total of 962 km while in Cabo


JAN 20, Sunday, sunny

Got up around 7 a.m. and it was cold, very cold. I don't think it went over 40*F overnight. Got the furnace going and read for a couple of hours and had breakfast. Showered in the park's showers which had very little pressure and then we left to explore the area. I fuelled 60.81 litres, then headed to Ciudad Insurgent(approx 25 km) then turned west to Puerto Lopez Mateos (approx 28 km) The road was paved and very flat. We hit some rolling hills near the ocean then arrived at the village. We drove through town which was very clean and quaint and parked in this huge parking lot after paying 10 pesos ( $1 ). We walked around and found out that they wanted $160. u.s. each for 2 hours for whale watching. We talked to a couple who claimed they only saw one whale so we didn't go. We walked around, in a balmy 70*F, and looked at all the trinkets. Val bought one little ankle bracelet. We had lunch at a onsite side bar and had an excellent seafood combo consisting of langosta(lobster), cameron(shrimp) and pescador(fish), rice, tomatoes and the famous mais tortilla. A family sat with us but didn't speak any English. Val managed to chat with them and I gave the young girl a pen and the young boy a Frisbee with the Canadian flag on them. They appeared to be very pleased. They stood up, came over to my seat and as I was standing, the little girl pulled on my jacket until I bent over and she gave me a hug; the boy gave me a shy handshake and we all had a good laugh.
We left there and drove back to Ciudad Constitucion then took another paved highway and headed back to the coast to Puerto San Carlos. This little village was further from the city and also further south along the Bay of Magdalena. It was not as pretty as Lopez Mateos and after driving around the whole place and stopping to watch people clamming, we came back to our site. We stopped at the "Ley" for some milk and vegetables.
It was a wonderful day and tomorrow we move on to "Bahia Concepcion"
We had meatballs for dinner, one of my favourite meal.

Distance touring: 253Km


JAN 21, Monday, sunny

Another cold night but a sunny day. We left @ 9:17a.m. and slowly made our way to "Bahia Concepcion". The drive through the Gigante Mountains was gorgeous as expected and I was able to enjoy it a bit more this time. As we descended, the Sea of Cortez came into view and Val really got excited with the picture taking. She is looking forward being on the beach.
We stopped for lunch just north of Loreto in a small road side restaurant (closed) then carried on north.

We arrived at Los Cocos beach on the "Bahia Concepcion" around 2:30 p.m. and Ronald, Louise, Gord and Lee met us with open arms. It was a really tight turn from the highway to come in here and I broke a snap on my box cover so will have toorder a new one. We parked, set up and now it's time to enjoy this beautiful place. A mexican came around to collect the campees @ $6.per night. We paid for 5 for now. Also had mexicans come around trying to sell us trinkets, vegetable and water (non-drinkable)
We had happy hour with everyone on the beach, met a whole bunch of new campers, had dinner and went to bed around 9 p.m., tired and happy to be here.

N 26* 44' 34"
W 111* 54' 03"
Alt: sea level
Distance today: 255 km.


JAN. 22, Tuesday, cloudy

We got up to a cloudy day and it stayed like that all. Quite cool too. Never went above 70*
We went into town today as I needed to check my e-mail, my banking and we also needed some groceries. Ronald and Louise also drove in as they had to fill their truck/camper with drinking water. We all had lunch in town together and had to put jackets on as the wind picked up and it got cooler. On the way back, I fuelled: 340 pesos for 59 L
Came back to our site (20 km away) and sat around and BS with the crew. After dinner, we had a big camp fire on the beach and told jokes. These are a good bunch of people to be around. Gord has offered us the use of his power plant to charge up our batteries which is really nice of him. We are conserving our batteries by not using the furnace and only turning on lights that we need.
Anyway, we had a nice evening and got to bed around 10 p.m. We felt some rain drop earlier on in the evening but nothing serious.


Life is but a journey filled with adventures

January 11 to 18, our last entry from Los Cabo

JAN. 11, Friday, sunny and windy

Not as warm as it has been but who is complaining!? Went to the beach in the afternoon in Chileno Beach. It is a nice public beach and it wasn't too busy. I tried snorkeling while there and liked it. There were all kinds of little fish swimming by, of all different colors. I guess we will be getting me one set too which made Val happy as we can now both go together.
Came home around 4 p.m. to find that we have a new neighbour and 3 other rigs came in, all from B.C. Makes you wonder if anyone is left there. The new people have two very yappy dogs so I hope it doesn't become an issue


JAN. 12, Saturday, sunny

After Val did her exercises (she now has 3 ladies showing up), we went to San Jose for more sightseeing and shopping.
We found the RV store so I bought a new sewer hose. We went for lunch @ "S"hooter then we walked the old town.
Came home around 4 p.m. and happy hour with George and Ellen.
It's windy this evening and much cooler than usual.

Took on fuel in San Jose: 440 Pesos for 77.328 Liter


JAN. 13, Sunday

Stayed home and relaxed. Windy but sunny


JAN. 14, Monday, cloudy

It looked like it was going to rain but it didn't. Went to town and got propane for the BBQ tank. Had to drive approx 10 km outside of town. A few years back there was a big explosion so they forced the propane company to move out of town. There is no delivery at our site.
We went out for dinner with George and Ellen at a fancy restaurant on the beach. They won a $100 dollars certificate and shared it with us. We watched a couple of cruise ships leave the harbour, had a good dinner, lots of laughs then came home.


JAN. 15, Tuesday, cloudy again

We drove to San Lucas and walked the pier. We got hooked up by a salesman wanting us to attend a session on timeshare so we accepted and after listening to the spiel which wasn't too bad, we got $200 u.s. cash which was fine by us.
Came home, had the water guy bring us 12, 5 gallons water jug and pour it into our water tank. He poured the water into our tank by using a funnel. The total came to 204 pesos (20$) and I gave him a 3$ tip which brought a smile to his face as wide as his head. Pretty cheap for all that labour. We had happy hour with our neighbours


JAN. 16, Wednesday, sunny and cool

It only got to the lower 70's and I know you in the north won't feel sorry for us but once one gets acclimatised to the temperature here, a 10* drop is quite noticeable.
Anyway, we went to San Lucas again and had another session for another $200. This time we were sent to an all inclusive resort which turned out to be very nice but again we said "NO" and after getting our money, we came back to town where we saw one of our neighbour, Tony having a drink so we joined him.

We made $400 in two days so that paid for our month's rent here. We stopped for milk, wine and beer on the way home.


JAN. 17, Thursday, sunny and windy

We had quite a wind storm overnight but all is fine. We went for last minute grocerie shopping, had lunch in town the came home. The wind picked up again in the afternoon so had to put the awning up.
At 6 p.m., George and Ellen and we went to the "Roadhouse" pub and had dinner and watched the entertainment. We even had a couple of dances then came home by 10:30 p.m. We had fun and the place was packed. That Peter, our piano/singer, was very good again and made the crowd get involved.


JAN. 18, Friday, sunny

Our last day here!!! Val did a laundry load and vacuummed and I cleaned and loaded all our toys and paraphilia outside. Neighbours dropped by to say good-bye and the day slowly went by. The wind picked up again later in the afternoon and dark clouds came over.

For dinner, Val cooked Camaron (shrimp) and salad. Delicious. We had George and Ellen over for a glass of that special tequila we bought a while back.

This past month, we travelled 972 KM.

January 6 to 10, 2008

JAN. 6, Sunday,


Hottest day yet! Got up to 85*F (26*C). We stuck around the site today, read and relaxed. There was no wind and it was muggy.

We don't like moving on the road on week-ends as the roads are too busy with crazy driving Mexican and gringos.


JAN. 7, Monday,

Nothing to report again. Another quiet day at home. I had a lousy night so I slept most of the day. Very restless and don't know why.






JAN. 8, Tuesday, fishing day



We got up at 5 a.m. and were on the road by 5:45 a.m. It is still dark. George and Ellen, our neighbors, came with us and we met Mike, our skipper, at the marina. We loaded our gears in the boat and I parked the truck on a side street. We left the marina as the sun was coming over the horizon. It was a zoo at the exit. A traffic jam. Dozens of boats converging on the narrow exit to the bay. Practically all the boats stopped at the exit to buy mackarell (bait fish) from the mexicans waiting in their boats. It was a nightmarish experience but we made it out unscathed.

We headed south then northwest into the Pacific ocean along the coast. The swells were about 6 feet high and the sea was a bit rough with all the boats surrounding us and creating waves after waves. Actually, George got sick at one point and never recovered. Ellen was a bit queasy too. We had dropped a couple of lines and were dragging them behind when the tuna bit and hooked itself. I grabbed the line and started reeling it in. It gave me a good fight but I finally landed him and we had ourselves our first fish. It was a thrill of a lifetime and I was smiling ear to ear.

George was not getting better so it was decided to turn around and head for the Gulf of California (sea of Cortez). The water there was a bit calmer and the swells only about 3-4 feet high but George was too far gone and decided that he wanted to go back. We dropped them off at the dock, fuelled and headed out again. We went north and east. We trolled along with 4 lines out. We came upon a pool of dolphins and criss-crossed them looking for a bite ( not them) but to no avail. About an hour later we spotted a fin of a marlin or sword fish but he went away.

By this time, it was time to head back so we headed for shore and followed it back to San Lucas. We had two bites but didn't catch them. Then I reeled in a small silver sierra. They are delicious to eat and one of the best fish I have ever tasted.

We arrived back at our site at 5:30 p.m., a very, very long day but a successful one. I filletted the two fish and gave half to George and Ellen. Mike, our skipper, didn't want any.

BEST DAY YET!


JAN. 9, Wednesday

After yesterday, today was borrrrring! It was windy and cloudy. A good day to finish off washing the rig. Mike's son arrived today form Oregon so he picked him up at the airport in San Jose.
We had the fish for dinner. YUM! YUMMMMM! Delicious!


JAN. 10, Thurday

Sunny but windy again. A good day to finish off the chores so vacuumed and washed the inside of the truck. Also washed the rear box and all the equipment in it. Everything was very dusty.
Spent the rest of the day reading and relaxing.

CHECK OUT THE NEW PICTURES!!!!

January 1 to 5, 2008

JANUARY 1, 2008, Tuesday,

HAPPY NEW-YEAR EVERYONE!!! WOW, another year gone by! A new one starting! A quiet day at home. Read and snoozed as I was a bit hung-over. We had a very nice evening last night and I think I had one too many margeritas. 2 new campers came in today. Val cooked an excellent dinner in the evening....Ham cooked in molasse and beer, mash potatoes, vegetables and a salad. Alll fit for a king! It was delicious.
It was cloudy and windy but still very comfortable.


JAN. 2, Wednesday, sunny and warm

Val did her laundry today and then we went to the beach at Bahia Santa Maria. Lots of people there today and the bay was full of yatch and a couple of huge catamaran. I had bought a snorkel kit and Val went out and tried it. She said she saw lots of little colorful fishes. We had fun and didn't get burned by the sun. Came home afterwards and had happy hour with our neighbor.
Called Rochelle in the evening as it is her birthday today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIDDO! Also called Jeff.


JAN. 3, Thursday, sunny

Called A.O.R. in the morning and had them change our dates in Indio and Pilot Knob for February. Then I called Fleetwood and after a somewhat tense conversation, it was finally agreed that I was owed the money missing and that a cheque would be mailed before the end of the month. Finally a conclusion to this mess.

We went to San Jose in the afternoon. We walked the old town and found this little store that had all kinds of tequila. We sampled a few and bought a bottle that had a taste like a cognac. DELICIOUS!!!

When we got home, we met Helen, our neighbour George's wife, who arrived today from Vancouver by plane.


JAN. 4, Friday, cloudy and very humid

We got an e-mail today from friends we had met back in South Carolina in 2006 on our trip around the southern U.S. They are in Los Cabos and suggested we meet this evening.

We went for a bike ride in the afternoon and called the number they gave us and made arrangement to meet at bar called "Roadhouse Pub", a local bar near where we live. We met Jim and Vicky at 7 p.m. and we had a marvellous evening. They came out with 2 other couples, Robert and Karen & Randy and Jan, marvellous fun loving people. There was entertainment by a guy from Canada who was really good. We also rubbed elbow with two starlets, one called "Fergy" a young female singer who, according to Val is very popular with young people and also a movie star by the name of Josh Duhamel whom I have never heard of but Val claims has made numerous recent movies.
Unfortunately the bar closed at 10 p.m. because of where it was situated so we said our good-byes to Jim and Vicky and came home. We had a really good time and it was great seeing those two again.


JAN. 5, Saturday, sunny

A quiet day at home. Read and stuck around our site. Very hot today, the hottest day yet. Checked the web site and read that it is only 59*F in Palm Spring and raining. Just another in paradise.