‘Finally, flip-flops!’
'How’s it feel?’
‘Fabulous.'

We left Salida a few days after a storm had dumped over a foot of snow in town. Old Man Winter was nipping at our heels. We thought, ‘It will get warmer as we head through the Utah desert, into California and we’ll be downright hot by the time we hit Southern California’.

The days in the desert were warm and pleasant. The nights were more than chilly. Several mornings we woke to find a bit of ice formed on Chet’s water bowl, and one morning her bowl was frozen solid. Yeah, Brrrrrrr.

We did get one day of shorts-weather around Las Vegas but by the time we hit Los Osos it was chilly again. Pleasant, but by no means hot. News of another Colorado snowstorm had the locals commenting on how much we must like their ‘winter’ compared to the cold and snow at home. We thought it was still pretty cold, especially at night.

Southern Cal was clearly warmer but the nights on the ocean were still chilly. As a testament to good marketing, Uggs are quite popular in Southern California. In a place you should never need to wear winter boots, many hipsters were sporting them, often paired with Daisy Dukes. Winter, indeed.

On into Baja….warm, pleasant days but, yes, still chilly nights.

I’ve been known to say, ‘I love a hoody.’ These words seem to have caught up with me, as we have worn our hoodies nearly every day since we left home.

For me, the hoody-lover, it was a tough decision: which hoody to bring. For a time, two were in the pile of clothes making the trip. But one got cut as our departure date neared and the reality of limited space set in.

For Mike, not a hoody-lover, the decision was more about whether to bring one or not. My ‘C’mon, don’t you love to pull on a hoody at the end of the day as the sun sets and the night gets chilly?’ had less to do with him bringing one than the fact that he had one on as we drove away from Salida

My Wild Women friends will know which hoody made the trip; it’s made almost every one of our outings in the last few years. I seriously doubt it will last our entire trip, so well-worn it is. Mike’s is a burly Carhart emblazoned with the DSI logo. It’s the only hoody I’ve ever known him to have, or wear.

Glad as we have been to snuggle into them as the temperatures drop, we were happier yet to put them aside and move into flip-flop weather. We crossed the Baja peninsula a couple of days ago, from Pacific Coast to Sea of Cortez, and upon arriving at Bahia de Los Angelos we instantly noticed the temperature difference. We were giddy. We reveled in the warmth. We shed layers. We put on sunscreen. We dug out our hats.

Only to wake this morning to a killer wind and white caps in the bay. Reluctantly, we reached for our hoodies…this is more weather than we’ve seen so far.

So, where have we been?


We crossed the border in Tecate, a sleepy border town east of Tijuana. It was a non-event as we were not even stopped, but just waived through by the border guard.

After about 5 miles we realized that we needed to get tourist cards and should have done so at the border. We turned around and went back to fill out the necessary paperwork.

Our goal for night-one in Mexico was El Rosario, recommended by some frequent Baja travelers as far enough south to be beyond the fray of Tijuana and Ensenada. We drove and drove and drove and decided to stop in Lazaro Cardenas, a town north of El Rosario by about 40-minutes. It was getting late in the afternoon and one of our cardinal rules is to be in camp before sundown. (It’s the cardinal rule most difficult to obey.)

The next day we headed to El Rosario after spending way too much time chasing errands in Lazaro Cardenas. Those who have traveled know that to-do’s take twice as long as expected.

An example of this is the tourist cards we obtained at the border. We got the cards at the border, but the customs officer there does not collect the $20 that must be paid to make the card valid. That must be done at a bank. The banks were closed as it was Sunday, so Monday that was on our list of to-do’s. Find the bank, wait in one line, be sent to another line, be sent back to the first line; the process took a lot of patience and over an hour of time. Finally, mission accomplished, on to the mercado.

After our to-do’s were done we headed to El Rosario. We spent a night in a remote spot on Bahia Rosario high on a cliff above the sea. It was not what we had expected and was a bit more remote than we anticipated.

The Burly Beast (our new most-favorite-name for the Westy) is in the left background.

Badly needing a few days of chill time, we headed back to Lazaro Cardenas and stayed at a place right on the ocean. Beautiful days spent fishing and walking on the beach and just generally unwinding.

Then we spent a long day crossing the peninsula through the Valle de los Cirios to Bahia de Los Angelos. Set up camp for another few nights at Punta la Gringa that has just the right amount of remote and secure.

Tomorrow we’ll break camp and head south to Guerrero Negro. Again, take some time to handle some to-do’s---internet, phone, provisions and laundry. And then head south again.


Posting on the blog is a challenge as I’ll have to compose on my computer, save it and some pictures on a thumb drive and then hope to be able to post the whole thing at an internet café. This post I am able to do from my own computer, the next will be a new experience. Stick with me as I sort out the process.

Best,

Trish


P/S People pictures. Yes, I know. We’ll work on it. Like Osama Bin Laden videos, I think my family wants to analyze the pictures to see if they’re real, determine when and where they were taken and confirm I’m alive.