November 4, 2010

Arrived in San Felipe around 3:00 this afternoon. It was a long drive, 1150 miles (1850 km) from Cabo San Lucas to San Felipe. We encountered a lot of construction along the way and at least 10 Military check points. We were very happy and relieved to get here. In the next day or so we'll go to town and see about a place to park the motorhome.

November 3, 2010

Travel day number two. Left Loreto early this morning. Had to wait for daylight because we only have one headlight. Around noon we got to Gro. Negro. We were thinking of stopping for lunch, but we had a little more than 1/2 a tank of gas and decided to eat when we fueled at the next Pemex. They have gas stations all over the place...We drove for HOURS!! We were beginning to wonder if we'd find a place. We literally were running on fumes when we came up to a little town called Catavina that had a gas pump sign, but as we pulled into town we noticed that the gas pump was closed down!! (and had been for six years) Now what??

We were counting our blessings when we seen this....... Can you imagine? Gotta wonder if Mexico is progressing or regressing...... good business for this entrepreneur.

Anyway, we bought 5 gallons, which got us to our evening rest stop El Rosario. Nice motel. All renovated, king beds and HBO in english!

November 2, 2010

We're back in Loreto, as of today, and staying for one night at SuKasa as we did on our way down. Tomorrow we leave (early) for San Felipe, planning on staying the night in El Rosario then we'll be in San Felipe on Thursday. Looking forward to being 'home' in our motorhome.

We left Cabo San Lucas on Saturday morning after doing 'the loop' heading back north the 1500 or so km to San Felipe when ....everybody's nightmare - we had a auto accident! It all happened so fast that even sitting here today thinking about it, we can't figure out exactly how it happened the way it did. We ended up spending another 3 days in Cabo San Lucas waiting to see about the car. (pictures of the hotel courtyard)

The mechanic that the adjuster recommended must has been on his payroll because they weren't interested in just getting us back on the road, they wanted to fix it all - - so we took the car to a radiator guy and he 'fixed' it Mexican style. But it runs and it's not overheating and we're 'taking it easy' and heading 'home'....

Anyway, here's my account: we were following behind two tractor-trailers and a car. When the second truck pulled out to pass the first truck Michel thought this would be a safe time to do the same - only we're passing a car and a tractor-trailer. Still - - lots of time and a long stretch of road. BUT - the car in front decides to pull out as we come up beside it - he's running us off the road! Michel swerved left a little, but as you know there are no shoulders on the Mexican roads, and our drivers' side tires catch the dirt and pull. So Michel steers right - first instinct is to stay on the road. In the mean time the truck in front of us slows down, and we swerve right and hit his back trailer wheel head on. WOW ! Stopped us dead!! The other car, luckily veers left and goes off the road. No one was hurt, and the only vehicle with any damage is ours (lucky us - we've heard some horror stories about Mexicans suing and people losing everything) But we were also blessed, the driver of the other car was a good Christian travelling with his wife and two little girls - he felt so bad for his part in this accident that he wanted to help 'pay' . We ended up taking his $200.00 because he wouldn't take no for an answer. Anyway the story is long enough already, so I'll end by saying that the accident happened around 10 am and it was 3 pm by the time the tow truck arrived to take us back to Cabo San Lucas. What a long day!!

Here are a couple of pictures of the car.

October 29, 2010 - Cabo San Lucas

We drove the coastal route through the National Park of Cabo Pulmo enroute to Cabo San Lucas. It was a 50 km drive and it took us about 2 1/2 hours. That will give you an indication to the type of road we were driving on. . . dirt all the way, washboard, deep crevices... But we arrived safe and sound into Cabo San Lucas about 5:00 p.m. and a tourist info. booth directed us to stay at the Sante Fe Hotel - fairly new, clean and economical. We were both quite tired so we stayed in, showered then just relaxed, had a drink and ate junk food.....

Here are a few pictures of the hotel.

October 29, 2010 - Cabo Pulmo

What we had planned to be our final destination for today turned out to be just one more stop. Cabo Pulmo is a National Park boasting of the only coral reef on the Baja. If you double click this picture you should get a little information on Cabo Pulmo.






The beach was beautiful and of course the weather was HOT.

Michel did a little snorkelling. Here is a picture of him coming out of the water. He was stung by a large jelly fish, so that ended his snorkelling for the day. The sting went across his neck, across his back in a 'Z' formation, then around to his belly. He said it stung like someone had poured acid on his skin......

October 29, 2010 Los Barriles

Lunch on the beach at Los Barriles. We found some shade under a palapa then walked along the beach for awhile.

October 29, 2010 Cactus Sanctuary

We left La Paz this morning and stopped along the way to visit the Cactus Sanctuary, which was about a half hour south of La Paz.








When we got there it was closed, but we wandered around the perimeter for awhile and in a while someone showed up and let us in thru the side gate.














There were many species of of cactus - too many to picture, but here is a common one - the Barrel Cactus



















Michel amid some of the huge cactus.














Myself amid the Pipe Organ Cactus