scudding across the sky in ever darkening clusters, so I quickly
signed online and saw that the weather further south was doing better
and that it would be about another week before the area around
Guerrero Negro warmed up. So we changed our plans, passing up the
lagoon and whales for now, passing by Bahia Asuncion - but only for
now. We tootled down the Mex 1 again - well, thats the only road
around here that gets one south and north and everywhere else, passed
by another place we are going to stop at on the way back, San Ignacio
where we will do yet another whale trip. It looks lovely there with
forests of palm trees right at the rv park.
I decided again today, about 50 different times, that I was not going
to worry about the narrow-ness of the road, but had to share this way
of looking at it. On one of the Baja-boards I read someone referred
to passing these humongeous trucks on a tiny road as "threading the
needle", especially when the other driver does not stay on his side of
the road. Hopefully we will keep getting it right each and every
time! It really does get to be a tight squeeze at times..........
nuff said. Again.
For a good long way while crossing over to the east side of the Baja
Peninsula today, there was really nothing to see. No cactus, no hills
nearby, no.........well, nothing but the ribbon of a road winding its
way across the landscape. And then suddenly all the cactus appear
again - many of them looking like people with their hands thrust high
up into the air in protest or surrender of something or other. The
ground has a growth over many places that is red/purple and gives the
whole area an almost surreal glow - we must find a place to pull over
and see what this is. We also got into the hills that look like
volcanoes - I know one or two of them definitely are and the obvious
signs of a long-ago eruption lay everywhere in the form of rocks that
were piled up everywhere with no growth on them yet. It's totally
fascinating how the countryside changes literally minute by minute at
times.
There are tiny little shrines built up all along the way on the sides
of the road and we presume these are for people who have died in car
accidents along the way. Boy are there way too many! Anyway, some of
them are very elaborate - with doors, bars, windows and some even look
like tiny replica's of little towns. Very interesting and they are
very beautiful too.
The trash barrels are painted a lovely green and dotted all along the
highway.......... each and every one of them are empty with the ground
for miles around littered with an incredible amount of trash. But the
idea is there. Hopefully it catches on sometime soon. And then in
the middle of nowhere, on a blind corner we came up on a trio of
roadside workers who were cutting the.....well, there is no grass as
such so I can only say they were cutting the straw like weeds that
were growing close to the road. They were cutting them with 'pangas'
- which are huge knives, swinging away earnestly. I had to wonder
about this. On no level at all did it make sense for them to be way
out there, and then doing this all by hand with huge knives?? They
had official badges on their clothes and on the vehicle too and were
really earnestly involved in what they were doing......
We went through yet another military checkpoint this morning and find
the guys very interested in where we come from and wanting to see the
inside of the rv. They do not scratch around, do not pry and do not
have an attitude at all. They are very friendly and the one who came
in today was looking at the photos I have up on my board in the back
room of the rv and chuckling...... there are pics of many of you and
my kids, mom, sister and grandkids.....and some other odd ones. They
totally melted when I dangled Allie out of the window and got this
humongeous smile that just stayed and they kept repeating 'cute!
cute!'. Yes they have guns, and yes when we first pull up they look
very intimidating, but we have not had any problem at all at any of
the checkpoints..
And so we drove on along this road that was now lined with little
purple and yellow and white flowers for a good long way before coming
up on the next little settlement that looks like another long
forgotten town, but that a good few people still live in. I tell you
that seeing these places makes me so incredibly grateful that I was
not born in one of those half finished houses in this country.......
And then I got thinking......... yup - again. If one is stuck out
here, no opportunity to move away and there is only a limited scope of
things to do and no chance of bettering yourself or leaving - well, in
a way thats almost freedom, right? No worries, no striving, no trying
to get more of anything, bigger house, better car, bigger tv or
anything - just do with what there is and make sure you all eat
regularly. It's got to be something else living out here and I know
that I am not really willing to try it at all, but in a weird way its
got to be almost a pressure free way of living, no? Just a thought.
I was also thinking about all the towns we have driven
through........all dusty, half built or half repaired, or patched with
everything looking so run down. Where I grew up, one learned to stay
out of these areas - they were not normally 'safe places'. But down
here there is no option - there are no other areas, which makes one
look deeper and see the color and character and depth of this
country. We are in a campground right now that we had to drive down a
very narrow one lane sandy road, lined with bushes to get to. That
lane spat us out into a campground that is totally sand with the
different campsites marked off with an assortment of rocks. There is
no power, water, sewer, internet or tv here and at sunset everything
went totally quiet. Its lovely, but I have to say that before this
trip we would have thought twice before staying in a place that looked
like this. I know that sounds snobbish and horrible, but its
difficult to describe the level of how everything just looks so run
down and this is not what we are generally used to - spoiled as we are
coming from north of the border. There are a good many old (read o-l-
d-!!) rv's lining the beach area and their little boats are sitting
all squiff on their sides in the sand as the tide is way out........
but it looks all run down and sandy and dusty and and and....... But
it feels good! It feels free, it feels safe. This, by the way, is
one of the best campgrounds in this area. The people here are
friendly, mostly long term residents from all over the world, but the
gentleman who came to collect the fees for the night is Mexican with
the most incredibly interesting face - smiley eyes, big furrows of
expression all over his face and a hand language like I have never
seen before but spoke volumes. We got what we needed to squared away
and off he went -- and hopped into his Ford Explorer and roared off
to his multi-color patched house just a few hundred yards away,
kicking up enormous clouds of dust along the way..... it was hilarious!
We are in San Lucas, which is a tiny little town just south of Santa
Rosalia which is the first town you come to on the Sea of Cortez as
you come across the peninsula again. The view when coming over those
barren mountains and dropping down to the coast again was simply
lovely. The blue of the water with the islands in the distance is
just awesome. The town of Santa Rosalia was a total mix of so many
different things. It would take months to take in everything going on
just in the main road we drove through. It seems as if houses are
build up on the hillside almost one on top of each other in places,
the roads are narrow and there are so many little stores, old
buildings - some look like burned down warehouses. The coastline is
not pretty at all and trash is not a problem to anyone here - they
just throw it out of a window and it blends in with all the other
lying around! I took as many photos as I could while trying to look
with both eyes too. Sometimes just looking through the lens makes me
miss the big picture so I try to make a habit of doing both. One
thing that struck me was how, all through the town, little boats were
pulled up everywhere - not just along the water, but on the side of
the road, in front of businesses - everywhere......
This campground is more of a fishing camp than anything
else........many little boats tied up to stakes above the high water
mark. The beach is not a beach as we would have imagined at all and
is just a very narrow stretch between the houses and the shells that
lay littering the ground, too thick for any sensible person to walk
on. Except me.... I had to walk in the water and on the way cut a
fair sized gash in the bottom of my foot. Maybe I should have gone
and cleaned it out right away and not kept walking through fishy, bird-
poopy waters for a good while longer, but .......now its all cleaned
and happily throbbing away fixing itself. The boats are all resting
on their sides in the mud, the palm trees fluttering in the wind and a
few people were sitting under their open-all-around houses with palm
tree leaf roofs (rather like huge umbrellas), sipping what looked like
interesting stuff. Everyone here is very happy, mellowed out and
beautifully tanned! There is the ever present fish smell and the
waterline is littered with the skeletons of a good variety of fish.
One persons yard is filled with the most interesting things, form
turtle shells, floats, whale bones..........well, I will put up the
photos soon too......
I found a good many needle shells - sharp pointy ones that are really
pretty and only later discovered that some still had living creatures
inside them! So now they are relegated to outside where we hope they
dry out quickly and stop smelling quite so badly! I took a good many
photos of the blue water, the birds and the islands around here.....
and then we came back to cut the doglets hair from their feet. They
track an incredible amount of stuff inside with the fur so long over
their feet. Not any more. And I cut Sophies hair around her face and
she now looks like a different doglet! So cute...... And then Frank
made us a drink with tequila, orange juice, salt and ice. We had no
ice in neat cubes but he had frozen a bottle of water in anticipation
of just such an occasion. He spent about 5 minutes getting the
plastic off the solidly iced water and then proceeded to stab the ice
into smaller pieces with a steak knife. It worked beautifully and
there we sat looking over the Sea of Cortez, watching the different
birds wheeling overhead, with a glorious drink in our hands and a
stupid grin on our faces....... What more could one dream
of.................?
And so the night ends early again..... coffee warming on the gas
stove, Frank gently snoring in the back, doglets asleep, no sounds
from outside and a promise that it will get quite cool here again
tonight. Tomorrow we are only driving a short way south to the Bahia
Concepcion which is just a tad south of Mulege and also still on the
Sea of Cortez. They say its beautiful there too and hopefully there
is more beach to walk, less wind and lovely sunshine all over.
Another lovely day spent with many smiles and much appreciation.
love and light
Annie
http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09
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