enormous beach umbrellas gently flapping in the breeze, all planted in
the sand, margarita in hand and watched the whales swim by just on the
other side of the breakers of the Pacific ocean! Just a minute
before, I had seen these huge creatures really close to shore and then
the cry went out - Balenas! Balenas!! The waiters all yelled gently
and pointed with huge grins on their faces and an excited jump in
their step, everyone stood up and a few even paddled out to get
closer. And we watched as the whales wafted on by, blowing and
creating a really good show. Of course I did not have my camera there
with me! Ah well.
We arrive here at Cerritos Beach and Surf club around midday and
parked in the general parking area as the rv park had been closed for
a few years. We knew that it was closed but I had been in touch with
Darin from Cerritos and he said it was fine to park outside for a day
or so..... Within minutes of stopping we were out on the beach and
seeing what there was to see. To the right was a rocky point where
the waves crashed very dramatically and the waves were the highest and
the surfers the thickest. Right above these rocks is a cliff, not too
high, that has a huge, I mean Huge, house built on it. I believe its
commonly known as 'The Castle'. What a view that place must have!
Apparently its a Canadian guy that built it and there are other roads
around the hills all around this castle, with cement mixers going up
and down and a good few trucks parked up there with people looking as
if they are all discussing serious things. And below under the
umbrellas, the mood was much lighter......... happily so.
To the left, the beach stretched out endlessly with beautiful waves
slapping on the wide beach and very few people. Above the beach there
is also some serious development going on with condos being built all
up and down the coastline. There are almost no shells here either and
it reminded me of a song a friend named David used to sing.... "where
have all the flowers gone?" Where have all the shells gone? We found
some small really lovely ones, but nothing like the shells we expected
along the shore here..... But - we had gold flakes again and they
danced and glistened in the clear water, pulling back into veins as
the waves pulled out before coming crashing back again. These flecks
stick to everything like glue and I love it! Our feet and legs
glistened as we walked and the shells lit up in the sunlight.
And then we had a delicious sandwich and that margarita under the
bright umbrella on the beach.... The young guys who were waiters made
me think of the term 'cabana boys' - young, sun bleached hair,
incredible tan, surfer boys. They all had this air of excitement
about them, smiling, laughing and with a spring in their step. It
must be a simply glorious place to work when so young! I expected
there to be mostly young people here, but was quite surprised to see
that it was close to 50% "not young" (like us) people. Lovely! The
beach right around the clubhouse was filled with people of all sorts,
kids and dogs too. Volleyball was being enthusiastically played - how
come there is always a very slender, very attractive girl involved in
this game?? Others were laid out tanning, one lady was getting a
massage right there on the beach! What I really loved was that there
was no screaming from the kids, no unruly behavior at all - everyone
was having fun, enjoying life and sunshine as well as a good many
drinks being passed around.
After lunch, we rested for about an hour and then headed out on a long
walk with the doglets too. Allie discovered the little crabs and
frantically dug up every little hole she could find - sand flying
everywhere sniffing loudly, with her butt way up in the air. We think
she sent the crabs flying too as everytime she quickly lost interest
and went dashing to the next hole. Sophie just kept trying to tame
the waves. We walked a good way until realizing that the beach was
hard and probably good for riding the bicycles, so back we went, left
the dogs, got the bikes, dragged them across what felt like 6 miles of
very soft sand, hopped on and.......... well - after about a quarter
of a mile we were exhausted! This was like riding uphill in
quicksand.......so we pushed them for a good while longer, scouring
the beach for shells and anything of interest. Shells we did not
find, but we came across a couple tanning in the buff..... I have the
cutest of pictures of them walking quickly away over the dunes! Yes -
I did! :)
A good few whales passed us by, showing themselves by the huge puffs
of sea spray. This time I did have my camera with me, but they were
much much further offshore and I didn't think I would get anything
worthwhile - but I tried. Oh boy, am I impressed with this camera!
Whoo hooo - I can see those whales even though I could not with the
naked eye. only my eye was naked! We also went to explore the rocks
for a while -there are lovely little pools up there teeming with sea
urchins, small fish and other thingys that one really does not want to
step on. I have always loved these little tidal pools, but did not
spend too much time exploring them as the tide was coming in and the
waves were crashing up close and I had my camera with me....... So
while Frank bathed his feet in the sun warmed water of a pool, I found
a big tall rock and watched the surfers dance the waves. Surfing can
look so incredibly elegant and then one split second later, all that
goes for a loop and a very inelegant posture happens! I got a good
few photos of both. The last walk of the day was for sunset, and
again, it was just beautiful.
We had a gentle and early evening, neither of us hungry and both very
tired. Frank was in bed about 7pm and by 8pm, so was I. We had no
power or water, but I could tap into the internet from the club, so
managed to get a few emails off before happily getting horizontal and
giving my feet a break.
This morning we woke up early to the sound of enormous crashing waves
and the sun rising through the windows. We headed out on another long
days drive. The road in and out of Cerritos is interesting in an rv.
Our speed did not even register on the speedometer and we could almost
see the cactus growing as we crept by. It's like driving on a
rubboard, but obviously cars don't have the same problem at all. Just
north of Todos Santos, which is just north of where Cerritos is and
still on the Pacific side of Baja, everything was green and lush, for
a little while. We took another wrong turn going through one little
town up here and ended up once again on the interesting roads through
the lessor traveled section of town. Its really very quaint and
lovely, even though it also shows up the utter poverty that is so
prevalent all over the peninsula.
The little outdoor eateries that are everywhere are obviously a happy
meeting place for many people. The bouganvillas are all over the
place, showing off their awesome colors and the cactus are blooming
here! Beautiful little yellow flowers...... Hopefully we will get
some really good photos of them up at the Catavina boulder fields a
bit north of here... Bakkies/ pickups/trucks dot the roadways with
oranges and peanuts and sugarcane and there are many little tourista
shops too.
There is a brand new road - 4 lanes! from a bit north of Todos Santos
all the way to La Paz. It was very weird and felt very 'un Mexican'
to have such a beautiful road but absolutely wonderful. It's really
obvious that this whole place is going to explode with tourism in the
near future. We passed many work crews that consisted of about three
guys with huge knives or rakes, cutting down the dead grass on the
roadsides.... what an endless, mindless, demoralizing job! And dusty
too..... And I missed a brilliant photograph of a white plastic chair
well embedded high in a cactus..... There has just got to be a story
there!
And before we knew it, we were back in La Paz again, on the Sea of
Cortez side of the peninsula. All the gas stations, Pemex, are
numbered and one of the books I have, have basic directions to get
through some of the towns and list the number of the Pemex to look out
for to turn at, so I navigated us smoothly through town - it was much
easier this time. On the way down we came through here on Saturday,
Valentines Day when everything was nuts. After La Paz, the road heads
back inland and we drove many miles up the middle of Baja. We passed
through Cuidad Constitucion, where we stayed a night last week and
then took a right at Ciudad Insurgentes, being led back again to the
inner coast.
We had two pretty close calls with huge trucks today........ the first
two of any real closeness. The first was when a truck that was
overtaking us, simply did not get all the way out of our lane. I saw
him coming up on us really fast with his whole side still in our lane
and we thought that this was it! Frank took us all the way to the
side of the road and beyond and he missed our mirror by an inch! Boy
did we cuss him out...... and then shortly after that we were
approaching a 'curva peligroso' (dangerous curve) when a truck coming
from the other direction nearly turned himself over by going way too
fast. We were very glad to see his wheels touch the road again and he
pulled himself to his side of the road.
Traffic has been surprisingly heavy all day today - I don't remember
it this heavy on the way down. There are many trucks and cars but
very few RV's. We cruised right on over the mountain range called the
Sierra la Giganta. And they were. It had already been a long day and
I asked Frank to really creep over the mountains for me, especially
when I was on the outside parts. He said that he would as long as no
big trucks pushed him too hard. My answer? "Make the trucker happy
or make me happy - who do you want to sleep with tonight?" We cruised
slooowly and smoooothly and gently over those mountains - it was
awesome!
The scenery here is really other worldly...... cactus reaches for the
sky all over the place but many other types cover the ground in many
different forms and shapes. The occasional bouganvilla brightens up
the landscape with its show-off color and the hills and mountains rise
high in a ragged, jagged way. There is nothing gentle about this
area. It's remote, dry, unforgiving and awesome in many ways. And
every now and again there pops up a little building, a little house
turned into a llantera, a restaurant, and most times there is a car
and at least someone sitting in one of those white plastic chairs
under a palm leave roof, chatting away to someone... It's so barren
out here and I wonder if most of the people here have ever even seen a
lawn. There are a tremendous number of shrines along the way, all
paying homage to someone who died on the road. Some of them are
simply a couple of tires with a bunch of flowers on a stick in the
middle, and others are very elaborate, beautiful and filled with
flowers, candles, pictures and statuettes. We stopped at a big one
today and I took a few photos, but it feels kind of personal,
especially when I noticed that some of the candles were burning...
As we gently tootled over the mountains (smile), even the sky changed
color to a different blue, and we just knew that the Sea of Cortez lay
below them. Oh its beautiful, with its islands dotting the blue, the
yachts anchored in the bays, the rv's parked along the beaches and the
cactus between us and all that. And so we landed for the night in a
park at a little place called Puerto Escondido (Pwer-toe ess-kohn-dee-
doe), population 100. We found a place that has full hookups and the
most absolutely awesome water pressure and unlimited hot water. What
showers we had! Funny how our 'requirements' for a campground change
over time.... before it was at a beach or beautiful place - tonight it
was for a shower! My hair had started doing things that got Frank
snickering at every glance and not even my perfume did a good enough
disguise job anymore! Most of the showers along the way had almost no
water pressure which made hairwashing almost impossible and the shower
stall in the rv is packed full of things, so we had just ........
well, lets just say that a washcloth bath does not do it all and we
were in bad need of a good shower. Tripui Rv park has the bestest
shower we have had in Baja!
And after trying to catch the bright yellow birds flitting all around
here, I am now going to call it a night... Its been a long day, with
another ahead of us. We are hoping to get to San Ignacio tomorrow and
maybe even get a whale tour from there. But first, the road is going
to take us up the coast line for a goodly way, past all those awesome
views that were on Franks side last time..
Love and light
Annie
http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09
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